Dead & Buried [Blu-ray]

Director: Gary Sherman Gary Sherman

Overview

Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, the screenwriters behind the highly successful Alien, turned their attention to earthbound terrors with this creepy horror tale. Dead and Buried focuses on Dan Gillis (James Farentino), a man who has recently returned to his hometown of Potter's Bluff to be its sheriff. His job becomes difficult when a series of strangers who visit Potter's Bluff begin dying in violent and mysterious ways. To make matters worse, his wife, Janet (Melody Anderson), has begun to act strangely, taking an odd interest in voodoo and acting like she might be having an affair. As the murder victims pile up, Gillis discovers that all his troubles have an occult origin that has to do with the town's elderly mortician, Dobbs (Jack Albertson, in his final feature film role). Gillis gets to the bottom of the mystery, only to discover that the truth is much worse than he imagined. Despite effective direction and solid acting, Dead and Buried got lost in the shuffle of the early '80s horror boom and failed to click with the movie-going public. However, it later gained an audience via home video and cable and remains a minor cult favorite today thanks to its singular blend of creepy atmosphere and gruesome shocks. ~ Donald Guarisco

Product Details

Release Date:	02/22/2022
UPC:	0827058708494
Original Release:	1981
Source:	Blue Underground
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	19,936

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Farentino	Sheriff Dan Gillis
Melody Anderson	Janet Gillis
Jack Albertson	William G. Dobbs
Dennis Redfield	Ron
Nancy Locke Hauser	Linda
Lisa Blount	Girl on Beach
Robert Englund	Harry
Bill Quinn	Ernie
Michael Currie	Herman
Christopher Allport	George/Freddie
Joe Medalis	Doctor
Macon McCalman	Ben
Lisa Marie	Hitchhiker
Estelle Omens	Betty
Barry Corbin	Phil
Linda Turley	Waitress
Ed Bakey	Fisherman
Glenn Morshower	Jimmy
Robert Boler	Haskell
Michael Pataki	Sam
Jill Fosse	Nurse
Mark Courtney	Jamie,Jamie
Renee McDonnell	Girl No. 1
Dottie Catching	Lady Car Passenger
Colby Smith	Female Stranger
Judy Ashton	Joyce
Bill Couch	Townsperson
Bill Couch Jr.	Townsperson
Tony Cecere	Townsperson
Angelo DeMeo	Townsperson
Nancy Locke	Linda
Joe Renzetti	Composer

Technical Credits

Ronald Shusett

Dan O'Bannon

Robert Fentress	Producer
Gary Sherman	Director
Ronald Shusett	Producer,Screenwriter
Richard R. St. Johns	Executive Producer,Producer
Stan Winston	Special Effects
John Hyde	Executive Producer
Dan O'Bannon	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

This horror oddity, an attempt to update Twilight Zone-styled spookiness with a splash of early '80s gore, doesn't fully achieve this aim, but remains worth a look for hardcore horror buffs. The best element of Dead and Buried is the intelligent script by Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett. They populate their bizarre story with intelligent, believable characters and dole out the clues to the film's central mystery in a way guaranteed to keep the audience offguard. The film also benefits from slick direction by Gary Sherman, who crafts the film's shocks with bone-chilling verve. Highlights include the thoroughly unsettling prologue and a suspenseful nocturnal chase scene where a lost family stumbles into a seemingly deserted house that turns out to be full of killers. Unfortunately, lead actor James Farentino gives an uneven performance, going overboard on his character's hysteria near the end in way that reduces his character to a cartoon. However, Jack Albertson steals the show as the morbid but witty Dobbs, clearly relishing the chance to cut loose on such a bizarre role, and the support cast is full of familiar character actor faces like Barry Corbin and a pre-Nightmare on Elm Street Robert Englund. In the end, it's easy to see why Dead and Buried never found a big audience. It is too plot-heavy for those viewers in search of a shock machine, yet too visceral for the viewers who appreciate subtle horror. Despite this problem, Dead and Buried contains enough solid shocks and offbeat moments to make it worth a viewing for fans of creepy cult movies.

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