Dead and Buried

DEAD & BURIED. 1981

Director: Gary Sherman

Reviewed by Paghat the Ratgirl



Dead and Buried Zombie movies are usually so awful that this one looks good by comparison. The sound track is above average; the cinematography is above average; the make-up FX are more than adequate.

The script pretends in the credits to be co-written by Dan O'Bannon, but he put his name on the script as a favor to help get the film made at all; he did not write any of it.

The script is pretty awful despite a lot of pretentions & a few good moments. If typical product from, say, Troma or any number of microbudget cheezers were the comparison, only then is this script great even in spite of plot holes the size of mac trucks.

I never for a minute believed zombies can see with their eyes replaced by glass ones. The whole reanimation process was so phony it didn't even try to come up with any explanation beyond "I will take the secret to my grave."

Dead and BuriedAs for the acting, get me a clothespin, everyone stank except the Mad Mortician (Joseph G. Medalis) whose performance is worthy of such hammy greats as Vincent Price.

And yet the last twenty minutes of the film are just super with the burial of the wife & the scenes with the mortician.

Until the climax, though, some of the allegedly "best" bits earlier in the film, like the upside-down head-puppet that screams, were so laughable that I was sorely tempted to stop watching the dumb thing altogether. Ultimately I was glad I toughed it out so I could see that Mad Mortician do his wild stuff.

Continue to more zombies:
Feeding the Masses (2004), The Wickeds (2005)
and Zombie Night (2003)

copyright © by Paghat the Ratgirl



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