The Crazies

Made in the shadow of both Vietnam and Watergate, The Crazies contains plenty of allegory: an invasion by military force, government cover-up and duplicity, madness and eventually genocide (all set, of course, in Romero's beloved Pennsylvania). The President only appears on television, and then only the back of his head is shown as he speaks in detached, almost bored tones. Like Night of the Living Dead, this film offers no hope, no comfort, and sure as hell no happy ending. Keep an eye out for Romero in a somewhat gassy role as Evans City's mayor. --Jerry Renshaw

"The Crazies," shows the deadly implications of a biological weapons accident on a small American town named Evans City, Pennsylvania. An army plane carrying a weapons grade virus known as Trixie crashes in a field outside of town. The military dispatches a team of specialists and cleaners to inspect the damage, and the technicians do their thing and declare the area safe for the residents. In typical paranoid, Vietnam era style, the military hides the potential dangers of the crash, but since no contamination took place the only results are a few wiped brows and some sighs of reassurance. Only a small circle of military high ups will ever realize how close America came to total destruction, for Trixie is a highly communicable virus with no known cure. What a relief!

You didn't think it would end there, did you? C'mon, this is a Romero film! As it turns out, a small quantity of Trixie did leak into the town's water supply. By the time the military realizes this actuality, some of the residents in town start showing signs of infection: a pasty complexion and a propensity to suddenly indulge in bloody violence. The army answers with a bunch of troops decked out in white detox suits armed with automatic weapons. The colonel in charge of the town quickly sets up a quarantine line around the town in an effort to stop the spread of Trixie, but try as he might, he simply lacks the necessary manpower and equipment to know for sure if his efforts are working. No one knows if Trixie moved beyond the borders of the town between the time of the crash to the first signs of infection. Since the army needs to keep the townspeople placated, they put a tight rein on any potentially damaging information. As long as the townspeople play like good little American citizens, everything will turn out for the best. As for Trixie, the army brings in a doctor who helped build the virus in the laboratory, and he starts working on a vaccination right away despite his pessimism about the communicability of the virus and the high probability that it did indeed escape the town's borders. His only hope is to find someone with immunity to the disease and thereby acquire the necessary immunological materials needed to fashion a cure.

Unfortunately for the army, one of the locals is a nurse at the doctor's office. She quickly learns what's going on and takes off to find her husband, a firefighter who is currently battling a blaze that resulted because a Trixie victim went on a rampage. The husband has a few questions himself before he ever meets up with his wife: why are there soldiers dressed in detox suits exchanging gunfire with a local? Why is it so tough to get any answers about what is going on in town? Eventually, husband and wife hook up with a few other locals and the group decides to make a break for the edge of town. The biggest problem with this plan is that several people in the group have Trixie and are slowly wasting away as the hours pass. Simultaneously, the town descends into anarchy, with soldiers and locals blazing away at each other with firearms and explosives. "The Crazies" concludes with the customary Romero ambiguity, as we wonder what will happen to the rest of the country if and when Trixie gets loose.

"The Crazies" is a low budget production that manages to put across a chilling scenario of "what if"? The soldiers do look ominous in those containment suits, and the performances of the cast are quite good considering the no name talent, with special mention going to Lynn Lowry, an amazingly sexy Sissy Spacek look alike who plays Kathy Bolan, a young lady infected with Trixie. Her death scene constitutes one of the more memorable, and upsetting, scenes in the film. A few good gun battles help move the film along, as does the occasional cutaway to officials in Washington, D.C. who consider dropping a nuclear bomb on the town if it looks like Trixie will spread. What really helps the DVD version of the film are the extras: a short interview with Lynn Lowry, a commentary track with Romero, trailers, tons of production stills from the movie, and an informative George Romero biography. "The Crazies" might well be low budget '70s fare, but it's never cheesy thanks to a claustrophobic atmosphere, capable performances, and a great plot.


GREAT!   August 16, 2003
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

The main reason I bought this was because of the 14 minute Lynn Lowry documentary. She is obscure even for a cult film star, so many people don't know about her. I first saw her in David Cronenberg's SHIVERS (Highly recomended).

But anyways, about the movie. I watched it with the audio commentary of George Romero and Bill Lustick (he dosn't say who he is) and it was really fun listening to. This is a great movie if you grew up watching horror films on friday or saturday nights. It also has Richard France, who you might recognize as the zombie expert with the eye patch in Dawn of the Dead, as a scientist trying to find a cure for the epidemic.

This movie is great to watch alone on a stormy night, or to put on in the background of a Halloween party. Worth it, buy it.


The Crazies: George A. Romero's low budget sci-fi epic!   June 30, 2005
Joseph P. Ulibas (Sacramento, CA, USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

The Crazies was a film that George A. Romero made around the "Cambist period". During this time he had three of his films released by Cambist: There's Always Vanilla, Jack's Wife and The Crazies. There's Always VAnilla didn't do so well but Cambist's owner Lee Hessel wanted Romero to make a horror film. So with a very small budget,
a group of stage actors and a LOT of volunteers, Romero went to the small Pennsylvania town of Evan's City and made a tale about a biological weapon that was accidentally released into the town's water supply.

The Crazies is a bueraucratic nightmare. The military and the government is helpless and the townspeople are very unco-opertative. There's no other choice but to put the town under quarrantine and martial law. Forget about Outbreak, this is a real urban plague horror show. Within the contaminated zone, are two volunteer firefighters, a nurse and a father and daughter. Can they break through the Army's perimeter or will they become victims of the virus?

Blue Underground out did themselves with this special edition D.V.D. The transfer is phenomonal and the commentary track with Romero and Blue Underground's owner Willam Lustig is superb. The other extras are a short
documentary about 70's B-Movie Queen Lynn Lowery, a bio-page about George A. Romero and a couple of trailers.
I you loved Night of the Living Dead then you'll dig The Crazies. Remember this is a Romero film so expect dialog,
story, poltical critque and nice pacing.

Highly recommended.


Confused? So am I!   January 6, 2004
filterite (Dublin, Ireland)
7 out of 10 found this review helpful

This film by George Romero is a fantastically tense movie about when the water supply becomes contaminated and it affects the town that relies on the water supply.

The opening scene is quite possibly one of the most horrific I have ever seen. A brother is trying spook his sister out and his sister doesn't like it. She goes to tell mommy while the boy finds out that dad has gone mad pouring kerosene all over the house. The little girl is still trying to wake mommy up when she pulls the sheet off to find that mommy has an axe in her neck! Soon enough dad has set the house on fire and is outside while the rest of his family are left to burn.

The scenes with governmental agencies are complicated. Nobody understands anything, everybody is at each others throats and the main line which illustrates this all is when one doctor incensed by the lack of control he is allowed on this is " I cannot believe how shoddy this has been organized "

The mayhem in this movie doesn't let up. What with priests setting themselves on fire and a granny stabbing an army soldier with a knitting needle ( genuinely frightening and perhaps one of the most surprising scenes of all )

The end will definitely leave you confused but I won't say too much more. I've given enough

Incidentally I'm surprised this flopped at the box office. It really is a good intelligent horror movie. But then I guess when people think of horror movies they tend to think of those big dumb Hollywood horror movies with absolutely no shock value whatsoever ( " it's all gore they want " ). Yes this film is graphic in places but is done so with more thought and precise control even when it's method is in chaos. And also I can't believe this is the same director who gave us the atrocious Creepshow 1 & 2! What was Georgie thinking?