Review of The Crazies (1973) by Dc F — 26 Apr 2011

A small American town is quarantined by the military to prevent the spread of an extremely virulent contagion that induces madness and death. Made in between Romero's Night and Dawn Of The Dead films, The Crazies is almost like a stepping stone that provides an insight into what might have happened when the zombie plague started to spread.

Unfortunately zombies are a damn sight more interesting than people going a bit batshit and as a result, this very low budget B-movie struggles to make any impact at all. It bounces between behind the scenes of the put upon military and its scientists trying to find a cure, and a group of mildly annoying civilians trying to escape the quarantine zone which amounts to the film being 50% men in uniform shouting at each other and 50% people running around in the woods shooting guns.

And that's it. There are none of the clever analogies or subtexts (or plot for that matter) you find in the Dead series and it soon becomes extremely tiresome. It's clearly an influential film, the opening scenes obviously inspiring those of the Dawn Of The Dead remake and the "fast zombie" format of modern horror was clearly born here but there's just not enough to it to warrant an hour and three quarters of your time.

The fact is, it's just plain boring.