THE CRAZIES (1973)
By 1973,
having suffered the debilitating effect of unreliable backing and distribution
for THERE’S ALWAYS VANILLA and then SEASON OF THE WITCH (causing him to
virtually disown them), George Romero returned to the full-throttle horror
exploitation realm that had made his name with NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD in
1968.
THE CRAZIES
is a tense, energetic horror thriller with the premise of what would happen
should a small town (Evans City) be infected by a chemical bio-weapon that
releases uncontrolled homicidal and erotic impulses in its populace. This leads
to the declaration of martial law and rapid mobilisation of the army into the
town in anonymous white bio-suits and gas-masks - an invasion by occupying
forces. The film essentially follows three factions: the infected crazed
citizens, the army and those civilians unaffected but unwilling and suspicious
to be compliant with the state’s heavy-handed intervention. On this level, THE
CRAZIES works well as a mirror of the ongoing war in Vietnam still raging at
that time; the army having to react in-the-moment with no clear idea of their
mission or how to resolve the crisis, the public not only mistrusting and
resisting them but also incubating hidden symptoms that could rise up at any
point.
The movie
features themes personal to Romero’s view of modern society that he would
return to often in the future. THE CRAZIES features no single crusading hero as
1980s films would capitalise on later. Rather than a Schwarzenegger, Stallone
or even the lone ‘everyman’ protagonist Bruce Willis, Romero focuses on rag-tag
groups of people trying to work together amid paranoia, the dynamics of
leadership struggle and a terrifyingly unpredictable foe in an apocalyptic
scenario that could overwhelm us and destroy civilisation if we cannot unite.
The story’s
genesis was the first ten pages of ‘The Mad People’, a script written by a
friend of the team Paul McCullough. The idea of a released bio-weapon resulting
in regional quarantine and the imposition of the army was enough for Romero to
make it a springboard for his own take. The film was also a chance to work
again with exploitation producer, Lee Hessel, who’d made money from a soft porn
film called CRY UNCLE and was keen to expand his range.
THE CRAZIES
was filmed in the real Evans City, which was also used in NIGHT OF THE LIVING
DEAD. Romero’s team had a budget of $270,000, which although minuscule by
studio standards, was more than he was used to. It became his first film shot
on 35mm and with SAG union rates of pay. This still had to be stretched thinly,
so much use was made of real locations
and real townsfolk in the cast. There were no stuntmen on the gig but Romero
had already built up great creative relationships with his pyrotechnic team of
two guys whose background was simply an expertise with fireworks. All the fire,
immolation and flamethrower effects were supervised by the two men.
The director
also couldn’t afford such standard filming equipment as dolly tracks, yet this
was a limitation that became a plus; the pace of the film is superbly cut due
to not having the ability to utilise long tracking takes. Instead, Romero’s
years of skilled, energetic editing (his favourite part of the creative
process) from the scores of fast-paced commercials he made with Latent Image
gives the film a fast, driven rhythm, always cutting on action and piling on
the detail. He shot thirty to forty set-ups a day, a phenomenal workload, but
it pays off handsomely with multiple angles on the scenes and a relentless
kinetic movement of the plot.
Fans of
Romero’s zombie cinema will recognise the enjoyable imperiousness of Richard
France as one of the army scientists. He lends the film a grandeur and command
similar to his eye-patched, laboriously patronising expert in DAWN OF THE DAWN.
Bill Hinzmann,
the opening graveyard zombie of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD again served as
director of photography. In fact the all hands pitching in work ethic of
Romero’s team was in full evidence here despite the relative increase in the
budget. All of the foley effects (sounds recorded after-the-fact) and extras’
dialogue were recorded by Romero, Hinzmann and Mike Gornick in Latent Image’s
basement.
THE CRAZIES
has some stand-out horror moments amidst the military/civilian politics, some
of which delve queasily into primal and taboo areas. The opening scene of
children discovering their dead mother and watching helplessly as their father
runs amok setting the house on fire powerfully sets the awful tone of the
sudden lawless break-down of family security.
There’s a chillingly serene granny stabbing a soldier to death with her
knitting needle. (Is no-one safe from the corrupting corrosiveness of this
water-carried infection?) Evidently not as we see when Lynn Lowry (later a
memorable nurse in Cronenberg’s SHIVERS) willingly gives herself to incestuous
sex with her father, a cringingly potent sequence that would never have been
permitted in a studio picture.
Unfortunately,
unlike the bio-hazard in the film, Romero’s fourth movie suffered an
evaporation on release into box office doldrums. The demoralisation resulted in
him taking a number of years away from that world, spending three of them
working in TV. However, the period introduced him to producer Richard
Rubinstein, an alliance that would begin to bear fruit later with MARTIN and
DAWN OF THE DEAD…
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