The Crazies

The saturnine screen presence of ­Timothy Olyphant – that formidable ­actor who deserves a lead role to match his potential – is the driving force behind this remake of a George A Romero ­zombie picture from 1973. In a remote Iowa farming community, people start behaving strangely – then violently. The zombie outbreak is apparently due to water contamination, caused by the crash of a mysterious military plane. The sheriff (Olyphant) begs the mayor to turn off the water supply but he refuses: the agricultural economy needs water. In my view, the initial symptoms are far scarier than the out-and-out zombie ­action, with full snarling and makeup. The closed-in strangeness of wide-open spaces is more disquieting when ­normality is just beginning to decompose. Some efficient genre thrills.