Who's In It: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Danielle Panabaker, Joe Anderson
The Basics: There's something in the water in rural Iowa and it's turning a small town's population into homicidal maniacs with blood pouring out of their noses. Turns out there was a government-created bio-weapon accidentally unleashed and now everyone, even the ones who aren't sick, have to be contained and obliterated. The town sheriff and his doctor wife, however, are magically not infected, so they've got to battle their friends-turned-zombies and the government goons every step of the way to safety. It's every Tea Partier's favorite apocalypse scenario: real Death Panels out to firebomb Grandma, the kids, the puppies, everybody--even that guy on the poster with the bloody pitchfork.
What's The Deal: It's a loose remake of George Romero's 1973 movie of the same name, but it's a lot heavier on production design and much more gruesome. The only things it lacks in comparison are a distinct social message (besides playing on the mass paranoia about stuff like H1N1 or the bird flu and the overall message of "Trust No One Ever, but Especially Not the Government") and a lot of Dacron outfits. The earlier one is more unsettling and entertaining to watch for its grimy cheapo aesthetic, bad acting and fake blood, yet as remakes go this version isn't a bad Everyone Is Doomed thriller. Note that I said "thriller"; unless you've not seen many horror films you won't actually be scared. So it's not all that crazy. It's just that if they'd called it The People With Some Mental Health Issues, you wouldn't want to see it.
Gore vs. Horror vs. Predictability: Without giving a lot away, you'll be creeped a handful of times thanks to well-timed Crazies entering and exiting various scenes, grossed out enough by a few decent gory killings and corpse tableaus, and able to pretty much guess, based on the pervasive pessimistic mood, what awaits every single person in the story. Still, though, it's not so disposable that you'll feel cheated out of your money.
Remake Whose Spirit It Attempts to Invoke Early On: Dawn of the Dead, which began with a horrifying Book of Revelation-themed Johnny Cash song called "The Man Comes Around." This one kicks off with another Johnny Cash song that sadly, isn't about the end times. And like I already said, there's nothing coming close to the kind of cool shocks DotD delivered. But you get what they're going for.
You're Free To Get Up And Go To The Bathroom At Any Point In The Film Until: They get the big old police car out of the barn. After that it gets a lot wilder. So plan your soda drinking accordingly.