After a military plane crashes nearby, an American town starts experiencing the effects of a mysterious man-made virus that causes people to act in wild, often violent ways. When the army gets involved in trying to contain the situation, paranoia and fear spreads among the population until it's practically impossible to tell who is infected and who is simply scared. As you may expect from a film directed by George A. Romero, 'The Crazies (1973)' contains a pretty blatant political underpinning. It's, essentially, a sort of satire, even though it's presented seriously, that takes aim at the government and the way in which it treats its own citizens as expendable. There's perhaps less overt 'craziness' in the piece than you may expect, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a chaotic and downright bleak affair throughout. Its moments of sometimes rather explicit violence aren't really its focus, although they are effective in conveying the senselessness and brutality of the central situation. Instead, the focus is on the way in which the town's civil liberties are slowly taken away as the army tries its best to 'help'. That's actually a far more scary prospect than the virus itself. By refusing to paint any particular person as a villain, the picture remains rather nuanced. It's the infrequently seen higher-ups who are to blame, not the boots on the ground acting out their orders. Even then, those higher-ups are simply trying to contain a potentially devastating situation (though, it is their prior decisions that caused said situation), which makes them a little more empathetic than they may otherwise have been. It truly is a no-win situation. The film itself is a little jumbled, bouncing between characters as it tries to balance its wider conflict with its more straightforward survival story. Still, it's compelling no matter how messy it gets. It's stressful, too. That's the type of horror that it aims for and that's the horror that it achieves. It's a distinct entry in the genre because of it. It's also entertaining, which is perhaps the most important thing, and never lets its underlying themes get in the way of its surface-level action. Everything comes together nicely, although there are segments which aren't as engaging as they perhaps ought to be. It's only ever so enjoyable, too, perhaps because of what it tries to achieve. It's a really solid effort, though. It's honestly surprisingly good. 7/10.
Review of The Crazies
