David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is sheriff of Ogden Marsh, a picture-perfect American town with happy, law-abiding citizens. But one night, one of them comes to a school baseball game with a loaded shotgun, ready to kill. Another man burns down his own house…after locking his wife and young son in a closet inside. Within days, the town has transformed into a sickening asylum; people who days ago lived quiet, unremarkable lives have now become depraved, blood-thirsty killers, hiding in the darkness with guns and knives. Sheriff Dutton tries to make sense of what's happening as the horrific, nonsensical violence escalates. Something is infecting the citizens of Ogden Marsh... with insanity. Now complete anarchy reigns as one by one the townsfolk succumb to an unknown toxin and turn sadistically violent. In an effort to keep the madness contained, the government uses deadly force to close off all access and won't let anyone in or out – even those uninfected. The few still sane find themselves trapped: Sheriff Dutton; his pregnant wife, Judy (Radha Mitchell); Becca (Danielle Panabaker), an assistant at the medical center; and Russell (Joe Anderson), Dutton's deputy and right-hand man. Forced to band together, an ordinary night becomes a horrifying struggle for survival as they do their best to get out of town alive.I really enjoyed this movie. I always feel like that makes me some kind of a sicko with all the violence and the killings but I have always liked zombie type movies. Even though they aren't necessarily zombies in this movie and its a biological weapon that a government plane's crash landing caused the whole thing, it still has that same feel. The infection starts . . . . . it spreads and gets worse . . . . . few are left uninfected . . . . . . they run from infected people. The government also trying to contain (aka kill everyone) just adds a whole other exciting level to the whole thing. There was one problem that I had with the movie. The biological weapon took over people based on being ingested through the water supply. At one point, the main guy kills one of the "zombies" by stabbing her open palm with a knife that has already been stabbed through his open palm. I'm just shooting here but wouldn't that direct blood transfer be enough for him to have the disease. I figured that was eventually going to play out and never did which led to me of course ranting about the silliness of that.
Regardless, I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone in to horror movies or zombie movies. They aren't necessarily zombies but you enjoy the same ride anyway.
