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The Crazies

Play trailer Poster for The Crazies R 1973 1h 43m Horror Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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68% Tomatometer 28 Reviews 50% Popcornmeter 10,000+ Ratings
A nurse (Lane Carroll) and her husband (W.G. McMillan) try to get out of their infected town, but the Army has it sealed off.

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The Crazies

The Crazies

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Critics Consensus

The Crazies isn't top-shelf Romero, but its blend of genre thrills and social subtext should still be enough to satisfy discerning horror fans.

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Critics Reviews

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Tasha Robinson Polygon 03/30/2021
Romero does build some intense tension around the scenario, and the questions of who's going to survive it, and whether they'll deserve to. Go to Full Review Jerry Renshaw Austin Chronicle 09/28/2018
The Crazies offers no hope, no comfort and sure as hell no happy ending. Go to Full Review Vincent Canby New York Times 05/09/2005
An inept science-fiction film from George A. Romero. Go to Full Review Sharai Bohannon A Nightmare On Fierce Street Podcast May 23
2.5/5
This movie is a lot of people just yelling at each other. There had to be more interesting ways to approach this idea. However, knowing what we know about society's response to COVID...maybe it's not so far off. Go to Full Review Robert Horton The Scarecrow 05/03/2024
3.5/4
The movie feels like picking up a newspaper from the early 70s and scanning the downbeat headlines. (Truffaut said that The Night of the Hunter was like “A horrifying news item retold by small children”; The Crazies is a newscast delivered by the insane.) Go to Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review 08/22/2023
3/4
Even if Romero steals from himself to come up with his plot and themes for The Crazies, the film deserves its place as a cult classic on a purely cinematic level. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Rio P @Knightrider82 Mar 14 Great movie I hated the remake See more nick s @Nick_S 02/13/2025 A good effort for a little Indie with reasonable acting. It split it's runtime between army HQ and the protagonists, which somewhat killed the tension. Also the movie didn't utilise it's concept in a clever way. For a movie called The Crazies I would have expected to see more... we'll... crazy. See more Julian S @akajulianscott 01/07/2025 THE CRAZIES grapples with its low-budget limitations, offering some chilling scenes that linger, though not quite enough to fully satisfy. See more Daniel C. M @RT91944882 12/29/2024 Probably Romero's most overlooked, yet, bleakest, disturbing, and misanthropic movie. While proper action from the titular "Crazies" is certainly lacking and to be desired; it's social commentary and political thriller aspects not only add up to a perfect story and script; but the raw-looking cinematography; fast-paced dynamic direction; awesome effects and production design with the special highlight of course going to the soldier's iconic white hazmat suits (which add up to this movie in more ways than one); realistic and three-dimensional characters, which makes you feel sympathetic even for the army men, something very rare that makes so you dont really root for their deaths, which was exactly what Romero tried and managed to achieve, yet, you also relate with and feel bad for the main charactera; all of this coupled up with realistic and bleak, yet exciting and beautifully shot action scenes makes "The Crazies" a near-perfect movie. See more Sams K @RT65506530 10/09/2024 Ahead of its time, after the pandemic this brings our attention to how sometimes governments shouldn't rule private citizens life. Great Romero. See more Craig B @Boundsy 08/22/2024 Okay... The Crazies was a classic back in its day, but now, sorry to say, it is a challenging watch. It has all the hallmarks of classic Romero, but it just has not aged well. I highly recommend the 2010 remake with Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell... a very fine remake, with the great man George A. Romero ensuring it is relatively faithful to the original, as an Executive Producer. See more Read all reviews
The Crazies

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Cast & Crew

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George A. Romero

Director

Lane Carroll

Judy

Will MacMillan

David

Harold Wayne Jones

Clank

Lloyd Hollar

Col. Peckem

Lynn Lowry

Kathy

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The Crazies

The Crazies (1973) The Crazies (1973) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis A nurse (Lane Carroll) and her husband (W.G. McMillan) try to get out of their infected town, but the Army has it sealed off.
Director
George A. Romero
Producer
A.C. Croft
Screenwriter
Paul McCollough, George A. Romero
Distributor
Blue Underground, Vista Video, Cinepix Film Propertes Inc., Anchor Bay Entertainment, Transvideo, Cambist Films
Production Co
Pittsburgh Films
Rating
R
Genre
Horror, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 16, 1973, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 11, 2016
Runtime
1h 43m
Aspect Ratio
Flat (1.66:1)
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