Dead & Buried

Dead & Buried (1981)

Runtime: 94 minutes

Directed by: Gary Sherman

Starring: James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Redfield, Robert Englund

From: Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance

I believe that Dead & Buried, The Fog, and Halloween III: Season of the Witch are in the same cinematic universe.

In a “Vintage Blair” move, I've had this movie on Blu-ray (from Blue Underground; more on that later) for a few years and was going to finally view it last fall-before things went awry there-but it wasn't until last night that it was finally seen by me. It was positive buzz that made me go with a rare blind buy, and it is not a decision I regret. 

The plot isn't too complicated and in fact multiple plot descriptions I've seen online and on the back of the Blu reveal that not only are creepy things happening in the small town of Potters Bluff (“no bigger than a postage stamp”) and people are being murdered, but they are soon then coming back to life, so I'll also do so. Sheriff Dan Gillis-played by James Farentino-is the only one trying to investigate these bizarre matters. What follows includes big band music & photography.

I compare this to The Fog (no, not the atrocious remake... the original) and Halloween III not just for them all shooting in Northern California and the physical locations all being nice, bucolic locations... it is the general vibe of all three that are similar; Dead & Buried even has foggy night scenes, making the comparisons more obvious. A nice collection of talent came together to make this: Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon (allegedly, it was mainly Shusett) wrote the script, the great Stan Winston did the effects except for the one that noticeably doesn't look great, and the cast is full of “that guy” faces... Lisa Blount, Barry Corbin, Michael Pataki, Bill Quinn, and Glenn Morshower. But of course it was great seeing Robert Englund in a small role, although the best performance was not from Farentino, at times way over the top. Rather, it was Jack Albertson, who was ill with cancer at the time and would pass away soon after this was released. Him as the sardonic mortician is leagues away from being Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka, which I imagine most will best remember him as despite his success on Broadway or being on the TV show Chico & The Man.

To be frank, this is not the sort of story you want to scrutinize too closely, especially once the details are revealed. Rather, just enjoy this methodically-paced creepy chiller for what it is... a bizarre mystery which has sudden bursts of weird, gruesome moments among a story that is otherwise languid. Believe it or not, I've seen mentioned in some reviews online that this was originally made as a black comedy (!) but the distributors didn't want that so much of that was cut out and we got something that had more gore instead w/ some gallows humor mixed in. Winston definitely did not do the one bad effect involving someone's head that OBVIOUSLY was a wax model... perhaps by sheer luck, Dead & Buried ended up as a weird little mystery picture you'd halfway expect to see on The Twilight Zone.


As for the Blu I have, the picture & sound were nice and I did see the special features involving Winston & Englund; it would have been nice if the disc did not stop twice (including during the climax; this was a problem on both Blu players I have) and I had to skip ahead approximately 30 seconds each time... still, it was a minor issue.