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Dir. Gary A. Sherman
Returning to the Video Nasties
well again for a review, there is a big question to ask myself since I've seen
a lot of them by now: how many of them are any good? Common perception is that
many are terrible. The highest tier, The
Evil Dead (1981) to Dario Argento's
inclusions, are seen as great films. Lucio
Fulci's entries are held in high regard as well as Cannibal Holocaust (1980) and a few other works. Most of the films
are seen as rubbish. Personally, barring one or two, the quality of the films
are far and away better than their reputation are. This is bearing in
mind that some of them are technically terrible, but even a film like Mardi Gras Massacre (1978) is amusing
and memorable, always having something of worth in hindsight to like. For
example, I can include a film I reviewed on my old blog, Frozen Scream (1975), which I originally hated but in the year or
more from viewing it has retained a mad quality in its failures in my memory.
(Only a film like Forest of Fear (1980),
for anyone interested, is unable to be entertaining even in this context for me).
The second and third tier films of quality, in the middle, are for debate
depending on your individual tastes, the hidden gems that shine out for each
person. The Witch Who Came From The Sea
(1976) is one of the best of the Video Nasties for me, but it would also be
a hidden gem for others. Dead &
Buried is another example. In a small quaint costal town, Potter's Bluff,
where everyone knows everyone and everyone is seemingly happy, strangers to the
town are starting to be killed, becoming obvious to the viewer than to Sheriff
Dan Gillis (James Farentino) that
something is amiss, the later investigating the murders but with the foreboding
sense of sinister machinations hidden in the community. |
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Dead & Buried becomes the equivalent of a horror comic or a
short story which builds and builds up to a ghoulish plot twist for the finale.
It is established before the protagonist is introduced that something very
wrong is taking place in Potter's Bluff, but it is added upon with a greater,
macabre addition and details befitting a comic book like narrative. Logically,
a lot of the narrative itself, as Gillis juggles suspicions of his wife (Melody Anderson), the odd behaviour of
resident mortician William G. Dobbs (Jack
Albertson) and the murders themselves, makes no realistic sense especially
as new information is made available and when it gets to its final plot twist. What
it becomes instead is a film that firmly sits itself in the dreamlike, though
its kept in the tone of a Tales from The
Crypt narrative, little touches for most of its length that push it towards
this unexpected combination of moods. Out of most of the nasties, this is one
of them that has the visibly higher production values, one of the closest to
being a 'mainstream' film. Interestingly I've encountered the director Gary A. Sherman before with Raw Meat (aka. Death Line) (1972), and
while I wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of his debut, the transition almost
ten years later to this, his second, does show someone with a considerable
skill in creating solid, atmospheric horror cinema. Dan O'Bannon is in the credits as one of the scriptwriters, someone
of considerable legacy, though the other man credited Ronald Shusett has as much of an interesting pedigree, writing for
both Alien (1979) and Total Recall (1990). The film itself in
terms of its story feels like it's been influenced
by pulpy genre mediums like sci-fi and horror comics that come from the decades
long before rather than the slasher films and b-movies of the early eighties or
the exploitation cinema of the seventies. With a serene jazz and classical
theme by Joe Renzetti, Dead & Buried has an elegance to
the work, set in a tiny, close-knit town that drastically contrasts the
gruesome (and noticeably latex effect heavy) deaths that take place, far more
inclined to a lyrical, moody horror film from another generation than this
period. The one thing, already mentioned, that puts it into the eighties is the
death scenes and acts of violence, that were more than likely why it was on the
Nasties list; even today thirty years later, a man being set on fire for the
opening sequence is still vicious for a modern viewer to see and does become a
message, despite feeling like a fifties or sixties horror movie in tone, that it's
still not appropriate family viewing as a horror film.
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The luridness contrasts against
the grace as the narrative quickly elevates into the fantastical for the story,
the supernatural quickly introduced and adding to the comic-like nature of the
narrative. Sufferance to say it involves human hearts and occultism, and I
won't reveal any more barring that an already creepy premise, as presences
gather around unsuspecting victims, grows more so with the gristly suggestions
of what has taken place in Potter's Bluff before what we see in the film. It's
advantage as a film is that, as much as I enjoyed say, Mardi Gras Massacre or Don't
Go Into The Woods...Alone! (1981), Dead
& Buried's technical advantages, in terms of being a Video Nasty, give it an immense advantage that it
thankfully uses to full effect. A melancholic tone to the proceedings added by
many scenes that are inherently eerie, especially when it comes to scenes set
at night, one of which involves an abandoned house with an innocence group of
people who, in context to what has happened to others previously in the plot,
you instantly feel tension upon viewing as you do not want them to befall the
same way others have. Were it not for the gristly death scenes, this would be
something like I Bury The Living (1958)
in style, but having the deaths, including one nasty instance with a rock,
another with acid, all with added creepiness in that cameras are involved, firmly
pushes it into being much more macabre. There is a slow, lingering pace to the
film that, despite how ridiculous the content is when thought about, packages
it together with a cohesive elegance mixed with these shocking moments. That
the film is set in a quiet American town with a small population, including Robert Englund in a small role, where
almost everyone knows each other, must tap into a fear for at least American
viewers of the isolation that could take place in what should be an idyllic
place to live, where Sherriff Gillis is completely at a loss of each discovery
he finds and even his wife's behaviour, despite being the kind hearted, loving
wife who is a school teacher, is up to question when the paranoia and stranger
sights ramp up. It has a quality to its creation that makes it possible to take
it serious in vast contrast to many a Video Nasty that one would merely find
hilarious. In particularly for actor James
Farentino, he has to bear the brunt of a plot around his character that
spirals out of control into more gruesome, strange and twist heavy content. The
film in general managed to balance itself out into the subdued and the content
that takes place, able to take you into the reality being depicted as well as
be cartoonish in premise. It's great virtue is that, while its the finale that
knocked me for six, when it becomes its most outlandish, that film before it
has plenty of moments just as memorable and good.
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Abstract Rating
(High/Medium/Low/None): None
No, it doesn't qualify for the
Abstract list for the simple reason is that it's not abstract enough. While it
does get ridiculous as it goes along, it's more of a pulpy spine tingling tale
than something from an odder state of mind.
A Cinema of the Abstract movie?
Not necessarily, though it
qualifies as the kind of film I am always to happy to discover - an underseen
or underrated film, here particularly from the Video Nasties list, that is both
a good film and also leaves a lasting effect for me. I like films that this,
with no potential for sequels, very individual and different from a lot of
films, which balance in a dicey position of being good and ludicrous and
succeed in the end in their sprawling, unconventional tones. What Dead & Buried doesn't do in terms
of being "abstract" it makes up for by being a good cult film and
catching me by surprise in its quality.
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| From http://deeperintomovies.net/journal/image09/deadburied2.jpg |
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