The Crazies (1973) - Not 'Dawn of the Dead' but not bad either

'The Crazies' is often - unfavourably - compared to George A Romero's 'godfather' of all zombie films, 1979's 'Dawn of the Dead.' And, although I guess there are similarities, they're very different beasts.

You won't find a shuffling ghoul in 'The Crazies,' but you'll witness society's breakdown in ways that were only touched upon in the 'Dead' series.

A plane goes down in a small American town, releasing a virus that makes people go, well, you probably guessed it, crazy.  The army are swift to move in to try and contain the situation, but are soon overwhelmed with the scale of the task at hand.

The movie - mainly - follows a small band of survivors who are trying to flee the stricken town, before they too are overcome by the virus.  Like I say, the film is - mainly - about them.  However, one of the story's flaws is that it is a little 'all over the place,' never really knowing who or what to focus on.

Because the 'antagonist' is technically a faceless virus, the film-makers spend a long time with military and scientific staff who are doing their best to find a cure, or at least contain the plague.  What could have been a tight story sort of feel more like a bunch of loosely-connected sketches, relating to the end of the world.

However, that doesn't mean the film isn't worth your time.  It's pretty intense - if a little overblown and hammy at times - and the desperation of the situation is really cranked up to eleven.

Like I say, it's nothing - technically - to do with 'Dawn of the Dead,' but we live in a cinematic world of 'shared universes' and this is filmed in such a similar style to the zombie epic that it almost feels like this is taking place at the same time as the undead uprising.  Not only does it share a few of the same actors (playing different characters, of course), but the special effects and gore all seem right out of the 'Dead' playbook.

It may not be as good as Romero's zombie offerings, but if you're looking for a bleak and depressing apocalyptic version of how science could well end our society then this one is definitely worth watching.

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that