The Crazies
1973 Directed by George A. Romero
Synopsis
All hell is about to break loose.
Citizens of a small town are infected by a biological weapon that causes its victims to become violently insane. As uninfected citizens struggle to survive, the military readies its own response.
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I met Lynn Lowry last night at the theatre I work at, so I felt like popping this old favorite of mine in.
She plays Kathy, a spacy teenage girl who is one of five civilians attempting to elude gas-masked Army men quarantining the small town of Evans City, Pa., after a contagious bacteriological weapon (which causes those infected to go incurably insane) accidentally makes its way into the water supply. It isn't the lead role, but it is memorable (as is her role in David Cronenberg's SHIVERS), so it was pretty cool to meet her.
The 2010 remake of THE CRAZIES wasn't bad, but it can't compare to George Romero's original, one of my favorite contagion thrillers. Obviously made…
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This is how you do fast-editing: overwhelming but lucid, a montage of faces locked in horror, rage, fear, bewilderment. Romero's rough but composed style ducks the potential Body Snatchers paranoia of seeing who is infected as opposed to those who simply erupt against government forces in favor of overwhelming but carefully ordered brute strength. Well, ordered on Romero's part, as one of the most fun aspects of THE CRAZIES is how over their heads and sloppy the government is even as they descend upon a time with shocking speed. It's a giant clusterfuck of a scene, all the more compelling for being so.
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The Crazies arrived in 1973, five years after George Romero’s auspicious debut (Night of the Living Dead) and five years before his masterpiece (Dawn of the Dead). As a low-budget doomsday thriller, it lands directly between those two films as well, making great use of what he learned from Night’s confined space (paranoia, a winking cynicism, and subtle but devastating irony) while sketching out in long form what he would later condense into Dawn’s apocalyptic first act (the failure of institutional crisis management).
In terms of overall quality, The Crazies is definitely the least of the three films, but the one area it succeeds above the other two is in its use of dialogue. Romero has little faith in humanity’s…
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This is a better concept than execution which is a shame since I'm a big George Romero fan. Better than anything he's done in recent years but not up to par with the rest of his earlier works. This is the rare case where the remake is actually better.
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'The Crazies' is a low budget outbreak movie directed by George Romero, creator of seminal zombie classics 'Night of the Living Dead' and its thundering sequel 'Dawn of the Dead'.
Set in a small American town that has come under siege by a dangerous toxin known as Trixe. This hazardous chemical has the adverse effect of turning normal people into uncaring, homicidal lunatics, who murder at will. As the situation worsens, the military tries incompetently to protect the town and its people. Failing in their efforts to stop the spread of the virus, they instead decide to eradicate the entire population so as to stop it spreading. What ensues next is a mad scramble for survival, as the remaining uninfected…
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Believe it or not, I actually prefer the remake over the original. Great concept, poorly executed by Romero. Dull, lifeless and completely disjointed.
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This is how you do fast-editing: overwhelming but lucid, a montage of faces locked in horror, rage, fear, bewilderment. Romero's rough but composed style ducks the potential Body Snatchers paranoia of seeing who is infected as opposed to those who simply erupt against government forces in favor of overwhelming but carefully ordered brute strength. Well, ordered on Romero's part, as one of the most fun aspects of THE CRAZIES is how over their heads and sloppy the government is even as they descend upon a time with shocking speed. It's a giant clusterfuck of a scene, all the more compelling for being so.
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I met Lynn Lowry last night at the theatre I work at, so I felt like popping this old favorite of mine in.
She plays Kathy, a spacy teenage girl who is one of five civilians attempting to elude gas-masked Army men quarantining the small town of Evans City, Pa., after a contagious bacteriological weapon (which causes those infected to go incurably insane) accidentally makes its way into the water supply. It isn't the lead role, but it is memorable (as is her role in David Cronenberg's SHIVERS), so it was pretty cool to meet her.
The 2010 remake of THE CRAZIES wasn't bad, but it can't compare to George Romero's original, one of my favorite contagion thrillers. Obviously made…
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Well, I laughed a lot, so that's one star.
Another one for all the ugly guys whose faces reminded me of old Bosch paintings. Ugly guys are much more interesting to look at than pretty boys (sorry Goslingfrancodepp).Half a star for the color of the hilarious fake blood.
This movie could have easily been 20 minutes shorter with better editing and I wanted more crazies and less soldiers.
MOAR CRAZIES!
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Believe it or not, I actually prefer the remake over the original. Great concept, poorly executed by Romero. Dull, lifeless and completely disjointed.
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This is a better concept than execution which is a shame since I'm a big George Romero fan. Better than anything he's done in recent years but not up to par with the rest of his earlier works. This is the rare case where the remake is actually better.
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'The Crazies' is a low budget outbreak movie directed by George Romero, creator of seminal zombie classics 'Night of the Living Dead' and its thundering sequel 'Dawn of the Dead'.
Set in a small American town that has come under siege by a dangerous toxin known as Trixe. This hazardous chemical has the adverse effect of turning normal people into uncaring, homicidal lunatics, who murder at will. As the situation worsens, the military tries incompetently to protect the town and its people. Failing in their efforts to stop the spread of the virus, they instead decide to eradicate the entire population so as to stop it spreading. What ensues next is a mad scramble for survival, as the remaining uninfected…
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Romero's social consciousness shows through his interest in the ramifications of the disease greatly outweighing the actual depiction of it onscreen. What's shown is that an invisible evil spreads less through disease but more through the systems/hierarchies it creates. On one hand is the government; who through sheer confusion with how to deal with the epidemic resort to violence, and thus spurs our other unit of regular citizens, who fall apart through their own power struggle.
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Originally a box-office disappointment at the time of its release, The Crazies in recent years finally began to get some of the respect it deserves. A violent, emotional, deeply personal outcry against the senselessness of the Vietnam War and other atrocities, it deals with horrors that seem all too possible.
The setting is Evans City, Pennsylvania, where a governmentally-developed chemical known as "Trixie" has contaminated the water supply and turned citizens into unbalanced nuts. Soon the military invades the town and declares martial law, turning out to be an even bigger threat than the "crazies" of the title. Confused and defensive, some of the Evans City residents rebel and are often shot to death for their trouble. Five people steal…
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Having never seen a non-zombie George A Romero film I approached The Crazies with open arms, I had heard it was an interesting film with some nice ideas. However I think it is perhaps a film more of its time as some of the big messages either seemed lost on me or just a little outdated.
That's not to say the film doesn't contain very enjoyable moments. With acting that is sometimes suspect it's entertaining to see what will happen next. One of the first problems for me though was that although this is not a Zombie film... It kind of is. There's still a virus of sorts that it making people go crazy, and these people must either be…