Loosely
based on the old 1973 George Romero film of the same name, the plot for this
takes place in the small rural town of Ogden Marsh in Iowa (as opposed to
Philadelphia, the setting of the original), which is generally considered to
be a small peaceful farming community.
However, the peace is shattered when the residents start to exhibit strange behaviour. The town drunk stumbles onto the school sports field with a loaded shotgun and has to be shot dead by the police. Another resident in the town locks his family in a room then sets fire to the house, only to be found casually mowing the lawn outside when the fire crews turn up.
Baffled by these strange events, the Sheriff later discovers the wreckage of a crashed plane in the swamps that appears to be carrying toxic waste. Fearing the water supply has been contaminated, the sheriff tries to summon help, only to discover its too late. The population are already infected and the military have cordoned off the town and are busy rounding up the locals for "processing".
Realising the military aren't there to help, but to isolate and contain, and believing them to be unaffected, Sheriff Dutton (Tim Olyphant), his wife Judy (Rhada Mitchell), along with his deputy Russel (Joe Anderson) and their friend Becca (Danielle Panabaker) attempt to get out of town past the military blockade and hopefully to safety.
But with the infected locals rampaging through the town and the military shooting anyone trying to escape, finding safety is going to be no easy task. Directed by Breck Eisner, I count this as being amongst one of the better remakes to have come out in recent years. It's well paced, action packed and quite suspenseful. Though the action does tend to focus more on small scale skirmishes between the Sheriff's group and bands of 'crazies', as opposed to there being any large scale fights, its still bloody good fun.
Whilst the film doesn't follow the original too closely, the characters in this being police, as opposed to firemen and there's no sub plot following the military in this one, this is still an excellent re-imagining of George Romero's original film.
If you like films like "28 Days Later" and the "Dawn of the Dead" remake, then you should thoroughly enjoy this.
