The Crazies (1973)

Lesser-known work from George A. Romero (he of the "Dead" trilogy) deserves far better than its current semi-obscurity. It's a savage drama (played like a paranoid horror flick) about the quarantining of a small town following the accidental loosing of a biological weapon. Parallels to the Vietnam War and American foreign policy at the time are hard to miss (most glaring example: a priest immolates himself after being forcibly removed from his church), but the film stands on its own as a tense, disturbing and bleak look at a world gone mad.

Grade: A-