The Crazies
The Crazies is a 1973 film from the USA, directed by George A. Romero, running 103 minutes. reelscum files it under zombie.

- Year
- 1973 · 1970s films
- Country
- USA
- Runtime
- 103 min
- Director
- George A. Romero
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- known (25/100)
- Also known as
- Code Name: Trixie · Crazies
Defined in the glossary: Zombie
A military bioweapon drives a town homicidally insane. Romero on institutional failure, again.
Romero between Night and Dawn of the Dead, applying his outbreak template to a manmade disaster. A military biological weapon contaminates a Pennsylvania town's water supply, driving residents violently insane, and the army's containment response proves as lethal and incompetent as the plague itself.
It is angrier and more overtly political than his zombie films, focused on institutional breakdown and the body count of the cover-up. Rough around the edges but bleak, and remade in 2010.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 7 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
The cycle in depth
- Gut-munchers: the Italian zombie boom, 1979 to 1983
There was no first one. Argento recut Romero, Fulci forged the sequel, and Italy spent four years feeding the British censors.
Filed alongside
City of the Living Dead
The drill scene. Otherwise thin, but the atmosphere is thick.
I Walked with a Zombie
Val Lewton doing Jane Eyre in the Caribbean. Beautiful and barely horror.
The Beyond
Makes no sense whatsoever and is Fulci's best film. Dream logic, fully committed.
The Return of the Living Dead
Punk soundtrack, running zombies, and the film that invented 'BRAINS'.
White Zombie
Lugosi, Haitian folklore, and the first zombie film. No eating involved.
Cemetery Man
A cemetery caretaker shoots the returning dead and falls in love repeatedly. Beautiful and deranged.
Zombi 2
A zombie fights a shark. Fulci's splinter shot is still the worst thing here.
Let Sleeping Corpses Lie
Spanish-Italian, shot in England, and much smarter than its stablemates.
Tombs of the Blind Dead
Eyeless Templars on skeletal horses in slow motion. Best monster design of the 70s.
Day of the Dead
The bleakest Romero. Bub is the only sympathetic character in it.
Dawn of the Dead
A shopping mall, four survivors, and Savini's finest hour.
The Grapes of Death
Rollin does an outbreak. A pesticide turns wine-country villagers into oozing killers.