Dead & Buried (1981) Reviews

• What R rated horror SHOULD Be

  missmonochrome2006-02-05

  "Dead & Buried" is a classic horror "small town with a secret" film, this time concerning a tiny little seaside town called Potter's Bluff. The formerly peaceful community has suddenly been plagued by a series of grisly murders for the town sheriff Dan (James Farentino) to investigate. Creepier still, the murder victims reappear as walking, talking, friendly townsfolk. And what does the eccentric town mortician (Jack Albertson) have to do with it? This rarely talked about flick, above all else, is a masterpiece of atmosphere...moodily lit, foggy, with a genuine sense of claustrophobia as the horrors seem to be closing in closer and closer to Dan's own home and family, especially the strange new habits his wife (Melody Anderson) has taken up lately. All of the actors are solid enough, but Jack Albertson steals the show as the eccentric, big band loving Mortician Dobbs. In one of his final performances, he delivers a character whose unsettling realism and reverence for the dead will make you completely forget his also classic turn as the kindly grandpa in "Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory". Rather than just play this character, he inhabits his psyche and becomes Dobbs, and it shows. Everything from the low key bits of airy score music to the often slow and dreamlike pacing of the plot, is dedicated to heightening the viewer sense of disconnection and dread, leading up to a well known sort of "twist" climax, which in this context doesn't seem hackneyed. My only real problem with this film is that the pacing can sometimes seem jarring, with little connection to scenes preceding it, almost to the point of breaking the well crafted mood. Also, the climax was a bit too abrupt and a few more seconds of that final anguished scene would've done a lot to increase the film's overall impact. I'd still highly recommend "Dead & Buried", as a solid reminder of what imaginative and well made R rated horror used to be, before the parade of dull remakes and tamed to PG-13 bore fests that now clutter the genre.

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• Great sleeper horror; a real find.

  james_trevelyan2005-08-10

  This is a real sleeper, although the presence of screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's ('Alien') name in the credits automatically assures us we are in for a treat. And this is most certainly the case; 'Dead and Buried' is a real class act. James Farentino is excellent as the bewildered sheriff of the small American fishing community of Potter's Bluff. And the opening scene, in which an unsuspecting photographer is burned alive in broad daylight, still shocks more than twenty years after the film's release. To reveal too much of the plot would be to spoil the surprise; suffice it to say that it involves a series of bizarre and brutal murders investigated by Farentino's character. Stan Winston provides some great special makeup effects; witness the particularly gruesome sequence in which a man is embalmed... while still alive! Also, Lisa Blount appears as the seductive young lady on the beach in the opening scene (she can be seen in 'John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness'), and watch out for a fledgling Robert Englund before he rose to international stardom as serial killer Freddy Krueger in the 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' franchise. 'Dead and Buried''s final twist is really kick-ass and wonderfully macabre, and it wraps up a creepy, atmospheric outing. Definitely worth a look.

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• Terror story about a sleepy coastal town that involves a series of grisly killings and bizarre events

  ma-cortes2011-07-26

  Horror story full of tension, thrills , chills and restless terror. The writers of alien, Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon , bring a new bizarre terror to earth . Suspense/horror film set in a small coastal town in Rhode Island where, after a series of gory murders committed by mobs of townspeople against visiting tourists, the corpses begin to come back to life . Bouts of insanity in the populace , realising a plague of murderous madness that are leading several grisly killings . In the little town some people begins to kill and rioting, and things really start going to hell with this sudden death-wave . The strange events drive its victims mad before killing them, with a difficult line between normal hysteria and actual insanity . Meanwhile the sheriff Gillis ( James Farentino married to Melody Anderson ) is investigating the weird deeds , but has no tracks to what's going on. Fortunately, the coastal small New England town has a magnificent mortician named William G. Dobbs (Jack Albertson) , who is glad to take care of these deaths which is good for his business . The puzzling seems to be resolved at the creepy final packed with twists and turns . This one is of the highest earning horror movies of the 80s and contains a good cast as James Farentino , Melody Anderson and special mention to Jack Albertson as the mysterious undertaker . Furthermore , early apparition of the future terror icon as Robert Englund and film debut for Lisa Blount . It's a solid movie , a terror story plenty of suspense and intrigue in which the victims seem to be coming back to life. Film itself takes place from point of sight the sheriff and the mortician . The living dead appearance is the high point of the movie , they deliver the goods plenty of screams, shocks and tension . The horror moments are compactly made and fast moving . It packs tension, shocks, thrills, chills and lots of gore and blood . There's plenty of moments of gore and a number of scenes that are quite horrifying , resulting to be definitely the spotlight of the film the surprising ending . This gory chiller is well made by Gary A. Sherman . Gary is an expert on action genre as proved in ¨Wanted : dead or alive¨ , ¨Vice squad¨ and terror as ¨Death line¨ , ¨Poltergeister III¨ , and ¨Dead and buried¨ , this one is his best film . Rating : 6,5 , good horror movie .

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• Welcome to Potter's Bluff

  BaronBl00d2001-06-25

  Neat seldom talked about horror film made by Gary Sherman, the man who brought us Deathline, Vice Squad, and Poltergeist III. Like most of Sherman's films, Dead & Buried is laced with a rather large dose of gore. One man is beaten and burned(later to survive and get needled in the worst possible way), another is beaten and marred with fishing hooks, another hacked to death, another with acid, and you get the general picture...and you get all the details as Sherman is not shy showing us these things with the camera lens either. The story centers on these deaths and their investigation by sheriff James Farentino. Farentino soon realizes that few if any can be trusted in the not-so-quaint New England town of Potter's Bluff, and that the cause of the deaths and the mystery soon fall on town mortician Jack Albertson. The film looses some credibility with the ambiguous nature of the script but is enhanced by the atmospheric direction of Sherman and the quality performances by the cast as a whole. There are definite frightening moments in the film that will make you jump in your seat. Farentino is good in his role and Melody Anderson is adequate(certainly attractive) in her role as his wife. The supporting cast with Barry Corbin, Robert Englund, and a host of familiar faces do very nicely, but the real star is Jack Albertson in one of his last roles. Albertson gives a fine performance and is suitably creepy. His entrance down a hillside in the coroner's car while playing big band music was a scenic highlight for me. A good...not great..film that is good for some honest scares.

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• Moody, magical horror

  fertilecelluloid2004-01-09

  Gary Sherman's horror masterpiece begins with one of cinema's best beatings (and burnings) of a fellow human being. The scene takes place on a beach in Potter's Bluff (Mendocino, No. Cal) and is a hypnotic, brutal, black shock to the system. The beating is filmed by a mild-mannered pipe-smoking old man, a waitress, a mechanic and many other affable citizens of the area. It sets the scene for much grotesquery to come. DEATH LINE (aka RAW MEAT) demonstrated that Sherman had the goods. DEAD AND BURIED cements him into the brickwork of the horror hall of fame. Future Freddy Kruger (Robert Englund) makes an appearance, as does sexy Lisa Blount from AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. But the film's real star is the (now dead and buried himself) Jack Albertson as the coroner of Potter's Bluff. Albertson's is an eccentric, layered, career-best performance. The tone is dream-like and ethereal. Even interiors are filled with mist. A foghorn is heard constantly. Nobody is who they seem. A stand-out is a Super-8 home video shot by some students. Its climax provides a not unexpected revelation and the film itself perfectly embodies the horror of corruption which director Sherman is pushing. The film did zero theatrical business because it's too damn weird for most audiences, and too damn good. But it has developed a cult on video. Exceptional.

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