31 Days of Horror Film Review: Buried Alive


When Buried Alive arrived for me to review I thought I remembered this one it’s the Edgar Allen Poe story right? The short answer is no. it may use the name of a Poe story and it may use his common themes but in the end this is not the Buried Alive that he wrote.

Clint Goodman is a normal man, he built his house for his wife and he thinks they are happy and their life is perfect. The only problem is Joanna his wife is having an affair with their doctor. The doctor and the wife are greedy and decide they need to get rid of Clint, and how will they do this? Poison him and give him a cheap funeral so they can get the insurance money from his death. This would be the perfect crime if they didn’t mess it up and he woke up in his coffin. Breaking out and forcing his way out of the grave Clint is out for revenge, taking the doctor and the wife prisoner he decides to enact a diabolical revenge on the people who assumed he was dead and gone.

This movie surprised me in ways as it turned out not to be your typical silly horror films that leaves questions for the watcher. For example how can a person be buried alive when they go through the embalming process? Simple answer is doing put the body through it. The movie argues that the funeral package is that cheap they don’t even bother processing the body just get it ready to be put in the coffin and stuff into the ground. Now this may not be realistic in this day and age but for a movie of this type it gets rid of one of the problems of being buried alive. There are silly elements such as Clint rebuilding the interior of his house so that he can confuse his two captives as I’m sure this would take more time than he gave to this task. For the story though it does work and makes for an interesting second half of the movie as it keeps the story progressing and gives the feeling that Clint not only wants to torture the people who tried to kill him but totally disorientate them in an environment they were used to.

The acting in this movie was good enough for this movie. It’s full of actors who give a good portrayal of believable characters and none of them were so outlandish as to not fit in the world created. It is the very fact that the characters are the “normal” everyday schemers and selfish people that make the story work. Of course there are the good people too and these are easily identified such as Hoy Axton’s portrayal as the Sheriff Sam Eberly. His actions in the movie are done out of his moral belief of doing right, even if they are legally wrong. He is probably one of the few characters other than Clint that see through the original scheme that led to original murder attempt. The three main actors in the movie Tim Matheson, Jennifer Jason Leigh and William Atherton all play their roles that drag you into their fight for both survival and vengeance. Making the movie work is on their shoulders and they managed it.

Buried Alive is a fun movie that is worth a watch just for the fact that it finally has a DVD release. It’s a movie of its time (just look at the fashions) but also one that does not date. Greed will always be a theme that can be used and from the actions of that greed revenge can always be the result. It is an age old story of murder and betrayal that with an added twist leads to a story of revenge and murders that this time are more successful. The outcome is satisfying and fitting for such a macabre tale and it’s always good to go back through the horror backlist to find hidden (but flawed) gems like this one.

Buried Alive is released on DVD 17th October 2011

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