La Nuit des fous vivants

The Crazies brilliantly references how, in a critical moment, people intervene who may not even have the appropriate competencies, people who may not even want to protect but simply go and do as they're told. They become sheep, human sheep, who are not able to discern right from wrong; they just go and don't look to the right or left. They don’t think. George A. Romero was simply brilliant in this critique. (05/09/2017)

A mysterious contagion, which either kills people or makes them completely insane and eventually die in pain as it affects the brain, appears in the small town of Evan's. Soon enough, we learn that a plane that crashed near the town a few days before was carrying a biological weapon: a deadly virus that has leaked into the groundwater and infected some of the population. The army, which soon quarantines the town, withholds this information not only from the inhabitants but also from the soldiers. A raw, merciless drama where human life is of little value. As a matter of national security, the army is considering the use of nuclear weapons. The question is whether the virus has leaked beyond Evan's guarded borders. Hope, despair, hopelessness. Several scenes are almost memorable, such as the rough opening with the children or the grandmother with the knitting needles. At the end, it reminded me of The White Disease and Dr. Galen. Overall, perhaps scarier than George Romero's zombie flicks, as this is much closer to reality. The film still has power after all these years, and the restored print conveys in perfect color a story we don't want to experience. (07/06/2024)

Very nicely put together horror with social critique. Chaos and paranoia. Several groups (the wannabe soldiers that live in a small town) fight each other, often without knowing why – actually, few people know the real reason. And on top of that, we have the “heroes”, i.e. the infected townsfolk, we can’t really tell which of their actions are rational, or emotionally impulsive in a normal way, and which are only a manifestation of the madness caused by the disease. It’s a smarter film than it would appear at first sight. It’s actually surprising how many of those interesting plot lines were missing in the remake. (03/12/2014)