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DEAD & BURIED - 1981
Vestron Video / Blue
Rated: France: Rated 16 / Norway: BANNED / UK: 18 / USA R |
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This little horror gem is from way back in 1981, with a cast that was
popular for their time on U.S. Television. Both the cast and crew have
a merry little history of Horror movies.
Directed by Gary Sherman (POLTERGIEST
III, DEATHLINE, LISA aka Candlelight Killer) and written by the
team of Ronald Shusett and Dan O' Bannon (ALIEN, TOTAL RECALL, BLEEDERS)
from a story by Jeff Millar and Alex Stern, DEAD & BURIED boasts Cinematography by Steven Poster (BLOOD
BEACH, TESTAMENT) and a Music score by Joe Renzetti (CHILD'S
PLAY, LISA). No small potato Horror creators here. These folks have spent decades setting the standard for low budget
Horror fare and good for them. Hollywood nearly always makes a tidy profit
on Horror movies, yet at the same time, Horror movies are looked down
upon by the major movie companies as a bastard step-child. Low budget
consideration is usually all they get. The exception to this being Universal
Pictures - generally speaking.
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DEAD & BURIED stars James Farentino (PSYCHOMANIA, [TV] THE POSSESSED)
as Sheriff Dan Gillis. Without warning, his peaceful tiny Rhode Island
town of Potter's Bluff starts having murders. Strangers to the town are
turning up dead. Naturally, Dan has to find out why. With some able assistance
from the local coronor and mortician Dobbs (Jack Albertson), these two
become more horrified as each passing day reveals yet another gruesome
murder. That is actually a clue, all the murders aren't simple, bang,
bang, stab, stab; but gruesome. The murderer(s) actually take photos of
the victims as they are killed.
The mystery becomes weirder and weirder. We, as the audience, see what is happening.
We know who the killers are. So naturally we can see our hero, Sheriff
Gillis when he is in the company of friends, and when he is in the company
of Grave Danger (Grave Danger! Ha! I Kill myself!).
One of the questionable people in the Sheriff's life is none other than
his wife Nancy (Melody Anderson: FLASH GORDON), who has
some rather odd reasons for her frequent night time disappearances.
Another is Harry (Robert Englund: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, URBAN LEGEND, STRANGELAND, PYTHON), who raises the question: he is the Sheriff's buddy, or isn't he?
This movie stars a slew of actors with some impressive horror credits. You'll recognize
the faces of Dennis Redfield (PULSE, SCANNER COP),
Nancy Locke (COLD FIRE), Lisa Blount (NIGHTFLYERS,
PRINCE OF DARKNESS, NEEDFUL THINGS) as The Girl On The Beach, Bill Quinn (THE BIRDS, SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS [TV], DARK MIRROR [TV]), Michael Currie (DARK SHADOWS [TV], HALLOWEEN III: Season Of The Witch), Christopher Alport (SAVAGE
WEEKEND, INVADERS FROM MARS, TV appearances in THE NEW TWILIGHT ZONE,
THE X-FILES, THE KINDRED: The Embraced), and a very young Lisa
Marie as the Hitchhiker (MARS ATTACKS!, SLEEPY HOLLOW, PLANET OF THE APES [2001]).
The Make-Up effects were done by none other than the great Stan Winston (PARASITE, THE TERMINATOR, ALIENS, PREDATOR, LEVIATHAN, TERMINATOR 2, EDWARD
SCISSORHANDS, JURASSIC PARK, JURASSIC PARK II: The Lost World, RELIC). He and his people went
all out for this flick, even going so far as to make Articulated Heads.
That is, they created lifelike head movements using layers of artificial
musculature on top of artificial bones.
That is a lost art these days thanks to modern CGI. My point all the same here is,
with Stan Winston, you don't get that fuzzy CGI look. The gore of a face
burned down to the muscle and bone is crystal clear and damn realistic.
And Then It Screams!
The only thing holding this movie back from being a classic is a mind bogglingly
stupid scene involving an out of town couple looking for directions. They
go up to a dark house. They knock on the door... nothing. Then they open
the door, enter the house, and walk around in the dark! I mean, it's a
neighborhood! They could have just tried another house! But no, they just
walk right into a strange dark house and start creeping around in the
dark. All the time they keep calling out for whoever lives there to give
them directions to a gas station. They are in the house for the longest
time, going into this room and that room, down into the basement, looking
through a web covered refrigerator. A Web Covered Refrigerator! Is that not a warning to the most casual observer that no one lives in
the house - And! And! And! If someone DOES live in
such a dusty, cobweb covered decrepit old house, you sure as hell don't
want to meet them??? AND YET: Despite the fact that there
is no electricity in the house, the phone doesn't work, dust is everywhere,
and there are old spiderwebs covering everything, these boneheaded stupid
freaking jackasses STILL keep calling out.
"Hello? Is there anybody here? Hello? Can you give us directions? Hello?"
This one part drags out until someone finally, mercifully, comes along to put these
clods out of their misery.
This scene is so insanely asinine that you wonder why it was never cut, let alone
ever filmed in the first place. If DEAD & BURIED should ever get a Director's Cut, this is the part the director should
cut! If you can put this one teeth-grindlingly god-awful scene out of
your head, you will enjoy this otherwise fine film.
Minus two Shriek Girls just for that one awful scene and you get three. Ba-Doomp!
This review copyright 1999 E.C.McMullen Jr.
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