A George A. Romero Retrospective: ‘The Crazies’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

‘Town is under quarantine. We have you all under Martial Law.’
- Trixie Task Force Soldier

​When one is involved in some kind of disaster or crisis, we feel exactly what we should in that moment; fear. Because there is always worry in our minds that perhaps help won’t be coming. That we will in fact, be on our own and will need to figure out a way to help ourselves before it is too late. Which is a natural place to go mentally. Because bad times engender bad thoughts and we are quite literally watching our world crumble down around us. But the good news, is that it isn’t long before our fears are put to bed. Because emergency services will arrive in a prompt manner to help us out in our hour of need, and we can begin to heal mentally and physically or take a moment to breathe as we begin to rebuild everything that we lost in that terrifying moment.
 
Yet while the cavalry is always there to arrive exactly when we need it, that overall fear that we will be on our own in times of crisis still hangs over our heads. Partly because we’ve seen major disasters where help does indeed arrive, but often in a delayed manner, to the point where the damage is done and all they can offer at that particular point is comfort. Hell, even now, in the midst of a pandemic, the lack of a coordinated Federal response put everyone into a hoarding panic until states stepped in to offer leadership and guidance. If anything, in the past twenty years or so, our views upon help in a time of crisis is nothing more than; we are left to our own devices until someone gets their head out of the clouds and decides to help us. Which is a horrifying thought for certain but help still is out there and common sense still does seem to prevail regardless of the circumstances. 
 
But it does leave one wondering… what would happen if help never made it during a crisis or disaster? What if the problem was so big and so out of control that any help offered was nothing more than a desperate attempt to keep the status quo and the norm going? Well that’s a notion that George A. Romero felt the need to explore in his next motion picture and going into that particular line of thinking, where the help is helpless and the American people are truly on their own, makes The Crazies one of his most horrifying films. In part because some of the visuals echo modern America, since the sight of United States Army trucks and soldiers rolling and marching into a small American town have echoes of the 2020 summer protests, complete with riot gear and masks for that matter as well. 
 
Yet while that is eerie in its own right, it is the helplessness that these men exude that allows for the story to truly chill one to the bone. Because the Army and all of its vast resources should have a cure or a treatment in place for their own chemical agents, and a plan for what the hell to do in the event of a leak. But here, it’s all about optics and damage control and they’re about as lost as they come. And hearing these men debate their next steps after securing Evans City via quarantine only adds to the horror of the story. Because they have no answers, and they are utterly helpless in the face of a chemical agent that is going to drive everyday people mad in ways they never thought possible and that robs the viewer of any potential hope for a happy ending and leaves them nervous as to what comes next in the story. A feeling that is further enhanced by haunting visuals of Evans City, wherein the city is populated by nothing but the ghosts that are the Army.

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​But while images of tumbleweeds and mostly empty streets leave one uncomfortable for certain, it is the main characters that drive the terror of this tale. Because once the story gets into the nit and grit, they’re simply on their own, roaming the Pennsylvania countryside and fending for themselves and there is something supremely chilling about seeing this. After all this is the United States of America, where people don’t have to break into farmhouses to find shelter and food. But that’s what our group is doing, and they’re also working hard to avoid the Army as well, because at this point, they’re going to be shot for escaping the quarantine since it is better safe than sorry. Which paints a horrifying picture of a world gone mad as only George Romero can and what’s truly wild about this portion of the story, is that Romero has more disturbing sights waiting for us. 
 
Because there is the whole matter of the chemical agent known as ‘Trixie’, and the fact that it is in the water that everyone in this escape party drank at some point over the past week, means that there are poor odds that anyone is going to get out of this nightmare alive and with their sanity intact. Which adds a new and unsettling wrinkle the story as the party begins to slowly lose their minds, forcing the audience to watch good, everyday people who want to escape this madness, begin to embrace it against their will. And it really is horrifying and disturbing to watch the madness slowly overtake the vast majority of our heroes and bring out the worst in them and really, this part of the story is what completes Romero’s vision of what the ‘worst case’ scenario is going to look like. Because with no hope of salvation and no sanity left in this part of the world… mankind reverts to its core elements and our savagery is put on display. 
 
Which makes for some of the toughest moments to watch in this film. Because we truly do see the madness in full effect, as grandmas shove knitting needles into soldiers and anyone nearby, or where fathers burn down their homes or cross lines that should never be crossed. And while we know that Trixie is the reason behind all of this carnage and insanity, it still doesn’t stop one’s mind from drifting to a different line of thinking. One that leads one to believe that this is likely what would happen to the world if help wasn’t coming in the slightest. For it would motivate man to revert to its territorial instincts and more chaos would ensue and clearly, what Romero is trying to say by putting this kind of savagery on display, is to remind us that we cannot put all of our faith in systems that might not be able to handle everything we expect it to, and that perhaps a little more faith in our fellow mankind might serve us better in a time of crisis.
 
Yet what truly makes this particular film so fascinating in the end, is that it is in fact, the most raw and unfettered horror film that Romero ever directed. Which is saying something when one considers how many nightmares he’s encouraged with his work. But this movie is just a series of fearful moments, devoid of the deep and thoughtful layers of commentary and meaning that is present in the vast majority of his other works and truth be told, there’s nothing wrong with what this film presents us with. Because sometimes chaos in our everyday world is more frightening than walking corpses or faceless men or doppelgängers that want to live and well, in the end George was quite successful in presenting us with a story that simply unsettles and terrifies and perhaps those who want more from this motion picture can look at it as practice. Since it wouldn’t be long before his magnum opus, one that truly provided us with a definitive analysis of disaster came to fruition. But regardless of what one expects or thinks of and from this film, it deserves to be celebrated for being a bold exploration of how fragile our modern world truly is and how we have a long way to go in shedding the darkness we believe we’ve left behind.  

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