The Crazies [1973] [DVD]

A glimpse of what could be from Romero, 28 Sep 2003

By 

C. R. Bowman (Durham City, County Durham United Kingdom) –

  

This George A Romero film from 1973 should have been a huge international hit. Unfortunately, it was released at a time when other horror films were more in the public eye (Exorcist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre)

That aside, The Crazies gives us a glimpse into the breakdown of society. After a chemical agent is mistakenly let loose on a small Pennsylvania city, the film shows us the effects through the eyes of three groups of people;

The Military
Scientists and
Normal citizens

Whilst the film is not itself terrifying, you will be disturbed at the fact that it could happen.

This DVD has been a long time coming, and with remastered picture and DTS sound, make it a very worthwhile purchase.

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One of Romero’s great early films, 31 Aug 2003

The Crazies is probably my favourite Romero film after his original zombie trilogy. Which make sense I guess since it is zombie-esque, after all. We follow a small group of people who try to survive the outbreak of a virus in their village, which has been quarantined by the military.

The infected people all go a bit crazy and try to kill everyone else, while the military practically shoot everything in sight. There is a decent amount of gore, if you are in to that kind of thing. What’s more important though, as is usual in Romero films, are the characters and their plight. The story is engaging and the character development is enough that you actually care about them and their circumstances. There are a few poignant moments, and while lead characters in Romero films are often killed off, it is done in a sympathetic way and no one is put there just to keep the body count up.

Romero is one of those film makers who I perceive as being very unique and fascinating in their younger days then becoming a bit bland as they have got older. I would say Cronenberg is another example.

The Crazies is thankfully one of his early films. It’s stylish in Romero’s unique, low budget way. The editing has a lot of verve and most Romero films, up until around Day of the Dead, are characterised by this.

The low budget quality and overall look to the film add to the atmosphere and general sense of realism and evokes and almost documentary feel, much like Night of the Living Dead.

The Crazies, as mentioned, is pretty much a zombie movie with people gone insane, rather than the dead rising from the grave. In this sense it predated by many years films like 28 Days Later and its ilk, that have perhaps over saturated the cinema over the past few years. It is a shame then that The Crazies is being remade, as it will look like an imitation of all the rest when originally it was one of the first.

If you enjoyed any other early Romero films then I can’t see how you could fail to enjoy this. I love every Romero film up to (and including) Day of the Dead. Even There’s Always Vanilla and Season of the Witch. There is just something about his films that I can’t quite put my finger on, but they are incredibly hypnotic.

There’s a decent amount of extra’s on the disc, the commentary probably being the best of the bunch.

Great film from a (formerly?) great director. Sits comfortably among other low budget horrors such as Evil Dead 2, Shivers, Scanners etc.

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