Review:
*Originally written September 30th, 2018*
Damn. I'm pretty disappointed by this, I'm a big fan of George Romero's work, so I knew I had to check out his early stuff at some point. I'd seen the remake of The Crazies a few years ago (And it is surprisingly decent), but the original had always been a black mark on my record. Sadly, the wait and hype really wasn't worth it for this low-budget effort.
It starts off well enough, with a scene of a man after having just killed his wife, try and burn down his home with his young children still inside it. It was surprisingly unsettling and done in an effective matter that not a single moment of the rest of the film manages to live up to.
I'm at a loss when it comes to even remembering the characters and events that happened in The Crazies. I'd only watched it last night and cannot remember a single thing about these characters aside from the performances all being just awful. It's understandable that being such a micro-budget effort, that things aren't going to be perfect, but it felt like they'd taken a bunch of first time actors to try and be convincing, but it just does not work.
I still really like the premise of The Crazies, a small hick town starts to lose their minds as a virus slowly turns the inhabitants into not quite zombies, but violent psychopaths. It's just a shame that so much time is spent at the characters vs the government forces sent in to control the situation rather than the actual "Crazies" . The government scientists are pretty bland and one note, they all wear the same costumes and it gets tired very quickly. It's a continuous loop of the leads running from these people, killing a few and moving on until it sorta just... ends?
I was shocked that Romero actually made this after Night of the Living Dead, which is a much tighter effort and actually bothered to build its characters, while this feels like a much more amateur hour effort. All the gore and blood effects looks weird and fake, with that overly bright blood coloured blood that looks closer to paint than actual blood.
This is not a good looking film either, the cinematography is constantly ugly and the camera work during the action is muddled and poor, making it hard to tell what is actually happening. Even with a brief run-time of 90 minutes, it still drags and goes off into needlessly drawn out scenes that do nothing to further the plot or let us get to know the characters. In all honesty, it' just kind of boring.
I sound really harsh on this, I know I'm making it sound atrocious, but it's not, it's just painfully average for all it's faults and problems. There are a few sparks of creativity that pop out every now and then, but it just didn't shine bright enough to make a full film worth watching. The best I can say about it is that Arrow's 4K remaster does its best to make an ugly film look good, there's some strong detail in a lot of scenes, but moments here and there look very soft and hazy.
I don't know what else to say about The Crazies, I'd only recommend checking it out if you're interested in seeing George Romero's filmography, but in all honesty, I'd suggest watching the 2010 remake instead. Which is something I rarely say.
5/10 Dans
The Crazies is out now on Blu-ray and DVD in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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