World Famous Comics: Dead & Buried (Limited Numbered Edition - 50,000 copies)
Dead & Buried (Limited Numbered Edition - 50,000 copies)
Starring: James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Redfield, Nancy Locke Directed By: Gary Sherman Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Blue Underground Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: July 29, 2003 Running Time: 94 minutes Theatrical Release Date: May 29, 1981
Amazon.com: Overlooked during its theatrical run but a cult favorite on video, this unique and chilling take on the zombie film finally joins the digital ranks with a two-DVD set from Blue Underground. James Farentino stars as a small-town sheriff who discovers that the victims in a string of grisly murders are reappearing seemingly alive and unharmed. His investigation leads him to suspect that the local mortician (Jack Albertson) is somehow responsible for these reanimated corpses; what Farentino doesn't know is the extent to which the entire town-himself included-is involved. First-time viewers will appreciate director Gary Sherman's attention to pacing and atmosphere, as well as the often darkly humorous script by co-producer Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon (Alien, Total Recall) and the solid cast (which includes future horror star Robert Englund); longtime fans will appreciate the fact that Blue Underground's uncut print restores many of Stan Winston's gruesome special effects. --Paul Gaita
A rare gem from way back then James Farantino stars as a sherrif named Dan Gillis who is investigating some brutal murders. The victims are out of towners passing through Potter's Bluff. Things take a turn for the weird, when new faces begin to appear resembling the victims.
Dead & Buried doesn't waste a bit of time revealing who the killers are. You learn who they are very quick. One may think to themselves, "well there goes the suspense." Despite this very quick give away. The suspense was still the best feature for me. I was mostly gripped dying to know what the killers motives are. To include the purpose of the wild events taking place. Dead & Buried does a very good job keeping the viewer in the dark until its wild conclusion.
The film had some minor creepy moments but nothing scary at all. Others may experiance something different. The special effects were very well done and the gore was decent at best. I didn't find the acting stellar but it was passable to me.
I found Dead & Buried to be a very entertaining film and I mostly recommend this to die hard horror buffs. The bonus disc was a nice addition as well. It contains featurettes with Robert Englund and Dan O' Bannon. I mostly got into the featurette by Stan Winston going into detail on the special effects. I found this to be the most enjoyable of the entire disc. The two disc set is definitly the way to go.
There's more here than meets the eye. 'Dead & Buried' has got the cheesy '80s horror movie thing going on in spades, but it's also got a number of other things going for it - some of them rather surprising - that set it apart from the pack. It is a genre-bound film that manages to veer wildly between the pedestrian and the poetic, ultimately falling squarely on the side of the latter. I don't want to give anything away, but the climax is probably something you will see coming - HOWEVER it plays out in a way that is totally unexpected, with bizarre, surreal and unforseeably moving elements (moving in ways that are passing strange in the case of one scene from a marriage that you almost certainly haven't seen before).
James Farentino is surprisingly strong as a lead, but the movie belongs to Jack Albertson, who is given some really nice moments - 'Dead & Buried' makes a surprisingly wonderful swan song for him.
The movie suffered some unfortunate tampering, but they weren't able to ruin it completely. There is some standard issue material (not all of it part of the backers' post production monkeying), but then there is stuff that IS NOT so standard issue, striking, in fact - and occasionally, as in the sequence where Jack Albertson's town mortician character restores Lisa Marie's disfigured corpse, the film becomes downright beautiful and somewhat magical in effect.
I like this film most when it least makes sense - when it takes it's concept and runs with it right past the absurdities. particularly at the climax. The film does employ some good storytelling to keep you guessing initially, then for a while we know enough that things could get very silly and boring... Fortunately, at that point, the movie begins fearlessly piling it on (including some outrageously fictionalized voodoo stuff that would probably have Zora Neale Hurston turning in her grave). Farentino's well-regulated reactions go a long way toward helping us accept plot points that don't even pretend not to be nonsense - but the film makers also deserve credit for putting the really outrageous stuff right out front in that final act, knowing that if they barrel through it without even blinking they will drag us along with them. The proof is in the fact that the movie has it's most affecting and emotionally resonant moments AFTER the plot has gone full-on wocka wocka.
It's somewhat in the rough, but 'Dead & Buried' is still a unique little gem.
A Look Back At A Piece Of Early 80's Horror Y'know, it always surprises me when a Horror fan of "my" age still stumbles across a film from the 80's I haven't seen yet, and this time it was Dead & Buried.
This film, sort of a cross between Salem's Lot, The Stepford Wives, and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, was a decent way of going back to see how Horror was handled in the early 80's (though honestly, it reminded me more of a late 70's flix). Almost every character actor starting out is in this flix, including Robert Englund in his third big screen role.
Stan Winston's effects are used here and while they're nowhere near the quality of what he did in "The Thing" a year later, you can see that this guy was going to be one of the FX giants. Not that this is a gorefest, it ain't, but the effects are modest and help the story continue. This story, about a mortician who is able to bring the recently departed back to life and integrate them as residents of Potter's Bluff, was somewhat original for it's time. And the ending must have been a grandaddy to shocker conclusions like for The Sixth Sense and others.
I enjoyed it, made me think back to what Horror was like back in the day. The bonus disc has three documentaries that are just as entertaining as the movie, especially the Robert Englund one, where he talks about his career up to that point and seems to reflect back on this movie quite fondly (he showed up to talk about it, didn't he?). Anyway, if you like the pacing of some of those older 70's/80's American Horror films, this should be for you.
SAY CHEESE! WOW! What a great birthday present I bought myself. It was my B-Day yesterday and I wanted to (trick or)treat myself to the best gift I could think of...A HORROR MOVIE! But what to buy??? I do see they have the ULITIMATE EDIT. of EVIL DEAD and now they release a two disc. of HELLRAISER. But I own both those classics on single disc. I want something new and GREAT I had not seen in HORROR! Well as I scanned the D-Section in HORROR my finger hit DEAD & BURIED! hmmmmmm. I remember seeing this on SHOWTIME a loooong time ago and really not liking it. I felt I should give it another shot (I LOVE TYPING THAT...ANOTHER SHOT,OH! SORRY)anyway to give it another try so on a whim I bought it. First off the music in this is great!!!! HUGE plus in Clint's book also the directing and acting are great. It starts off with a man taking pic. of the beach when a woman appears out of nowhere and heavily flirts with him. All the sudden while he gets ready to kiss her a group of people come and beat the man to a pulp. They then throw over him a fishing net and light him on fire all the while there taking pic.of him. This really sucks you in the first 5 min. of the movie for some of the towns people who are participating in this murder have the faces you'd trust watching your children. later in the movie the man they murdered turns up A O.K.??? Is he a GHOST is it WITCHCRAFT is he a ZOMBIE WHAT??? I am not telling for you really need to watch this movie. All I can say is what a B-Day treat to not only watch a HORROR movie I had not seen but one that is great! I proudly have DEAD AND BURIED in my 1981 coll. with THE BEYOND-THE BURNING PROWLER-ANTHROPOPAGUS-THE LIVING DEAD GIRL and TENEBRAE Buy this movie for it is BURY good(sic)
Be Warned!!! The movie is great and I find it enjoyable for its effects. My complaint and warning are not to remove the security sticker on top of the case. The reason being the case is lined with a sort of foil and comes off easy when removing the sticker. Luckily the front of my case is fine but I'm now missing a bit of the DEAD & BURIED title on the back as well as colour from the top.
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