The people in a small town in PA are exposed to a virus in their drinking water from the crash of a military plane. The virus is experimental germ warfare crated by the arming that will either cause its victims to die or go insane. Shortly after the start of the movie the military invades the town and puts it onto quarantine. The job of the military is to round up the townspeople and bring them into the town school. Also, scientists are brought in to look for a cure for the virus.

You can definitely tell Romero directed it because the movie tries to focus on the people more than the situation. Romero did a great job in building the viewers sympathy for the townspeople. You can also tell this movie was created during the turmoil of Vietnam because the soldiers are portrayed as somewhat of the enemy. I say somewhat the enemy because their main duty is to quarantine the town and keep the virus from being a nationwide epidemic. As the chaos gets worse more and more townspeople get shot as apposed to being detained.

Romero seems to always deliver big on the opening scene. In The Crazies he starts you out with a very chaotic situation. It does a great job setting the tone for the film.

What this movie does well is keep the chaos going. The movie is shot with very quick scenes and jumps back and forth a lot between military and townspeople. I also thought the ending was well done.

On the negative side the drumming gets a little bit annoying after a while. Each time they cut back to the high school you get military drumming. Also, some of the acting got a little too over the top.

Overall, this is a fine movie and a must see for Romero fans. It is not as good as his first three “Dead” movies, but it is still a very solid film.