Dead and Buried
(Anchor Bay U.K. Region 0 PAL DVD)
(1981)
review by Blackgloves

Life should be easy for Dan Gillis (James Farentino) -- sheriff of the small coastal village of Potters Bluff, Rhode Island. In a town "the size of a postage stamp," crime shouldn't really be an issue, even for a lone representative of law enforcement. Such is the case until visitors to the region start turning up dead! Gangs of locals are congregating at night and, for no apparent reason, murdering innocent strangers -- who then reappear again as locals themselves! As the hapless sheriff begins investigating the baffling mystery, he starts to uncover what appears to be a local voodoo cult dedicated to reanimating the dead! But the full truth turns out to be more bizarre than he ever could have imagined!

On paper "Dead & Buried" should have been a massive hit. Directed by Gary A. Sherman -- an up-and-coming talent who had recently helmed the British cult classic "Death Line" ("Raw Meat" in the US) -- and produced & developed by Ronald Shusett and Dan O' Bannon, the writing team behind "Alien" (1979); the film was actually released to massive indifference in 1981, but has since garnered quite a considerable reputation among horror fans for it's weird, Twilight Zone-style story and offbeat atmosphere. it also has several unforgettable sequences that anybody who has ever seen the film will always remember! Now this cult classic is about to be exhumed and is set for a new lease of life in the UK with the release of a 2-disc special edition from Anchor Bay UK.

A quality cast was assembled for the film - and it really helps to bring some sense of believability to the outrageous material. James Farentino has had a steady career in film and television over the last twenty-five years and went on to star in Dynasty soon after appearing in this film. Here, he gives a sympathetic performance as the confused Sheriff who finds the small-town idyll unravelling around him. Melody Anderson was expected to be a massive star around the time "Dead & Buried" was made, since she had just completed work on "Flash Gordon". Unfortunately, that film unexpectedly bombed and "Dead & Buried" wasn't an immediate success either. Her career never really took off, but she is impressive in the ambiguous role of sheriff Gillis' wife: an apparently unassuming schoolteacher who may, or may not, be involved in the town's shady goings-on. Robert Englund stars in a small but noticeable role as a car-mechanic who gets turned into a zombie; and Lisa Blount appears in perhaps the film's most memorable scene involving some extreme eye violence! Perhaps the best character in the film is played by veteran Jack Albertson in his last screen role. He plays the eccentric mortician William Dobbs who constantly plays big band music while performing his "art". Albertson's scenes retain the jet-black comedy which Sherman originally intended for the film and add considerably to the film's unique atmosphere.

Sherman brings the same attention to detail to the project that marked out "Death Line" from other low-budget British horror films of the time: ingenious camera moves and tracking shots are used to keep the viewer on edge, and the unique de-saturated look of the film -- devised with cinematographer Steve Poster - brings the fogy, damp coastal town of Potters Bluff to life. The big "star" of the show though must be EFX wizard Stan Winston, who does some amazing work for the film that makes incredible use of puppetry techniques (all before the days of animatronics) to produce some of the most realistic effects you could ever hope to see.

Anchor Bay UK's new two-disc set presents a nice-looking restored print of the film with a widescreen (1.85:1) transfer enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs. Audio options include a stereo 2.0 track and optional 5.1 DTS track. Subtitles for the hard of hearing are also included.

We get three commentaries on disc one which, between them, cover just about every piece of information you could ever imagine about the production. Gary Sherman and Steve Poster provide one commentary each; and writer and producer Ronald Shusett and his actress wife (who appears in the film) also provide their thoughts on the film.

Disc two provides us with three featurettes: Stan Winston's Dead & Buried EFX, in which the man gives us an overview of his career before explaining how he managed to achieve the fantastic effects on "Dead & Buried". The second featurette is an interview with Robert Englund who reminisces about one of his first films. The final one features co-writer Dan O' Bannon on the horror genre and his involvement with "Dead & Buried".

The two-disc set comes packaged in a handsome slipcase featuring the original poster art for the film.

This is an excellent cult classic, most definetely worthy of rediscovery by today's horror fan; AB UK have done a supurb job in bringing the film to DVD completely uncut. Recommended!