The Crazies came out a month before Justified premiered in 2010. A month later and Timothy Olyphant may have been more of a marquee name, though he was already coming off Deadwood and the villain in Live Free or Die Hard.
Also, in 2010 the paranoia about government takeover was as scary as the outbreak. After the COVID-19 pandemic that’s gone because we know the government would just let it rip but it’s still a good movie.
The film grain gives the small town farmland, baseball field and Main street a grit. But, it’s to set up the night when most of the outbreak takes place as the characters attempt to escape in a deep void of sky, with infected people popping out of the deep shadows.
Surround sound ranges from as subtle as Olyphant dropping a cup of coffee to helicopters flying over and trucks crashing gates.
Director Breck Eisner speaks in new extras about bringing out those deep blacks and bright fire in the 4K transfer. It is funny he talks about post-9/11 prep for biological incident containment. Boy, did that not pan out. He notes the empty streets and forced stay at home orders, but people were maskless on the beach by May of 2020 so it didn’t last long.
Eisner also shows the bleak alternate ending after all these years. He gives a new commentary track and remembers all the detail about each night of production. His original commentary and other extras are also still included.