The Crazies (1973)

Directed by George A. Romero [Other horror films: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Hungry Wives (1972), The Amusement Park (1975), Martin (1976), Dawn of the Dead (1978), Creepshow (1982), Day of the Dead (1985), Monkey Shines (1988), Due occhi diabolici (1990, segment ‘The Facts in the Case of Mr. Valdemar’), The Dark Half (1993), Bruiser (2000), Land of the Dead (2005), Diary of the Dead (2007), Survival of the Dead (2009)]

While The Crazies isn’t a favorite of mine, I always found it a unique take on a not too uncommon story, at least nowadays. It’s a bit meandering at times, but it’s overall solid, and has some strong elements.

It’s hard to pinpoint the antagonistic force here, which is partially why I find the film interesting. Certainly those infected with the virus would count, but the army invading a small Pennsylvania town would count also, and while they were following orders, they were also stealing money and other things (such as fishing poles) from private citizens, so the soldiers here are also sinister. So is the military sending the orders out – a plane crashed that had a bioweapon on it, and because of “national security” they need to round up American citizens like cattle.

Sometimes this is a frustrating movie to watch. It’s like a much more focused version of The Stand. I get needing to contain a virus, but of course if you don’t give adequate information to people, the people will fight back. Those soldiers who were killed throughout the film didn’t deserve that, but the higher ups in the military certainly did, and the fact that, as far as the film itself went, we never saw the story get out to the media about how a bioweapon created by the USA caused this, so appropriate blame could be placed on the American government, was sort of disheartening (not that you could expect anything less from the guy who ended Night of the Living Dead as he did).

My views on unjust military takeovers to cover their own mistakes aside, there are times when The Crazies doesn’t feel exactly well-written. We have our protagonists (Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, and Lane Carroll) and we have our insight into the military’s plans (mostly from Lloyd Hollar), but there are times when things don’t really feel focused. There’s action throughout, mostly revolving around the townspeople defending themselves from the invaders, but there’s still a bit of a dry aura at times here.

Few of the actors and actresses here stood out. I liked Will MacMillan as a lead, especially toward the end, and Harold Wayne Jones got some good scenes in, but it’s Lloyd Hollar’s role as the military colonel I found most interesting. I think he was trying his best with the situation thrown at him, but incompetence from the higher ups just made his job functionally impossible. I felt quite bad for Richard France’s character, and Lynn Lowry (one of the few to make a career of movies, as she was in films such as Beyond the Dunwich Horror, Shivers, and Basement Jack) had some solidly creepy moments.

It’s not at all a gory movie, and to be clear, it’s also rather low budget (though what George A. Romero was able to do with the budget, making a film with a rather fast-paced and tense plot, was impressive). There is a fun scene in which a bunch of townspeople attack the soldiers, one of them attacking with a pitchfork, stabbing a soldier’s wrist. In another scene, there’s a pretty solid headshot. Most of the violence here is due to gunfire, so there’s not many stand out scenes.

Which really applies to the movie as a whole. I’ve only seen it twice now, but despite it not being a great film, I also sort of liked it. It occasionally has a similar vibe to Night of the Living Dead, though as I said, this is significantly faster paced. Portions of the finale are quite tragic, but in a quiet way, and I think that, despite the best efforts of some involved, containing the biological weapon Trixie may not be something that’s even accomplishable.

Definitely a lesser work by Romero, but one that does have some charm, I think The Crazies is really around average. I rate it a little higher, due to the rather creepy suits the soldiers wear throughout, but this certainly isn’t a masterpiece in my eyes.

7.5/10