By Lee Pfeiffer
I'll admit to not being very conversant regarding the films of George Romero, aside from Night of the Living Dead. With the remake of his 1973 thriller The Crazies now in theaters, I thought it would be worthwhile checking out Blue Underground's Blu-ray release of the original film. Despite the title, which insinuates this is some kind of campy monster movie, I was quite surprised the film is a highly effective suspense movie played straight-faced and without over-the-top characters or situations. The storyline finds that a top secret government experiment in biological warfare has gone astray, leaving residents of a small Pennsylvania town infected. Suddenly, many locals begin to display signs of madness that eventually culminates in their acting as raving, murderous lunatics. As the townspeople scramble to prevent themselves from being infected, they must also deal with the horrendous problem of fending off attacks from friends and loved ones who are now hunting them down to kill them. This frightening scenario clearly inspired the slicker and more polished British film 28 Days Later and its sequel 28 Weeks Later, but Romero's production is also highly effective in delivering the chills.