Sadly Over-hyped

Perfect cast and a good story

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Potter's Bluff is one of those perfectly gorgeous New England coastal towns. You know, the kind where visitors are beaten, tied to a post and set on fire while people take photos of them. And then, when they survive, nurses stab them right in the eyeball with a syringe.Dead and Buried was written by the Alien team of Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett and featured Stan Winston special effects, so the poster was justified in shouting, "From the people who brought you Alien..." Unfortunately, those people do not include Ridley Scott, as we have Gary Sherman directing this (he also helmed Poltergeist III). That said, O'Bannon disowned the film, claiming that Shusett had actually written it by himself but needed O'Bannon's name on the project to get it made. He never made any of O'Bannon's suggestions before it was produced.Sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino, The Final Countdown) is our hero and he is working with Dobbs (Jack Albertson, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and TV's Chico and the Man), the town's coroner/mortician to solve the murders that have gripped their small town. And with each one, a photo of the murder is found.As Gillis rushes to a suspected attack, he accidentally hits a man, whose arm is stuck in the grill of his car. The man attacks the sheriff, then takes his arm and runs away. Further research shows that a tissue sample of the man shows that he has already been dead for four months.The sheriff begins to suspect everyone, including Dobbs, who he learns was fired from his last job for conducting unauthorized autopsies, and his wife Janet (Melody Anderson, Flash Gordon), who has begun to teach witchcraft to her students.It turns out that Dobbs has learned how to reanimate the dead and that nearly everyone in town - I'm looking at you, Robert Englund - are under his control. He considers himself an artist who improves the lives of the dead after he controls them. Just then, the sheriff notices that his hands are rotting and Dobbs offers to repair him. That's because he's been dead all along, as his zombie wife had killed him during sex, a scene he watches as its projected on the wall.Dead & Buried has a great trailer that it lives up to. While it feels very Carpenter-esque, it lacks the style and verve of his films. That said, there are some interesting touches, such as the director avoiding the color red throughout the film so that the murders would be more shocking.If you can find a copy, I'd certainly recommend this movie. I'd been wanting to see it for years and while it's not the best horror film of the 80's, it's something different that isn't so well known.

Oh my God, this was so nearly a perfect horror film... So what went wrong?This starts off brilliantly with the titles which give the audience the feel of a classy and elegant movie. This is a bold move for a horror but the director, Gary Sherman knew exactly what he was doing. Sherman continues this ambiance into the opening scene of a photographer snapping piccies of driftwood and fishing tackle. He is joined on the beach by the beautiful Lisa (played by Lisa Blount) and after a few flirtations she removes her blouse and asks if she could be a model. As the photographer closes in for a romantic clinch...This is when all hell breaks loose... I cannot say anything else otherwise "Spoilers" - and we don't like them do we.The opening sequence does a fantastic job of drawing in the viewer in and making them wonder just what the hell is going on in the little seaside village of Potter's Bluff. It's up to Sheriff Dan Gillis (strongly portrayed by James Farentino) to solve the murders and the mysteries behind them. Coroner William G Dobbs (splendidly played by Jack Albertson) is helping him with his investigations. These are the main two characters in the movie and are well crafted with their own personal attributes and qualities making them likable and relatable.The writers, Jeff Millar, Alex Stern, who wrote the story based on a Chelsea Quinn Yarbro novel, and screenwriters Ronald Shusett and the skillful Dan O'Bannon, give the Zombie mythos a new spin. Along with special effects wizard Stan Winston they all create a tangible tension and eeriness that adds to the power and atmosphere of the movie.Then the reveal comes... ...and everything falls apart.Suddenly the strong personality of Sheriff Gillis becomes that of a screaming and wailing weak-willed person; the off-beat Dodds becomes comically insane; Gillis' wife Janet (played by Melody Anderson) falls apart mentally; and the story ends with a whimper rather than a scream. This ending makes a brilliant movie a mess and a shambles.However, it's still worth watching for the earlier part of the film and not the last ten minutes. I now want to find a copy of the novel to read to see if this ending is also the book's finale... it may work better in words and in imagination than it does on film.

Surely in 1981 this was a quite original concept and I think it's still interesting and different than the living dead movies we see today. Still despite this the movie was for me a drag to sit through. Sure we have this mystery of why people get killed in such a violent way and how comes they suddenly show up again in exactly the same or even better state. Well the answer is somewhere before halfway that there is some kind of witchcraft involved that violent deaths can bring people back to life. Way too soon I knew though that the sheriff's wife was one of those living dead and it came as no surprise to me in the end that the protagonist himself apparently had forgotten he was one too. Of course if he knew that in advance there would be not much of a movie or story to tell. Can I really blame the movie for being predictable that way? I think it is because I have seen it already quite a few times before. However the movie didn't provide me with really interesting characters either except for the mortician. The others including the sheriff as protagonist were dull as dishwater to me.

I liked watching Jack Albertson in this film. Although he's mostly known for "Chico and the Man" and for playing Charlie's grandpa in "Willy Wonka", here he plays a VERY different sort of guy. How different? He's a demented maniac who kills and re-animates people!! Now that's playing against type! The film is told from the point of view of the sheriff in a small town (James Farentino). There is a murder--and that's very unusual. However, when another murder soon occurs--and ALSO involving people from out of town--he starts to wonder if some conspiracy is afoot. Weird? Yes--but not nearly as weird as when he gets word that one of the victims' bodies is gone! And, weirder yet--the person is seen ALIVE later!! Obviously bad things are happening here! The film is like combining "The Stepford Wives", "Phantasm" and perhaps even a bit of "Rosemary's Baby"! It's wild and exciting and is filled with WONDERFUL twists. In fact, the ending is one of the best endings I've ever seen in a horror flick. This is an exceptionally eerie and well written film...so why is its current rating only 6.5?! Don't believe the low score--this is a brilliantly spooky film. A must-see!