Hit – Starring Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker

A remake of the George A. Romero 1973 film: When the residents of Ogden Marsh, Iowa turn into violent psychopaths, sheriff David Dutton (Olyphant) tries to understand the situation and joins together with other unaffected townspeople to fight for survival.

On the business side of things, this movie knows how to get it right. Their budget of 12M has already shown profit. Currently their earnings are 16M in the first weekend of release. Therefore, by pure numbers this film will be successful.

This horror film builds up the characters and the story which pulls in the audience more than it would if it just focused in on the insanity and action – which is the formula for many horror films. Sheriff Dutton and his wife are likable characters but I found her pregnancy to be a little too far-fetched. They already have a nursery set up before she is even really showing – that is quite odd to me. The pregnancy overall would have been more effective if the character were 6 months along. Other minor characters were interesting and had marginal depth.

One thing that bothers me in these types of movies is the idea that people come to help/assess the situation of the town but these people do not explain why they are there or what their objective is. Obviously there is a reason in film for them to do this but if there is a need for something to be quarantined in real life, do they keep the information from the people who are involved? I am just curious.

*The theatre I saw this in was packed. Mr. Movies and I sat in the second row of the theatre. I like to think of it as going to an IMAX film.

Bottom Line: You’d be crazy to miss this. Although – the original may be just as good as this version.

Horror

Rated R for bloody violence and language.

Running Time: 1 hour 41 minutes