The Crazies

From the same mastermind behind Night of the Living Dead, the story leans more towards psychological horror. The scares are not recurring and it is dedicated to playing with the viewer's patience. It is not bad but it will be one of those that one hates to love or loves to hate.

George Romero was the king of low-budget horror. He kept the action going in this from literally the second it began. The unforgettable opening really sets the tone. It's kind of a misleading film though. Focusing more on lengthy shootouts with soldiers than actual crazy person mayhem. So if you want more of that kind of thing then check out the remake. The message was the main focus here. Romero set his sights on governmental screwups and martial law. With the director's typical dark sense of humor and pessimistic outlook, we follow the people in charge of trying to quarantine a small town with limited information and not enough supplies. It paints the military bunch of buffoons who constantly get in their own way while continually running things up an unhelpful chain of command that's stitched this whole operation together with only a modicum of thought. Needless to say there's a lot of social and political commentary here that Romero was more open with than in any of his other works. We also get to see how the outbreak and quarantine are affecting the people of the town through the eyes **** of survivors just trying to escape. This is where all that action comes into play. What's interesting is that the virus and the ones driven mad by it don't seem like the biggest threat. That would be the soldiers with the orders to shoot anyone who resists being taken in. The titular "crazies" tend to act more weird than anything. They're still violent though and have one really disturbing encounter involving a father and daughter that was one of those "they did THAT back THEN?!" moments for me. Those trademark mark cheap, but somehow excellent blood and gore effects Romero was partly known for see a lot of use here. The production values are so low that sometimes this seems like of a much more amateur director. Particularly any time there are fisticuffs. The gunplay is so frequent and done with such glee that it often feels we're watching a kid playing with his toy army men. Both a good and a bad thing. The one area where I'd say the small budget actually benefited this ambitious project was in the casting. The male leads are your typical, conventionally unattractive average joes. The protagonist has a unibrow for crying out loud. Really helps sell the feeling of being in an everyday small American town. Not exactly an example of Romero at his best, but certainly at his funniest and maybe even most energetic. While I wish the concept delivered more of what was shown at the very beginning of the film I ultimately walked away satisfied by how something significant or entertaining was always happening. The drop dead cynical ending is just as bleak as that of his original Living Dead film except with a biting satirical edge that I really liked. It shows off so much of what made him a legend, warts and all.