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The Crazies
Directed by George Romero
Released: 1973
Starring: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, and Lynn Lowry
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Released By
Blue Underground
When it comes to the notoriety of George Romero’s work, his zombie flicks
always come up first and rightfully so. ’68’s
Night of the Living Dead
and ’78’s Dawn of the Dead
had something deeper to say than just cheap thrills and scares. Yet for
Romero’s four films between those two, There’s
Always Vanilla,
Season of the Witch,
The Crazies
and
Martin,
all of them are usually passed over and made light of. Well, if you want
to see where the brilliance of Dawn of the
Dead came from, you should start with
1973’s The Crazies.
Besides, a movie like Dawn of the Dead
couldn’t have come out of thin air or without any previous trial and
error.
The Crazies
takes place in a small town in Pennsylvania, a staple setting for many of
Romero’s flicks. After a plane carrying an experimental military-designed
bio-weapon (codenamed Trixie) crashes near the town leaking its contents
into the water supply, some of the town’s citizens start going... crazy.
The army moves in to quarantine the town and to restore order as the
madness grows. Those infected by the bio-weapon go postal on anyone, even
their own family and friends.
Splitting the story up between the high ranking officials trying to deal
with the problem and four people trying to escape, the film walks a very
blurry line. The distinction between the panicked members of the army and
those trying to not get infected fades as the film makes it into the final
reel. Echoing Night of the Living Dead’s
confusion between who’s a zombie and who’s not,
The Crazies makes
us wonder who the bigger threat is.
Yes, the low budget (a reported $275,000) makes for some really cheesy
action sequences, but the drama between the characters is what makes this
movie shine. Akin to the relationships between the four main characters in
Dawn of the Dead,
the four on-the-run survivors go through a wide range of emotions as they
hope to escape. Preventing the film from being emotionally lopsided, you
also sympathize with the soldiers and the scientists trying to fix the
problem. None of the main characters are one-note characters, something so
common with films like this.
The Crazies
is not at the top with Romero’s other work, but it shouldn’t be looked
over as a rarely-seen misfire. The DVD’s extras include a short featurette
on co-star/cult actress Lynn Lowry and a commentary track featuring
Romero. The featurette is interesting, but not as essential as the
commentary track. Romero makes no bones about what he likes and doesn’t
like about the film, but he doesn’t come across as a regretful grump.
Though The Crazies
is a flawed film, it’s definitely not one to hang your head down on. This
is essential Romero stuff.
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