This type of film is doing the rounds at the moment; Romero gave us ‘Night of the Living Dead’ back in 1969 and is the maestro of this genre. The last decade has seen a plethora of zombie films and even zombie comedies. This is more of a small town horror/ thriller in a similar vein to ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers.’ It cleverly plays on our fears of pandemics (lets face it the recent Sars and Swine Flu scares got everyone’s attention) and also of government conspiracies.

This film being a remake and coming at a time when there are many others like it has quite a job to stand out from the crowd. What Eisner and team manage is to create plenty of shocks and unsettling scenes and images. The cast and crew have succeeded in crafting a place where the safe and familiar soon become terrifying. It is not long after its memorable opening scene at a local baseball field that the behaviour of the town’s inhabitants becomes increasingly disturbing. Soon no one can be trusted not even your family and friends.

The wide open farmland of Iowa is used to good effect to convey the sense of abandonment and isolation for the few survivors of this plague. Factor in an uncaring and callous government that sends in the military to quarantine and execute rather than rescue the population and you have a horrific situation that could be all too plausible.

The film says a lot about society’s current views on authority and our general mistrust and paranoia. What was relevant in 1973 seems even more so in this day and age. Olyphant and Mitchell put in convincingly earnest and terrified performances, importantly making us care about their characters, willing them to escape to possible sanctuary from this nightmare.

Despite the great special effects, genuine frights and horror this is still a fairly formulaic horror fest. I still enjoyed it but could not help thinking of other similar efforts. There is a pervading feeling of ‘I’ve seen this all before’ which is a shame because of the obvious high production values and effort that has gone into it. Watch this and enjoy but don’t expect to get anything more out of it than your standard small town in peril flick.