| shadyJ |
03-10-2014 10:32 PM |
Dead and Buried
I watched Dead and Buried tonight, a ridiculous horror film from 1981. The plot is people are being brutally murdered in a northeastern coastal town, and the crimes are being perpetrated by the town's residents. Not everyone is in on it, and the town sheriff is on the case. From what I have read, the movie was originally going to be a black comedy, which would have suited this material a whole lot more, but instead the producers changed it to be played straight, and what's more they wanted more gore, so they added some extra kills after initial filming. I could see this movie working as a black comedy, but it's much too silly for straight horror, so ultimately this movie did not work for me. The kills were way too over-the-top for a serious movie, for starters. There are many lapses in logic which would have been fine for a comedy but stretches the notion of 'suspension of disbelief' well past the breaking point for something striving for plausible. The twist ending would have made for a great comedy gag, but here is just unintentionally hilarious.
The movie isn't completely without merit though, there were some good make-up effects, courtesy of Tom Savini. Like I said above, there are a couple of laughs in it, albeit unintentional. Also a brief but welcome topless scene featuring a hot blond. A minor but early horror role for Robert Englund. However, all told, there just isn't enough to make this movie worth an hour and a half, given all the much better movies out there. Dead and Buried isn't terrible, there are plenty of much worse movies, but it just isn't very good, in my opinion. This is another case of the movie poster being much cooler than the movie. |
