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The Crazies
DVD cover
Directed by	George A. Romero
Produced by	A. C. Croft
Written by	Paul McCollough (story) George A. Romero (screenplay)
Starring	Lane Carroll Will MacMillan Harold Wayne Jones
Music by	Bruce Roberts
Cinematography	S. William Hinzman
Editing by	George A. Romero
Distributed by	Cambist Films
Release date(s)	March 16, 1973 (USA)
Running time	103 min.
Language	English
Budget	$275,000
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Crazies, also known as Code Name Trixie, is a 1973 American horror film about the effects of an accidental release of a military biological weapon on the inhabitants of an American town. It was written and directed by George A. Romero. It starred Lane Carroll, Richard Liberty and Lynn Lowry.

A remake of the film is currently in production and is set to be released sometime in 2008. [1]

The film has two basic storylines. One follows the efforts of a group of civilians to stay alive during the disaster; the other follows the efforts of political and military leaders to contain the epidemic of violent insanity induced by the weapon.

Set in and around the small town of Evans City, Pennsylvania, the central characters are fireman David (W.G. McMillan), his nurse girlfriend Judy (Lane Caroll), and Clank (Harold Wayne Jones) a firefighter friend of David's (it is established over the course of the film that both David and Clank served in Vietnam--Clank as an infantryman and David as a Green Beret--and also that Clank has some feelings for Judy). Things have been strange in Evans City for the past few days over mysterious happenings and an arson fire at a local farm committed by a ranting and raving farmer. Judy and David have extra cause for concern: Judy has just recently discovered she is pregnant with David's child.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military force, dressed with white bio-warfare suits with gas masks and armed with automatic weapons, arrive in Evans City, led by Major Ryder who takes over the doctor's office where Judy works. It is revealed that several days ago, an Army transport plane, carrying an untested bio-warfare virus, crash landed in the hills around the town, infecting the water supply with the virus. The top-secret virus, which is code named 'Trixie', causes its victims to die or become homicidal maniacs. Somewhere in Washington D.C. the government officials order Colonel Peckam (Lloyd Hollar) to go to Evans City to help Major Ryder contain the spread of the virus and keep it under wraps, while a government scientist, named Dr. Watts (Richard France) also arrives in Evans City to try to find a cure to the virus before it spreads beyond the town.

The government officials in Washington eventually decide--after conferring with the President--to have bombers airborne over the town around the clock, with the planes carrying nuclear bombs large enough to destroy the both the town and the virus, should the situation reach a point of no return.

Soon, more madness and mayhem ensues when the military response to the outbreak is to cordon off the town and shoot anyone who tries to escape, which has the effect of escalating the panic. The soldiers then enter the town and scare the inhabitants by herding them into the local high school to be quarantined, unable to know whom is infected and who isn't. Various scenes of chaos ensue:

• A tense standoff between the Army and the town's Mayor and Sheriff ends up with the Sheriff being shot with his own pistol during a struggle.
• Several scenes of families being rousted from their homes, despite the protests of the homeowners (often featuring crying, upset children).
• During the clearing of one house, a soldier goes to check the upstairs bedrooms, and finds a seemingly serene elderly lady, who is smiling and knitting. Dropping his guard, the soldier tries to convince the old woman to come with him, only to be brutally stabbed to death when she unexpectedly attacks him with her sewing needles.
• A small group of soldiers come across a group of civilians, some of whom are infected, and end up engaging them in combat; they are utterly wiped out when some of the civilians retaliate using firearms and dynamite; at the end of the conflict, an infected woman is seen busily sweeping the bloodied grass with a broom.
• The local priest, possibly infected and aghast at the soldiers forcing his parishioners to leave his church, runs outside his church with a can of gasoline. In full view of the soldiers and his own parishioners, the priest douses himself in the gas and immolates himself (an obvious reference to the Buddhist priests that would immolate themselves during the Vietnam War).

The bulk of the story then settles down into Judy making contact with David and Clank, and two more people, teenager Kathie (Lynn Lowry) and her father Artie (Richard Liberty), after they are captured by the military and thrown into a van with an elderly man who is clearly infected. The five people manage to escape from the military and then decide to try and get out of town.

As often in Romero's work (e.g. Day of the Dead), the military are subjected to withering abuse. Ordered to find the first expert they can lay hands on and convey him to the stricken town, the soldiers do precisely that, thus isolating Dr. Watts, the one man who might be able to find a cure, in the middle of a disaster area with primitive facilities. The scientist's protests that he will be more useful in a proper laboratory are overridden with the threat of brute force.

Things go from bad to worse when one by one, some of the five escapees begin to become infected with the virus:

• Clank becomes increasingly homicidal (at a farmhouse, he kills several soldiers that David wanted to interrogate) and takes risks to try and to show off for his friend; he also makes several comments that show a sense of inadequacy at not having been a Green Beret during the war like David.
• Artie begins to increasingly show an inordinate amount of affection towards his daughter, Kathie (who has in turn become increasingly insane herself). This culminates in one of the film's most disturbing sequences: Artie finally succumbs to the virus and, having gone completely insane, rapes his own daughter. Clank discovers this and delivers a severe beating to Artie, who eventually commits suicide by hanging himself (although it is left up to speculation as to whether or not Clank killed Artie himself).
• Kathie, reeling from both the effects of the virus and the shock of her own father raping her, wanders outside only to get discovered and killed by some trigger-happy soldiers.
• Clank, by now realizing he is infected, causes a distraction to allow David and Judy to escape, killing several soldiers in the woods before being shot in the head by one he missed.
• Finally, Judy becomes infected; when David tries to hide her, she ends up getting killed in the crossfire between the soldiers and a group of people infected by the virus (now nicknamed 'Crazies' by the soldiers). David, distraught over the death of Judy and their unborn child, surrenders to the soldiers.

A series of events occurs that prevent a cure from being found in time:

• Dr. Watts, having discovered some valuable information, is frustrated with the radio security protocols (transmissions require a voice-print confirmation and take several minutes to set up). He sends a soldier out to Col. Peckham with a message; however, as the soldier rushes into the building announcing "I have a message for Col. Peckham", he is almost immediately killed by an infected townsperson who shoots him through a window with a rifle, during an attack on the doctor's office.
• At the Evans City High School, Dr. Watts finally discovers a vaccine that could help the people infected; on his way to leave the school and see Col. Peckham, he is mistaken for one of the infected, as a group of them breaks out of the room they have been held in. He then accidentally drops his vials of the vaccine (shattering them and losing the precious vaccine), before finally being trampled and knocked down a flight of stairs, where he suffers a massive head injury and dies.
• David and Judy had previously discussed the idea that David may have a natural immunity to the virus; independently, Dr. Watts establishes at another point in the film that the virus takes six days or less for an infected person to display symptoms (it is well over that point by the time David surrenders and is brought to the military clinic at the high school), and we see in the film that David has consistently shown none of the symptoms. However, David is distraught over the death of Judy and their unborn child, and does not say anything to the attending doctors, seemingly preferring to let everyone else die from the illness.

The final scene has a visibly shaken and weary Colonel Peckam learning that the virus may be spreading to nearby towns, and is ordered to relocate to another infected city (the rationale being that he "already has one under [his] belt"). Grimly determined to follow orders, he leaves Evans City by helicopter, leaving behind a chaotic town in the mists of a full-scale war with no end in sight.

• Online Trailer
• The Crazies at Internet Movie Database