Though it’s the townspeople who slowly fall victim to the epidemic, the white-suited, gas-masked military men are just as imposing as any movie virus.

Like Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies offers no hope, no comfort and sure as hell no happy ending.

Romero doesn’t have the best handle on the film as a whole, but he still manages some perfect moments that bring the era’s potential horrors into the heart of America, like a man losing his mind, then his life, against the misty backdrop of a small-town bridge at dawn. The suggestion is inescapable: one small push, and this could be your life.

The Crazies lacks the nightmarish momentum of Romero’s best zombie flicks, but it’s no less astute with its allegorical potshots.

Romero paints a bleak picture of a bureaucracy that has nothing but contempt for the lives of private citizens, zealously harbors secrets, and gives unbelievable power to a basically incompetent military.