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George Romero’s original The Crazies was a characteristically allegorical piece regarding a small town struck down with a highly infectious biological weapon that sends ordinarily peaceful folk into a psychotic, murderous rage. The focus was divided between the actions of a zealous military force attempting to control the outbreak, and a number of survivors who were trying to get out of the town alive. It received middling reviews and did poorly at the box office.

Despite this, Breck Eisner – formerly attached to the cancelled Creature From The Black Lagoon remake – is now directing a remake of Romero’s 1973 effort. Judging from the trailer, The Crazies will rely heavily on jumpy horror clichés, and it wouldn’t really surprise me if they left behind a most of the socio-political commentary of the original.

That said, I like Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell, and the trailer’s got a lot of atmosphere. It’s got the potential to be a decent enough action-horror flick, so I’ll file this under ‘watch’ for now.

The Crazies will be unleashed in February 2010.