The Crazies (1973)

Way too much debating in this movie. I felt bored of the staggering isolation of events that followed through. I expected to see people who actually were crazy. Or people dropping dead...instead a few corpses and more debating. blah. I was disappointed. I appreciate what George brings to us in motion picture. However, I expected much more. Unlike his other works of art, George brought in exceptional horror factor whereas in this film I felt like I was watching a news report. Constant debating...it is like watching CNN. Now I will talk absolute rubbish because of this ridiculous 10 line limit which I find way too far fetched. Someone should really reduce this to at least five line limit or something.

Fmovies: "The Crazies" is a pretty good low budget shocker and probably one of the best virus thrillers ever made! So forget Wolfgang Peterson´s worthless Hollywood borer "Outbreak" from 1997: Instead of a high budget and overpaid stars Romero put an apocalyptic atmosphere, lots of suspense and some social critics into his film. No choose what´s better... But there´s even more than that, because without "The Crazies" Romero´s mega classic "Dawn of the Dead" would not have been possible! Both films are connected with lots of parallels, DOTD is a consequent development from the basics this movie delivered! By the way, some scenes were shot in the same old farmhouse the director already filmed "Night of the living Dead" before..!

A plane crashes near Pittsburgh carrying a bacteriological weapon called "Trixie". It gets into a nearby town's water supply causing it's citizen to go crazy, some of them homicidal maniacs. Some of the town's residents try to escape through a cordon around the town set up by the Army and shooting between the residents and soldiers (who go around wearing white contamination suits) and blood spurts ensue. That pretty much sums up the plot.

There's really no gore in this Romero film, but we do see plenty of gun battles that look cheap and amateurish. The only memorable character is Dr. Watts, played by Richard France, who's overacting is so bad that I actually liked his time on the screen. You can see he's trying real hard.

The Blue Underground anamorphic DVD looks nice and it contains a short interview with co-star Lynn Lowry who explains some of her experiences on the film as well as her failed film career. Also a decent commentary track by George Romero who wishes he could have done more with it if he had a bigger budget.

As long as one doesn't compare it to Romero's other films like the DEAD trilogy or MARTIN (1977), then it's better than most 70s low budget efforts in that cheap, charming way. I think it's worth a look.

6 out of 10

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The Crazies fmovies. "The Crazies" (1973) was George Romero's attempt to get a little more low-budget mileage out of his "Night of the Living Dead" (1971) zombie-like stuff by blending it with elements from "The Andromeda Strain" (1971).

A germ warfare bug is accidentally released into the water supply of a small western Pennsylvania town named Evans City (where it was actually filmed). It turns some into placid zombie-like creatures and some into out-of-control maniacs. The Army comes in and imposes martial law and the local civilians do a good imitation of the zombies from "Night of the Living Dead".

The cast is a bunch of locals (western PA/NE Ohio) who fortunately for us all with low thresholds of pain did little acting after this project. Poor acting combines with poor editing to make it impossible to determine who among the citizens and the troops has the disease, is just stressed out, or is just trying to party hard. Romero's direction is extremely weak and he has trouble throughout keeping the cast in character.

Romero had discovered with "Night of the Living Dead" that there was serious exploitation potential in stories about the breakdown of society and this is where he really tries to focus his film. There is an underlying theme of social commentary as this was the time of serious social protests (Kent State just across the state line), distrust of the federal government, and our winding down involvement in Viet Nam. Romero was also drawing from his fascination with 1950's sci-fi themes regarding irresponsible science.

Unfortunately the best aspect of "Night of the Living Dead", its simplicity, is sacrificed as Romero has just enough resources to turn the film into an exercise in excess. There are several tangential plot points (voice recognition systems, a B-52 with a nuclear warhead, a frustrated scientist) that go nowhere but use up a lot of time getting there.

But these obvious problems are not the film's ultimate downfall. That comes from the film's lack of organization on the most fundamental level; which means it is extremely boring. No suspense is generated because there is no sense of progress or advancement of the storyline. Instead the same three basic scenes are repeated over and over until Romero is able to cobble together a feature length production. There are a handful of civilians trying to evade the Army troops, there are a handful of Army officers whining about how difficult their job is, and there are a handful of national security advisers back in Washington tossing around doom and gloom predictions. The film simply alternates between these three groups, with the segments completely interchangeable. The editor could have assembled them in any order and they would have not altered the flow of the story.

There are a couple of unexpectedly stylish scenes to watch for; the shooting of the flower child girl in the pasture, with a flock of sheep passing quietly in the foreground. And the infected woman with a broom sweeping the grass.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Like Romero's "Day of the Dead," this is another marathon of carnage and excess talk, filled with scattered themes (martial law, role of the military, bureaucracy, disease, etc.). It's high-concept stuff, granted, but the budget is low and the script is unfocused. Like the attorney general's definition of "terrorism," the effects of the virus in "The Crazies" is just as vague (abnormal behavior that varies from person to person), but the unpredictability gets tedious after a while. The reason David Cronenberg's similarly-themed "Shivers" worked so well is because the parasites had a specific function (to replace a dead organ) and side-effect (they transform people into sex maniacs), and were confined to one specific location (an apartment complex). "The Crazies" is ambitious, but the unengaging performances and heavy-handed symbolism (tattered American flags, toy soldiers stepped on by real soldiers) renders it a mediocre oddity on Romero's resume.

5/10

The Crazies (1973) was a film by horror film maker George A. Romero. A military biological weapons is accidentally released in a small town. Evans City, PA. is the unlucky recipient to a very deadly virus that has fouled the nearby water supply. The virus is highly contagious and it causes madness and insanity in it's victims. The government tries to contain the after effects by imposing martial law around the town and quarantining the citizens of Evans City, affected or not. A few of the citizens rebel against the soldiers and try to flee the occupied zones. Can this small party escape the wrath of the government and it's soldier of fortunes or will they become victims of the bio-plague?

George A. Romero has once again created a unique movie utilizing a small budget and a large cast of mostly volunteers. The camera work and editing is what makes this movie work. The acting is not that bad and the writing is very inventive and creative. Many look upon this movie as a trial run for his more successful zombie sequel Dawn of the Dead, others have called this a mere reworking of Night of the Living Dead. I have to say that this is a very entertaining movie that works despite the boundaries of it's limited budget. A social commentary that still rings true today.

Highly recommended for George A. Romero fans.