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| All Regions, PAL. 1.66:1 (Non-anamorphic). English 2.0. Force Video (Australia). 90 Minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Gary Sherman
Starring: James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Lisa Blount, Dennis Redfield, Robert Englund
Screenplay: Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett
Make up FX: Stan Winston
Y
ear: 1981 |
In this reviewers humble opinion, Gary Sherman's Dead & Buried is one of the truly
under rated classics of the horror genre. Released
in the early 80's amid a wave of cheap slasher
films and imported Italian cannibal and zombie
gore-fests, it somehow got swept aside and never
quite achieved the same status as other films
of its time. So what's it all about exactly?
James Farentino plays Dan Gillis, sheriff of the
peaceful seaside town of Potters Bluff, where
nothing much happens and everyone is incredibly
polite to each other and all that crap. Or so
it seems... A visiting photographer is burned alive while
snapping a few "saucy" shots on the
beach, and shortly after that a dirty old vagrant
is graphically sliced and diced by an odd looking
group of locals who seem to have a strange penchant
for standing around and taking photographs of
their actions. Things get even more complicated
when it appears as though some of the recently
deceased are not quite as dead as we thought,
and Gillis begins to suspect that the entire town
is acting a bit loopy, including his own wife,
a school teacher who is filling her students in
on the finer points of voodoo and the black arts.
I could go into more detail here, but that would
perhaps spoil the experience for those who haven't
seen the movie. The plot features numerous twists
and turns, something that is somewhat uncommon
for a film of this sort, and screenwriters Dan
O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett (Alien, Total Recall)
deserve full credit for trying to inject something
different into what could have been just another
standard horror thriller. Director Gary Sherman
manages to create some very atmospheric sequences
and gives us a few decent frights along the way
(even years after first seeing it, the "Corpse
in the car" scene managed to scare the absolute
life out of me!) while splatter lovers will not
be disappointed with the level of gore on offer,
with some very graphic throat slashings, eye ball
piercings and much more courtesy of FX legend
Stan Winston.
If you haven't seen this one yet, watch it as
soon as possible. The neat little twist in the
end had some horror fans saying "Boring,
I saw that coming a mile off" but I must
admit that I was caught completely by surprise
and thoroughly enjoyed it. A highly Recommended
film! |
| Video |
| The tone of this review has been quite positive
so far, but unfortunately it's pretty much all downhill
from here. The film is presented in a 1.66:1 aspect
ratio without the benefit of 16x9 enhancement. At
best the image could be described as "average",
however during its lesser moments the transfer quality
could only be described as "appalling".
There are some nasty compression problems evident,
and the image appears so grainy at times that
it is hard to make out what is going on, particularly
during the films darker scenes. There is minimal
attention to shadow detail and colours seem fairly
dull, with flesh tones occasionally looking unnatural.
In all honesty, this is one of the worst transfers
I have ever seen, which is quite a shame since this
is such a great movie. |
| Audio |
| The only audio option is a 2.0 stereo track. When
compared with the image quality, the sound isn't
all that bad, although that isn't saying much. Dialogue
is easy to understand, and the score helps add a
suitable "punch" to the movies shock scenes.
There did appear to be some minor audio sync problems
at times, but problems like this seemed almost inconsequential
given the discs poor image quality. |
| Extra Features |
| Only a "teaser" trailer that runs when
the disc first starts up (unless you count "scene
selection" as an extra, which I don't). |
| The Verdict |
Coming up with a final evaluation for this disc
is a slightly difficult task. The film itself
is outstanding and is well worth a look, however
the presentation of the DVD leaves a lot to be desired.
At the time of writing this review, the only other
DVD releases of Dead & Buried were
the two Dragon Film Entertainment releases from
Germany, which apparently feature fairly poor audio
and video quality themselves. Hopefully a
superior release of this horror classic is somewhere
on the horizon, but in the meantime, the fairly
cheap price tag may make the Australian version
of Dead & Buried a good option
for those waiting for something better to come along.
Got something else to say? Spill your guts on the
Digital Retribution Message Forum! |
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I highly recommend that you hunt down this version of the film, and enjoy one of the great unsung horror films.