Dead and Buried

Rating:
Summary: Passable......but too much of a parody
Review: 'Dead and Buried' has an ominous title, ominous poster art and is thickly laced throughout with dark, depressive tones. It's a specimen of American horror cinema trying to mimick Italo video nastiness and it doesn't quite work. What does come out of this grotesque copycat style is a picture that shocks all right but lacks a vivacious beat in its pacing. The old witchdoctor with his suturing kit is terrifying as an abstract idea but his portrayal begs derision rather than fearful awe. The killings in 'Dead and Buried' are very gruesome (for '99 just as they were if not more so for 1981) but are too few in number to put it on par with the competitors it had been released to face like 'Halloween II' or 'The Evil Dead'. What is worth a point or two is the originality of the story, albeit's seeming to have borrowed a little from 'The Wicker Man'. Still, the community of evil plot axis is entertaining and plausible enough, given the backdrop. What does work against the film in particular is the miscasting of minor characters as well as the inattentiveness on the part of the director to pulse/pace of story. There are definitely pockets of laughter in here which ring close to the 'Burger'n'Fries' anti-gothic style of Stephen King and, to put it in film, John Carpenter. While this was certainly in fashion at the time of production, the absolute effect erodes suspense and the fact that it's so inextricably entwined into the film's fabric means that there's no way around it when watching. Melody Anderson is particularly ridiculous in her role as Farentino's wife and her Penthouse Petish presence just makes the film reek of Hollywood fakeness and surfaciaphilia. Apart from the justly famous immolation of the unknown photographer and then his hypo-needle-in- the-eyeball fate, there's little else in here which demands remembrance. The picture just seems to drag on for too long to be able to pull its weight as a genuinely scary horror flick.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Twist on the Living Dead genre
Review: A supposedly nice and humble town, Potter's Bluff, has been home of some grisly murders. Oddly enough, the people killed are seen again, looking completely normal. Very convincing special effects too. And to top it off, Robert Englund is in the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent with a shocking twist at the end.
Review: A well scripted and acted horror/thriller that keeps you guessing all the way through, and when the story unfolds and the final scenes shown, only then can you fully appreciate the full impact on the Farentino character.All the way through the film there is a surreal feel, enhanced by the Glen Miller classic 'In the mood'. Shame that the video was banned in the UK shortly after its release.

Rating:
Summary: Don't miss this HORROR CLASSIC!!!!!
Review: Blue Underground has resurrected another Horror classic! This will satisfy all true fans of the genre! Be sure to look for Robert Englund(Freddy). If your idea of a great horror involves busta' ryhmes or jennifer love hewwett steer clear of this movie!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful movie, DVD problems.
Review: Dead and Buried (Gary Sherman, 1981)

Gary Sherman went on, after this, to directed the criminally underrated exploitation film Vice Squad. Which should be about all you need to know to know whether you're going to like this movie or not. I was absolutely fascinated with it as an adolescent, seeing it every chance I got on HBO and reading the more than capable novelization by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro cover to cover more times than I can count. I hadn't seen it in a good twenty years, though, and I decided to check out the Blue Underground deluxe edition DVD.

The movie still has an odd creepiness about it after all these years that I can't just attribute to nostalgia. The story concerns the sheriff of a small town called Potter's Bluff, Dan Gillis (James Farentino, recently of Scandalous Me: The Jacqueline Susann Story), investigating a series of very strange murders. He is constantly at odds with the town's coroner-cum-funeral director, William Dobbs (the great Jack Albertson in his final film role), and as he gets closer to the truth, he start feeling that a growing number of townspeople are uncomfortable with the direction his investigation is leading...

Dead and Buried gets its cache from two sources: the incredible level of talent on the film and Stan Winston's awe-inspiring special effects. (A decent script helped, written by Ron Shusett and doctored up by Dan O'Bannon; horror film buffs will recognize both the team and the process as the one that birthed the classic script for Richard Donner's masterpiece Alien.) Winston's Creature Shop was just coming into focus at the time, and Dead and Buried (along with Oliver Stone's excellent The Hand, released the same year) was instrumental in getting Winston noticed. The talent pretty much speaks for itself; Albertson, Farentino, Melody Anderson (Flash Gordon), Lisa Blount (If...Dog...Rabbit...), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Christopher Allport (To Live and Die in L.A.), and Barry Corbin (Northern Exposure) all make appearances in the cast, and are certainly not the only shining lights in this flick.

The one problem is the DVD presentation itself. The sound mastering is awful, and the one thing that would redeem it is absent: a subtitle track. You'll have to blow your ears out with the special effects to catch the dialogue, especially at the beginning of the film. Balancing that out is the second disc, with three featurettes that are quite wonderful (with Winston, O'Bannon, and Robert Englund reminiscing about the shoot from their respective POVs). A piece of cinema history that should not be missed by horror buffs. ****

Rating:
Summary: Good Cult Movie
Review: Dead and Buried is a good cult movie that unfortunately was overlooked by its theatrical run during the early 80s. By looking at the movie, it has a 50s feel to it due to the plot and the great architecture of the buildings located in the small town. Let's do a brief summary of the plot.

One day, a photographer from St. Louis goes to a beach located in a small town called Potter's Bluff. He takes some pictures until he runs into a sexy blonde who calls herself Lisa. He takes some pictures of her until she unbuttons her blouse, saying do you want me. He comes closer until a group of people beat him up and put him in a net. The weirdest part is that the people have cameras and take pictures of him. Before they set him on fire, one the people say, "Welcome to Potter's Bluff," a line you will hear throughout the film.

During the night, a car is spotted on fire. The police arrived to investigate, including the head sheriff. Also involved is a mortician, played by the late Jack Albertson, who playes one of the weirdest people you will ever meet on screen. The sheriff, played by James Farentino, spots what seems to be a corpse in the car. His suspicion is that the corpse was already burnt before the car was lit on fire. As one the people touch the corpse, the corpse just all of a sudden screams. It turns out that the corpse was the photographer, who was burnt in the first scene of the movie. As the sheriff investigates the crime, local people turn up murdered by the same group who burnt the photographer, who dies in a horrific scene you got to see to believe. While the sheriff investigates the other crimes, it turns out that his wife is starting to get interested in witchcraft. Also, a local hotel manager tells the sheriff that his wife knew the photographer. The sheriff starts to look into the murders until a horrible secret comes out involving him, his wife, and the mortician.

Dead and Buried was a good film, but I didn't get the real reason behind the plot. The plot did not really explain the reasons why people were killed and the reason behind the weirdness of the town, which is the reason why I gave it 4 stars. Other than that, Blue Underground has done a wonderful job of reviving this lost film.

Another fact to bring up was that Jack Albertson was dying of cancer the same time he played this roll. A possible theory was that he knew he did not have much time to live and that taking this roll was kind of ironic, given that this film dealt with death. But, this was a roll that was a perfect sendoff to this actor who was good on TV as well as on film.

Again, another good job by Blue Underground. Check out the extras including three audio commentaries, an interview with Robert Englund, who portrayed one of the characters before he became Freddy Kreuger, a look at Stan Winston's early EFX, and more.

Rating:
Summary: Good Cult Movie
Review: Dead and Buried is a good cult movie that unfortunately was overlooked by its theatrical run during the early 80s. By looking at the movie, it has a 50s feel to it due to the plot and the great architecture of the buildings located in the small town. Let's do a brief summary of the plot.

One day, a photographer from St. Louis goes to a beach located in a small town called Potter's Bluff. He takes some pictures until he runs into a sexy blonde who calls herself Lisa. He takes some pictures of her until she unbuttons her blouse, saying do you want me. He comes closer until a group of people beat him up and put him in a net. The weirdest part is that the people have cameras and take pictures of him. Before they set him on fire, one the people say, "Welcome to Potter's Bluff," a line you will hear throughout the film.

During the night, a car is spotted on fire. The police arrived to investigate, including the head sheriff. Also involved is a mortician, played by the late Jack Albertson, who playes one of the weirdest people you will ever meet on screen. The sheriff, played by James Farentino, spots what seems to be a corpse in the car. His suspicion is that the corpse was already burnt before the car was lit on fire. As one the people touch the corpse, the corpse just all of a sudden screams. It turns out that the corpse was the photographer, who was burnt in the first scene of the movie. As the sheriff investigates the crime, local people turn up murdered by the same group who burnt the photographer, who dies in a horrific scene you got to see to believe. While the sheriff investigates the other crimes, it turns out that his wife is starting to get interested in witchcraft. Also, a local hotel manager tells the sheriff that his wife knew the photographer. The sheriff starts to look into the murders until a horrible secret comes out involving him, his wife, and the mortician.

Dead and Buried was a good film, but I didn't get the real reason behind the plot. The plot did not really explain the reasons why people were killed and the reason behind the weirdness of the town, which is the reason why I gave it 4 stars. Other than that, Blue Underground has done a wonderful job of reviving this lost film.

Another fact to bring up was that Jack Albertson was dying of cancer the same time he played this roll. A possible theory was that he knew he did not have much time to live and that taking this roll was kind of ironic, given that this film dealt with death. But, this was a roll that was a perfect sendoff to this actor who was good on TV as well as on film.

Again, another good job by Blue Underground. Check out the extras including three audio commentaries, an interview with Robert Englund, who portrayed one of the characters before he became Freddy Kreuger, a look at Stan Winston's early EFX, and more.

Rating:
Summary: Creepy and stylish
Review: Dead and Buried is a memorable 80's horror film recently resurrected by Blue Underground and given the full DVD treatment including a bonus disc loaded with interesting material. Is this obscure 1981 film worthy of such treatment? Sure is. The story takes place in the quaint coastal town of Potter's Bluff. The introductory scene lets us know right away that there's something awfully wrong with the citizens of this community. Whenever newcomers or passers-by go through the town the residents gang up on them, kill them and snap pictures of the whole deal. The additional twist is that the victims eventually return from their supposed deaths to become themselves upstanding citizens of the Potters Bluff community. Town sheriff Dan Gillis (in a solid performance by James Farentino) is becoming increasingly aware that something is off in his town and investigates the murders.

From the opening scene on a beach where a tourist snaps photos, the film establishes a great sense of atmosphere right away. There seems to be something about horror films set in coastal towns and fishing villages that make them stylish and atmospheric (ex: Dagon, The Fog) and Dead and Buried is certainly no exception. Visually stylish, the film has aged surprisingly well for a 1981 picture. There are no painful fashion trends of that era on display and that, coupled with the high quality of the transfer, make this film look like something that would have been done in the late eighties instead. All of this is no surprise considering some of the names associated with this picture, most notably screenplay writer Dan O'Bannon and special effects wizard Stan Winston. Winston's work here is absolutely stunning, especially in regards to his charred and burned body puppets. A special mention would also have to be given to Joe Renzetti, for his great music score.

The cover art for Dead and Buried is one that has always creeped me out and I'm glad to report that the film as a whole is equally scary. Many scenes are played at dusk surrounded by thick fog, an eerie music score permeates throughout and the performances of the town's resident zombies are effectively chilling. These "zombies" are not rotting creatures but regular-looking people like you and me, similar to the classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers". Surrounded by zombies is always a scary thought but even scarier when you don't know who is a zombie and who's not. The best part of the movie I found was the buildup that showed the increasing disbelief and psychological turmoil of the sheriff as his investigations lead him to the shocking truth behind what's been going on in his town. I did have one major problem however, in that why has the sheriff never noticed anything wrong sooner? Obviously the town's residents did not all turn like this overnight, it was a slow and gradual change, and the fact that the town Sheriff was completely blind to this until now is something I found hard to swallow. Despite that I very much enjoyed Dead and Buried as well as the bonus disc, so kudos go to Blue Underground for their caring treatment of this early 80's horror gem.

Rating:
Summary: john carpenter lives
Review: Dead and Buried is the type of scary movie that's (sadly) rarely seen nowadays - big on atmosphere and endearing B movie elements. It might not be the most frightening movie ever, though there are some pretty scary and effective moments. The charm is in the robust storytelling and the unexpectedly good acting of the local small-time sheriff. The sinister coastal setting reminded me of John Carpenter's The Fog. The stand-out scenes for me were the hospital scene, and the corpse who was anxious to be re-buried. Excellent!

Rating:
Summary: Hot Comedy with plenty of Laughs!
Review: Gory twisted and now somewhat predictable, seeing it again after almost 20 years it's really funny. And so scary you know it's just a total fake.....great viewing for the kids under 12 fantastic!