The Crazies
Directed by George Romero
Released: 1973
Starring: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, and Lynn Lowry
Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD Studio: Blue Underground
Review by Eric Grubbs

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.