The Crazies (1973)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-George A. Romero (Director) TV Spots Gallery-Stills And Posters Biographies-Crew-George A. Romero Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Spontaneous Combustion, Candyman, Driller Killer Trailer-Mario Bava Collection
Rating
Year Of Production	1973
Running Time	98:48
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	George A. Romero
Studio Distributor	Latent Image Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Lane Carroll Will MacMillan Harold Wayne Jones Lloyd Hollar Lynn Lowry Richard Liberty Richard France Harry Spillman Will Disney Edith Bell Bill Thunhurst Leland Starnes A.C. McDonald
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Bruce Roberts

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.37:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	Yes
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes

    Evans City, a peaceful country town, is turned on its head when Trixie pays a visit. Unfortunately for Evans City, Trixie isn't the fun loving gal the name might suggest, but a top secret biological weapon that turns those infected with it into bipolar murderers. A plane carrying Trixie has crash landed and spilled the virus into the local waterways, and it's only a matter of time before everyone is infected.

    The military have declared martial law in an effort to contain the threat and keep it out of the press. They begin herding the potentially infected locals into the local high school, but many aren't willing to go quietly.

    The film follows a small group on the run from the military as well as the military and political leaders trying to control the situation.

    The Crazies is one of the low budget flops George Romero directed between Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead that have managed to build a significant cult following over the years. It is stylistically and thematically very similar to the Dead series, more so than any of Romero's other non-Dead work. Themes of paranoia and isolation drive the character based story behind the blood and gas masks.

    The cast is entirely no-name, though features a few faces that may be familiar to fans of the Dead series. Richard France plays virtually the same character he does in Dawn of the Dead. Richard Liberty (the mad Logan in Day of the Dead) is one of the group fleeing the military.

    George Romero's distinctive flavour of black humour elevates The Crazies a significant cut above most other low budget horror from the era. One of the scariest parts of the film is just how little the cynical barbs thrown at bureaucracy, politicians and the military have aged. And who else could pull off death by knitting needle?

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and is 16x9 enhanced. Different reports put the original aspect ratio to be 1.37:1 and 1.66:1.

    The video transfer is very good given the age and quality of the source material.

    The image is a little soft, but fairly accurate to the source material. Parts of the film, particularly stock footage inserts and some night scenes are very grainy. Shadow detail is surprisingly good given the level of grain and poor lighting of many scenes.

    Colours are well balanced despite a large variance between lighting in different scenes. Scenes are frequently dark, but have good colour depth even when in poor focus.

    The transfer suffers from significant amounts of macro blocking, particularly around darker scenes and the political scenes (which have light foregrounds and quite dark backgrounds) - a good example is at 69:12.

    There are no subtitles available on this DVD.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks available on the DVD, English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) and English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s). Both audio tracks are remastered. The original audio source would have been mono given the age of the film.

    The dialogue is prominent in the mix and generally quite understandable. That said, it often sounds as though the dialogue was recorded in a tin can - in many places it deliberately was to give the impression of someone in a gas mask talking. This dialogue effect hasn't aged well or transferred well to the digital medium. The dialogue is clearly out of sync in several scenes. The commentary track actually discusses this as being an issue with the original master.

    The score by Bruce Roberts is almost entirely percussion, giving a very military feel to the whole affair. Whilst it sounds quite dated, it is very effective. One notable change comes at 51:17, when the music turns into a cheesy 70s action piece with over-the-top violins and horns (Romero notes in the commentary that this was added by the producer and not by the main composer).

    The 5.1 remix is disappointing. It has obviously been done from a very limited source that was not well suited for this purpose. During times without focal dialogue, all the surround channels are used to provide an immersive experience, but as soon as dialogue begins the whole mix returns to the centre speaker. This ends up being very distracting. The 2.0 mix is much more effective overall.

    The 5.1 mix has been mastered at a high volume and suffers from noticeable clicks (e.g. at 96:30) and dropouts (e.g. at 42:34 and 53:50) at points with a lot of noise. The 2.0 mix fares much better. It has been mastered at a lower volume and does not have as much audible distortion in the parts that the 5.1 mix really suffers.

    The subwoofer barely registered for most of the film. Only in scenes featuring helicopters is it really noticeable.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

    Colourful static menus have a military snare drum track taken from the film playing underneath them.

Audio Commentary

    William Lustig (director of Maniac, who commissioned the restoration of The Crazies) leads George Romero through the film and coaxes some interesting, but well worn, anecdotes out of him. Lustig's fan appreciation frequently turns the commentary into a big pat on the back for Romero, but it also brings up some interesting trivia about b-movie making in the 70s that wouldn't have surfaced without him.

TV Spots

    Two TV spots are presented. The transfer is watchable, but contains a lot of film artefacts. The features menu appears to have the trailers and TV spots wired the wrong way around.

Stills and Poster Gallery

    A sizeable stills gallery is presented with some interesting notes. The stills are presented in a video slideshow rather than as still images.

Biography - George A. Romero

    A fairly detailed account of George Romero's film career is presented.

Theatrical Trailers

    Two cuts of the theatrical trailer are presented one after the other without pause. Both are overlong, awkwardly paced and very 70s.

Trailers

    Trailers for Spontaneous Combustion, Candyman, Driller Killer and Mario Bava Collection are presented.

    Region 1 and Region 2 have near identical versions of The Crazies available, the only difference being that the Region 2 has only the English 5.1 soundtrack (although it is DTS) and Region 1 has the English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    Region 1 and Region 2 both feature an additional short interview with actress Lynne Lowry entitled The Cult Film Legacy Of Lynn Lowry.

    Region 4 contains trailers for Spontaneous Combustion, Candyman, Driller Killer and Mario Bava Collection that are not featured on the other releases.

    Given the fact that Region 4 offers the choice of Dolby Digital 2.0 and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks at the cost of a small featurette, I'd call it even between the three versions.

    The Crazies is a must for fans of George Romero and a good companion piece for the Dead series. It has been given an above average transfer given the age of the material, which is sure to please fans of cult cinema no end.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall