A
toxin that's in the water in a small town
of Ogden Marsh, Iowa
changes people in which they start to
lose their sanity alltogether in which
two officers named David Dutton (Timothy
Olympant) and Russell Clank (Joe
Anderson) spots a local resident named
Rory Hamill (Mike Hickman) carrying a
shotgun in a ballfield and David is
forced to shoot him to death while Rory's
surviving family is upset with him.
David tries to talk to Mayor Hobbs (John
Aylward) into shutting the water off but
he refuses and tells him the crops will
die if he does so.
Next thing that happens is that him and
his pregnant wife Judy (Radha Mitchell)
are taken away separately by an army
force.
David manages to save Judy from a deadly
incident the two of them along with
Russell and another survivor named Becca
Darling (Danielle Panabaker) try to
survive this incident on their own but
everywhere they go the places are
deserted with people infected by this
virus and tries to kill them since the
water they drank makes them deadly.
I don't usually
like remakes better than the original one
but however this one I did like better
since the original was a little too bland
and was hard to tell if it was a horror
film or an action flick with horror
elements. This one really proved it's
point that it was no doubt a horror flick
since there's alot of people infected by
this virus and acting deadlier than in
the first one. In fact they do look like
zombie's although accroding in a Fangoria article these people are very much alive,
they're just infected and controlled by
this deadly virus.
There's many great special effects used
in this film with vehicle explosions and
houses getting caught on fire. The
original one had this too but this remake
really brought out the goods to pack all
the suspense and terror. The ending is
one of the best which involves this but I
won't spoil this to anyone who hasn't
seen this yet.
The story is similar but there's
different situations since that's what a
remake should be with four people trying
to survive this madness but yet are being
terrorised by crazies everywhere they go
which seems quite creepy.
It's all about survival of course before
anyone else loses their sanity along with
their journey. There's also alot of great
fighting scene's in the film and near
close deaths which looks almost very
realistic. Plus there's many great shots
on an army of people fleeing a small town
like in the original too with soldiers
wearing gas masks although we don't see
these soldiers in uniform as often. Plus
there's alot of nice scenery on a town
that's deserted too which packs the
suspense even more since there could be
the odd one creeping around and ready to
kill.
There's a good shot on a
baseball field with both David Dutton and Russell Clank watching
and then a good shot on someone walking in the middle of the
field with a gun looking disturbed as
well as David trying to talk
reasonably to him as well as a nice shot
on Russell raising his gun and
a nice close up shot on David taking
a gun out and shooting him.
There's a good moment with a wife trying to call for her husband at her
farm and going to a barn with a good shot
on a wheat tractor going with her trying
to call to him as well as a nice shocked
look at her when she finds out he's not
driving it and some good moments with her
racing into his house with their child and then
the family man in the house going crazy
by dumping gasoline all over the house
and lighting a match with good shots on
the house going in blazes. The scenery
on all of this looked incredibly
mysterious and well done which kinda
psychs you out as to why this is all
happening.
There's a good shots on a forest area
near a swamp involving people like David and Russell in a
motorboat trying to discover with a good
camera shot looking down on them with the
shot zooming away from them.
A good brief discussion between David and
the mayor about him requesting to shut
off the water services with him refusing to do so which looked like a
realistic look at a mayor being ignorant.
There's nice intense shots on an army of
people taking everyone away with good
close up shots on David trying
to struggle from this as well as Judy Dutton getting anxious from all of
this.
There's some great powerful moments with David being pitted against a mortician trying to
kill him with his electric sawing tool
with good shots approaching David on
all of this with Russell trying
to shoot at the mortician. All of this
was fast paced and full of great action.
There's good shots with Judy and Becca Darling strapped
down in an orderly and then Bill Farnam entering
with a pitchfork and starting to stab the
people strapped down with good close up
shots on the two of them screaming in
fright as well as a nice shot on him
scraping the pitchfork along the floor.
There's many good takes onthe main characters going into a house and taking stuff
for their journey as well as another
moment with David opening a
door and spotting Judy tied
up and gagged and then a great leaping
shot on a supporting character Curt Hammil behind him and choking him
with a rope and a good close up shot on Judy's face gasping looking as if he is really
struggling for breathing. Then there's a
nice camera shot looking up on the wife holding a
gun and acting wicked and crazy with all
of this ready to shoot them which looked
powerfully done with the shots and
actions on everyone.
There's great fast action shots on the gang driving in their vehicle with a
helicopter terrorising them making you
wonder "What the hell is going
on???". There's also a good shot on
them in a car wash with soap filling the
windows as well as car wash lunatics
trying to attack them by breaking the
windows which all looked suspenseful and
terrorising.
There's perfect camera shots on David,
Judy and Russell walking
along a deserted road.
Great intensity and anger with David towards an intelligence officer next to his wiped out
vehicle getting demanding and violent
towards him as well as a good shot on Judy shooting him in the head with David himself getting into a rage with him in
which all of this looked powerfully done
and extremely intense too.
There's some nice side shots on both David and Judy in a deserted
diner trying to call out to anyone as
well as great dark shots on people creeping
around the diner trying to attack them
with great shots on them looking
zombielike as well as the two of them
trying to get away into a truck and
speeding away in which they react well to
being anxious with all of this.Bottom line is this film is a bit better
than the original but however it's
nothing too spectacular other than some
interesting attack scene's and some
descent effects like mentioned above with
a good strong direction on it made this
film becoming above average but if you're
into something alot more you may want to
skip this one.
The acting is
quite good in which lead actor Timothy
Olyphant (David Dutton) was strong with his
character in the flick showing a nice
calm side to him and being sympathetic
too. He also really knew how to act angry
and aggressive with his violent behavior
too when needed for the moments when him
and his survivors are trying to get away
from everything. He porved a nice
versatality in his role on the film and
can pass nicely as a character actor
indeed.
Radha Mitchell (Judy Dutton) who
played his wife really showed a good
emotional behavior to her role with her
sobbing as well as her anxious behavior
too. Plus she really knew how to be
terrified with all that's happening. She
seemed to have a fair amount of energy
throughout her performance.
Joe Anderson (Russell Clank) really knew how to act
aggressive and very two faced in his part
of the film plus had the nice tough looks
which really showed off on the part he
played as some sort of a traitor. He
certainly knew his stuff using weapons
too and acting deadly with them pulling
off a ton of energy with all of this. There's a good nasty aggression with
him pointing a gun at two of his fellow actors and trying to be in control in
which he did this well by acting evil
towards them.
Most of the other cast members had small
roles in the film and it was difficult to
review their performances but they pulled
off alot of terror as the crazed one's in
the flick and deserved good credit for
their effort and hard work since these
were locals from where this flick was
shot which was in Georgia where gigs are
very scarce and mainly Hollywood actors
get the lead and supporting roles
whenever something is shot there.
There's some
bloody looking corpses
David Dutton is being stabbed by an
electric saw tool in a morgue
Some people are being stabbed by
There's lots of great
hissing and windy sound effects used
throughout the whole film as well as some
piano echoes too. There's some
adventureous playing too quarter way
through the film which made the film look
very effective all done by Mark Isham.
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