Director: George A. Romero
Screenplay: George A. Romero, original script by Paul McCollough
Starring: Lane Carroll, Will MacMillan, Harold Wayne Jones, Lloyd Hollar, Lynn Lowry, Richard Liberty
Running Time: 103 minutes
Genre: Science fiction, horror
When a virus, created by the U. S. Military as a biological weapon, is accidentally released into the water supply of a small Pennsylvania town the residents begin to fall victim to a disease which creates a kind of homicidal mania in it's victims. The Army quickly move in and violently impose martial law to contain the virus and prevent any adverse publicity. As the military and civic authorities try and decide how to deal with the situation, and scientists frantically race to find a cure, a said group of survivors desperately try and escape from the virus, the infected, and the Army.
Director George A. Romero is probably best know for the groundbreaking horror film Night of the Living Dead (1968), and it's sequels, and while this is not part of the Living Dead series, it definitely shares the same DNA, and feels almost like a dry run for the more lavish Dawn of the Dead (1979). The film is very ambitious, but obviously hampered by a low budget. Technically it is very rough, with harsh colours, choppy editing and acting from a largely unknown cast that could be politely described as uneven. However some of the action scenes are very well made, and at times this is a very exciting film. It is also intensely bleak, and gritty, with some really shocking scenes, including a very disturbing sequence involving a sexual assault. As was frequently the case with Romero, there is a strong subtext of social commentary, this is a product of the early 70s and the Vietnam War, and it has a very strong anti-military and anti-authoritarian message. The Army, disturbingly faceless in the allover white bio-hazard suits and gas masks, casually gun down civilians in the streets, or burn them with flamethrowers and loot the bodies, and the efforts to find a cure, or even settle on a strategy are constantly hampered by bureaucratic incompetence, and the Government officials chomp down on sandwiches and take-out while they casually debate dropping a nuclear bomb on the town, while the increasingly small group of increasingly paranoid survivors begin to turn on each other. It's not a great film, but it is a good one, although it may be too bleak for some. A remake was released in 2010.
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