The Crazies
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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 2006. [link]
Plot
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 wife Judy (Lane Caroll), and Clank (Harold Wayne Jones) a firefighter friend of David's. 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.
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 whom take 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 and the water supply in infected with the virus. The top-secret virus, which is code named 'Trixie', causes it's 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.
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. 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), not yet infected by the virus, where the five people attempt to escape from the military 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, the five fugitives begin to become infected with the virus, leading to Artie to die, Kathie to get killed by the wary soldiers, and Clank to get shot to death by the soldiers after he shoots several of them in a gunfight. Judy is next when she too becomes infected and gets 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 his wife, surrenders to the soldiers.
At the Evans City High School, Dr. Watts finally discovers a vaccine that could help the people infected, but he gets accidentally killed by the soldiers after they mistake him for a 'Crazie'.
David is brought to the military clinic at the high school where he learns that he may be immune to the virus. But distraught over the death of his wife and seeing the chaos taking over the town because of the military tactics, does not say anything to the attending doctors, preferring to let everyone else die from the illness.
The final scene has Colonel Peckam learning that the virus may be spreading to nearby towns in which he leaves Evans City by helicopter, leaving behind a chaotic town in the mists of a full-scale war with no end in sight.
External links
| Films directed by George A. Romero |
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| Night of the Living Dead | There's Always Vanilla | The Crazies | Season of the Witch | Martin | Dawn of the Dead | Knightriders | Creepshow | Day of the Dead | Monkey Shines | Two Evil Eyes | The Dark Half | Bruiser | Land of the Dead |
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