The Crazies, a remake of the 1973 George Romero flick, opens in wide release this weekend.  The story is about a small farming community in Iowa that is exposed to a biological weapons leak that drives everyone well… crazy.  Once the US military moves in to deal with the event (the leak is the result of a military plane crash in the town's water supply), hijinks ensue.   

What may be even more nefarious than the military's plot to eradicate the townsfolk is the filmmakers’ plot to slip in messages about social responsibility between the maiming and insanity.  Participant media, the studio behind Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, has been quietly involved in other socially conscious projects like Syriana and The Soloist.  The setup of the Crazies is ripe with opportunities to discuss the ills of biological warfare, environmental hazards and the possibility of military cover-ups on US soil.

It’s no secret that horror and sci-fi (along with comics) have traditionally been fertile ground for teaching lessons, presenting arguments, extrapolating behavioral consequences and exploring fear.  From Holy texts, mythology from past civilizations, oral traditions of various Diaspora, comics, television and movies, these scary and fantastic stories offer an easily digestible vehicle for presenting ideas that would otherwise be dismissed as preachy.   Star Trek was a platform for diversity, so were the X-Men, and Siegel and Shuster’s Superman comics dealt with the immigrant experience in America.  In many cases these lessons were received unconsciously, since the majority of the audience was made up of children, teens and young adults (i.e. those who are least likely to dismiss them as silly stories).

Participant is jumping on the horror bandwagon because of the profitability of the genre, and I for one have no problem with it.  They feel that with The Crazies they can have their cake and eat it too; they can weave a few cautionary markers into the fabric of their product and not lose money at the same time (as with the aforementioned The Soloist).  I’m all for it if the stories are well done and subtle in their approach (or as subtle as a crazed killer dragging a bloody pitch fork can be).  Let’s get the learnin’ started!