When people hear the name George Romero, most of them, understandably, think of his ground breaking 1968 classic "Night of the Living Dead." However, Romero was much more than a "one trick pony"--he made several other very good to great films, some of which didn't even have zombies in them. His fourth movie, "The Crazies" (1973), is one of these, in my opinion. Its reviews at the time were mixed, and it did terribly at the box office, earning back only about half of its meager $275,000 budget. So here we go. It'll be the usual format--short spoiler-free synopsis, a longer spoiler-saturated recap, a discussion of some of the movie's themes and strong points, and ending with some cast and crew information.
Something's wrong in the small Pennsylvania town of Evans City. A few days after a plane crash, the military has moved in, and it effectively prevents anyone from leaving or entering. The citizens are acting strangely too--emotionally unstable, and sometimes violent. Firefighter David and his pregnant fiance Judy, along with David's friend Clank, try to avoid both the heavy handed soldiers and their neighbors. But the bodies keep piling up, and no one seems to understand what's happening. Will anyone make it out unscathed? And will what's happening here spread to other areas, or even across the globe?
(SPOILERS AHEAD UNTIL MARKED) "The Crazies" opens in a farmhouse in the countryside, where a little boy is teasing and trying to scare his sister. But very quickly they're both terrified, as they find out that their mother has been murdered, and their father lights their home on fire. Across the small town of Evans City the audience then meets Judy and David. David is a volunteer firefighter, while Judy is a nurse. They're expecting a baby, and a marriage is imminent. But, both are called away--David to the fire at the farmhouse, and Judy to Dr. Brookmeyer's office. At Brookmeyer's, Judy sees it's overrun with Tyvec and gas mask-suited soldiers, led by a Major Ryder. Judy learns from Dr. Brookmeyer and the soldiers that the town is under a strict quarantine. A recent military plane crash nearby is apparently the cause. Brookmeyer helps Judy to escape the office, as he knows she's pregnant.
More details start to emerge, especially after Colonel Peckem arrives to take charge. In an unnamed room, evidently in Washington, D.C., high level officials are going over the situation. Roadblocks are installed around Evans City, and telephone and ham radio messages are also blocked. The men also want a plane equipped with a nuclear bomb to fly over the town, to prevent something called "Trixie" from spreading. A doctor who worked on Trixie is forced to fly to Evans City. The townspeople are herded into the local high school building. Judy encounters David and his friend Clank returning from the fire, but right after they're caught by white suited troopers who force them into a van. Already inside are Artie Fulton, and his daughter Kathy. Back at the makeshift headquarters, Col. Peckem reveals that Trixie is a military bio-weapon, a highly contagious virus.
Although most of the townspeople are taken by force to the high school, some resist. Sometimes in weird, psychotic ways, like an old lady who repeatedly stabs a soldier with her knitting needles. David and Clank manage to overpower the soldiers transporting them, and drive off in the van now armed. Back at HQ Dr.Watts tells Col. Peckem that Trixie has no antidote, and exposure to it quickly leaves its victims dead or permanently insane. David and his group reach an abandoned country club to rest for the night, but Kathy is already acting strangely. Dr. Watts is taken to the high school, where he sets up a rough lab assisted by a technician. He wants to send some Evans City blood samples to Fort Detrick, but the military refuses to do so because of contamination concerns.
More scenes of carnage occur. Soldiers are shooting people, and burning their bodies. Townspeople are fighting back, often successfully. A priest even immolates himself as a protest versus the military. David's gang is spotted, but they manage to shoot down a helicopter and escape. Later, at a farm they encounter five more soldiers. Clank brutally murders them, even though this didn't appear necessary. As such, David becomes concerned that Clank has the disease as well. Back at the unnamed political meeting room, the men discuss the probable necessity of nuking the town, and then covering it up with a story about this being an accident.
At the farm Artie is clearly sick now, too, as he thinks that Kathy is his dead wife, and rapes her. Clank discovers this and beats Artie up. Clank is now clearly insane as well. David and Judy later find that Artie has hung himself out of regret, and Kathy runs out to greet some approaching soldiers. They quickly shoot her dead, fearing being contaminated by her. Judy, David, and then Clank flee into the woods. Clank realizes that he's sick, and goes to confront the soldiers. Although he slaughters many of them, eventually they kill him. Back at the high school Dr. Watts makes an important discovery, a possible cure. However, his frustration with the security measures on phone conversations causes him to rush out of the lab to tell Peckem in person, before explaining his findings to his assistant. The troops in the school mistake Watts for another infected person, and in the riot that follows Watts is mortally wounded, and his cure destroyed.
While hiding at a cement plant Judy starts to exhibit signs of being infected as well. After a pack of soldiers pass by, and David is forced to kill one, a pack of teens run up and mortally shoot Judy. David and one of the kids are captured by another squad of soldiers. At headquarters Peckem reports that 2100 of the original 3600 or so citizens of Evans City are still alive, but all of those survivors are insane. He's informed that he's being moved to Louisville, where another Trixie outbreak is feared. The medical staff tries to replicate Watt's cure, and there's word of an immune monkey at Fort Detrick. David appears immune, too, but he pointedly doesn't reveal this to the military doctors. Peckem then leaves in a helicopter, after being decontaminated.
I realize that some readers might think I chose this particular movie to talk about today to be timely, since we're currently still suffering though a viral pandemic. But, actually it was a coincidence--I was going through my collection of films, and this one just stood out. But I can understand how watching something like "The Crazies" might be too close to home for many viewers now. Or, perhaps the opposite--maybe some people might want to watch a movie similar to what they're experiencing. Anyway, there are huge differences, obviously, such as the fact that "Trixie" is a human made bio-weapon, and COVID-19 is natural. But it's kind of uncomfortable, too, as we see the peril of not following quarantine protocols, and social distancing. The movie's gas masks are more elaborate than our typical paper masks, but the idea is still the same.
One of the things that struck me about this movie was the lack of an actual villain. The townspeople commit horrific acts of violence, even murder, but they're blameless--through no fault of their own there were infected with a disease that drove them insane. The soldiers seem cruel at times, and we kind of cheer when the townsfolk fight back and kill some of them, but ultimately they're not really evil, either. They're regular people who are doing their job. And this job makes sense--if the disease spreads, people in the entire country, or even the world could be killed or driven mad. Even the scientists who created the Trixie bio-weapon aren't exactly evil--they were tasked with a job, too, trying to help their country's armed forces against enemies. I guess the real villains are the people who came up with the idea of a bio-weapon in the first place, but we don't really see them.
Arguably the most important theme in "The Crazies" is the importance of good communication, and how the lack of it can be devastating. Initially the military doesn't realize, or wasn't told, how serious Trixie is, so they drag their feet a little and let the disease be spread further throughout Evans City. And then when they do go in they don't properly communicate the seriousness of the situation to the town's mayor, doctor, sheriff, and other town leaders, or to the townspeople themselves. Which results in panic, and many people trying to flee, or fight back, using violence against the troops. (Granted, some of this is due to the people going crazy because of the disease, but you get what I'm saying.) During his time in Evans City later, scientist Dr. Watts is frustrated by the time it takes to talk to his comrades and Col. Peckem, with the complicated voice print security measures. Which leads him to run out of the lab in haste, before he's explained the possible cure to his colleague, which results in his breakthrough being destroyed, and therefore thousands or even millions of lives more lost, unnecessarily. And finally, David chooses not to tell the military doctors that he's probably immune, which again will result in many more people being driven insane or dying.
This last example leads to another question--why does David do that at the end? Is it revenge on the military, and the government, for creating the problem that lead to the death or insanity of most of the people he knows and loves? Is it possibly PTSD, from his time in Vietnam, plus the additional carnage he's just witnessed at home? If it is revenge, it's awfully drastic. Not to mention misplaced, since many other innocents will be hurt by his lack of disclosure. (Of course, it's also possible that this was done for purely dramatic reasons by Romero, to up the ante of the horror, but I mean within the logic of the story, and the character himself.)
Like Romero's zombie movies, another important theme is the fear of your fellows--your neighbors, your friends, your lovers, even yourself. The disease causes people to perform hideous acts of violence upon people they even love, such as Artie's rape of his daughter, and the opening scene's father killing his wife, and burning his kids. And the disease was caused by the people's own government, the people they elected into power. Then their own military is fighting against them. The enemy isn't a foreign invader, or even a natural disaster, or a regular, natural disease--it's us. Once we're infected, we become the enemy, the carriers of more bloodshed and death.
Distrust of the government is another point the movie makes. The government in "The Crazies" is arguably evil (or at least cynically amoral), with a willingness to create a hideous disease. One which, it goes without saying, violates every law of war or society. It just doesn't affect armed enemy soldiers, it affects potentially everyone. Like many diseases, people who couldn't possibly be a threat--the elderly, and the very young, will surely be impacted the most. To top it off, this government, and their military, are then cartoonishly inept, as they accidentally infect their own people, and then delay and bungle the response to it. They even consider nuking their own citizens! Which has a logic to it within the movie's situation, but is still horrible to contemplate. (And it's a plot point which "Return of the Living Dead" (1985) used to tragicomic effect.) I'm sure that this movie's tone was influenced by the debacle of the Vietnam War (aside from the battle footage, there's the priest immolating himself just like the protesting monks in Vietnam), but it's amazing how it was before the full details of the Watergate scandal became known. Think how cynical and jaded it would have been if it came out a few years later!
The addition of the insanity in the movie also helped make it traumatic and disturbing. A deadly disease is bad, sure, but I think everyone is afraid of losing their minds. The horror of the characters as they occasionally have moments of clarity and realize they're mad is heart-wrenching, even more so when they continue to commit horrible acts. And then they sometimes realize what they've just done, like Artie. Really grim stuff, but it really makes for a more scary story.
One quibble I have with "The Crazies" is about the nature of the disease. Like many movies and television shows, it makes an elementary mistake, of confusing diseases caused by bacteria with those caused by viruses. At one point Col. Peckem refers to Trixie as a bacteriological weapon, but for the rest of the movie it's called a virus. Which is impossible--it's either one or the other, they're completely different things. Assuming it is a virus, since that's the bulk of the references in the movie, that makes the military giving their soldier antibiotics as a protection very silly and useless, since antibiotics don't do anything against viruses. But this is a small complaint, which I can clearly overlook, and I can still enjoy the film overall. It's just something I noticed.
The average viewer probably won't recognize any of the actors or actresses in this movie. (Unless they're big fans of Romero, or of 1970's exploitation movies.) The cast is mostly unknowns, or at least fairly unknown at the time. Which I think benefits the movie. When a movie has established, famous, extremely attractive actors and actresses in it, it doesn't seem as realistic. The people in "The Crazies" are normal looking, anonymous folks, so it makes the situation seem more real, almost like you're watching a documentary.
(END SPOILERS--SAFE FOR ALL READERS) Writer/director George Romero had a long career in films. Alas, like many horror filmmakers, he often had problems getting funding, and so had to work on the fringes of the studio system most of the time. Meaning his output wasn't as high as it probably could have been. Anyway, other highlights in his directing and writing career are the previously mentioned "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), "Martin" (1978), "Dawn of the Dead" (1978), "Knightriders" (1981), "Day of the Dead" (1985)," "Monkey Shines" (1988), and "Land of the Dead." He also directed 1982's "Creepshow."
Of the actors, the most recognized name is probably Lynn Lowry, who played Kathy Fulton. She had roles in movies such as "I Drink Your Blood" (1970), "The Battle of Love's Return" (1971), "Sugar Cookies" (1973), "Score" (1974), "Shivers" (1975), "Cat People" (1982), "Basement Jack" (2009), and "Model Hunger" (2016). Also, I don't know if this info is accurate, but IMDB lists like 30 additional movies with her that are currently filming or are in pre-production. The character of David was played by Will McMillan, who was also in such films as ""The Enforcer" (1976), "Used Cars" (1980), "Christmas Evil" (1980, and see my post of December 21, 2019), "Salvador" (1986), "Aspen Extreme" (1993), "Jada" (2008), and "Eye of the Storm" (2011). Richard Liberty (Artie Fulton), is probably most notable for his role in "Day of the Dead" (1985). He also played parts in such movies as ""The Final Countdown" (1980), "Porky's II: The Next Day" (1983), "Flight of the Navigator" (1986), and "Just Cause" (1995). Lane Carroll (Judy) was reportedly mainly a casting director. The only other credits I could find for her were another Romero film, "There's Always Vanilla" (1971, and in my opinion George's worst one), and the infamous "Hercules in New York" (1970), Arnold Schwarzenegger's first film, in which his voice was ridiculously dubbed. Clank was played by Harold Wayne Jones, who also appeared in "Knightriders" (1981), "Down on Us" (1984), and "Provoked" (1989). Lloyd Hollar (Col. Peckem) was also in "Boardwalk" (1979), "Kiss of Death" (1995), and on the television shows "The Jeffersons" (1978) and "Lou Grant" (1978). One of the small roles, of "Soldier #3 in House", was played by Roger Aaron Brown. His career includes roles in films like "Star Trek" (1979), "Cobra" (1986), "Near Dark" (1987), "Action Jackson" (1988), "Alien Nation" (1988), "Robocop 2" (1990), and "Maniac Cop 2" (1990). Finally, the role of "Crazie shooting at doctor's office" was played by Bill Hinzman, who acted in such movies as "Season of the Witch" (1973), "Knightriders" (1981), "Santa Claws" (1996), "Shadow: Dead Riot" (2006), and "Mimnesis" (2011), and directed and acted in "The Majorettes" (1987) and "FleshEater" (1988). (He was also a busy cinematographer and camera/electrical department worker in many movies.) He's most famous, though, for playing the role of the first ever Romero zombie, in "Night of the Living Dead" (1968).
So, if you're a fan of George Romero's zombie classics, or even if you just want to check out a largely forgotten 1970's horror effort, you should give "The Crazies" a look. It's a fine film, a nice mix of scares and pathos.
