(I see dead people. A whole town full of them. And they're fucking annoying.)
CAST: James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Nancy Locke Hauser, Lisa Blount, Dennis Redfield, Robert Englund, Bill Quinn, Michael Currie, Joe Medalis.
DIRECTOR: Gary Sherman
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and overly friendly - really overly friendly - decaying townspeople straight ahead...
In 1981, the writing team of Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon that wrote the uber-classic ALIEN made another foray into the realm of horror. The resulting flick was, at least on the surface, as far removed from that 1979 mega-blockbuster as you could possibly get. DEAD AND BURIED was a more Earthbound affair, set in the present, that focused on the strange goings-on in the small New England town of Potter's Bluff.
Beyond the vast differences in their premises, though, both ALIEN and DEAD AND BURIED share some common traits: slow-building dread, a mysterious and sinister threat, and a deadly conspiracy to protect that threat. While not the classic of the horror genre that ALIEN is, DEAD AND BURIED is nonetheless a strong entry - and for the Zombie sub-genre, it is an even stronger one, unusual and atypical enough to move ahead of your run-of-the mill, shambling (or even running) flesh-eaters. Nope, the undead of DEAD AND BURIED are different beasts entirely. Pun intended.
Our story starts with visiting photographer George LeMoyne (Christopher Allport) taking some beach shots just outside the little town of Potter's Bluff. What looks just another ho-hum series of photos depicting crashing waves and seaweed is livened up by the sudden appearance of... a smokin' hot blond (Lisa Blount). Fawning over George, and playfully calling him "Freddie" (don't ask) our sexy new arrival asks if she's pretty enough to be a model. "Fuckin' A," George basically says, before taking pictures of her and christening her "Lisa."
Smiling seductively at him, Lisa pretty much invites George/Freddie to bang her right then and there on the beach. And you should see the look on our guy's face: like he just won the vagina lottery and is just rarin' to cash that ticket in. Before he can do so, unfortunately, a bunch of the townspeople show up. Now, you might be thinking that they're all there because they like to watch - and you'd be partly right. They like to watch, alright. But not people having sex. People dying.
Yup, before you can say "group cock-block," Lisa and the townspeople start beating the crap out of George and and wrap fishing net around them. Then after gathering around him like they're about to watch HARRY POTTER: THE FINAL CHAPTER, they douse him in gasoline and use him as a campfire. Now, is that anyway to treat your tourists, people?
Enter our hero, Sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino), who is dispatched to attend to a burning car-wreck just outside of town. Turns out there's a charred body inside the car: a man who is barely alive. Hmmmm... could this wreck have been set-up to cover up George's attack? Dan, for his part, is unaware of what happened on the beach - and has no reason to suspect that this was anything more of an accident. Like the diligent cop that he is, Dan goes about trying to uncover the identity of the disfigured victim. Soon, he discovers from the local inn-keeper that it might have been a guest who never returned.
Unfortunately, soon there's another murder. This time, the victim is a bum who is cornered by the townspeople on the docks and is turned into Swiss cheese with fish hooks. Not too long after that, the burnt George is visited by Lisa in the hospital - where she promptly kills him with a syringe to the eye. Yum, These events basically makes Dan rethink his stance on the car-wreck. Perhaps it wasn't an accident, after all. Is there a killer on the loose in peaceful Potter's Bluff?
Right now, you're probably thinking: "Okay, dipshit. No zombies so far. And why are they showing who the killers are so obviously?" Patience, my dear friends. DEAD AND BURIED has quite a few zombie surprises up its sleeves. And as far as the film blatantly showing who's doing the killings, remember that it's not about "whodunit" but rather "whydunit." And the reason is a fucked-up one.
Anyhow, the mystery deepens when Dan begins to suspect that his beloved wife, schoolteacher Janet (Melody Anderson), may have known George LeMoyne. Also, other bizarre things happen: (1) a family of three passing through town are chased and attacked by the townspeople, (2) a hitch-hiker is attacked and killed by the townspeople, and (3) Dan hits someone with his police car - only to get knocked out by that person when he gets out of the car to investigate.
But the strangest thing is this: when Dan takes the blood samples off his fender to the local Medical Examiner, the M.E. tells him that.... it is the blood of a dead person. Now, Dan knows what he saw, and therefore is at a loss to explain the M.E.'s discovery. For his part, the M.E. thinks the Sheriff is playing one sick prank - which might have been a possibility before tourists started dying. But now that he's busy actually doing detective work, Dan doesn't have much of a sense of humor.
Actually, that's not the strangest thing. Nope. That would be the fact that all the murder victims seem to be returning to life and passing themselves off as townspeople. To wit: (1) George LeMoyne turns up as fresh-faced as he did when he was just about to fuck Lisa on the beach, except now he goes by the name of Freddie, and works at the local gas station; and (2) the kid from that family the townspeople terrorized and presumably killed turns up as another student in Janet's class. These events, coupled with that "corpse blood" from Dan's fender, are surefire indicators that Potter's Bluff is not the Smalltown America Haven that it first appeared to be.
Things come to a head when Dan discovers a book on voodoo in Janet's bureau. When he demands to know why she's teaching the kids that garbage, she basically tells him to stuff it. Later, while eavesdropping on one of her classes, Dan hears Janet tell the kids about an the ancient voodoo rites in Peru where entire villages were filled with, ahem, the walking dead who, double ahem, kill strangers and take the bodies back to their master who - triple ahem - would turn them into more of the walking dead. And if you still can't figure out what DEAD AND BURIED is about, I can email you a powerpoint presentation. Please don't make me do that.
So.... what the fuck is really going on in Potter's Bluff? Is someone creating murderous zombies who look and act like real people? Is this person commanding his zombies to kill more people to be converted? If so, who is it? Is it Dr. Dodds (Jack Albertson), the asshole mortician who thinks he's all that and bag of Doritos? And what role does Janet have in the unfolding mystery? For that matter, what is Dan's? Is he more involved than he realizes? Will he be able to save himself and his wife before it's too late?
Find out for yourselves. Then never drive through a small coastal New England town ever again. I know I won't. Fuck that noise.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Owing just as much to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS as it does to the zombie genre, DEAD AND BURIED inverts the image of zombies as ravenous, mindless flesh-eaters. Instead, the walking dead of this movie look and talk like just normal people - which makes them even more terrifying, because you don't know who's normal and who isn't.
Director Gary Sherman effortlessly evokes a sinister atmosphere from the very beginning with that shocking beach scene. Thankfully, he doesn't try to hide the identities of the people doing the killings. This basically creates suspense because it puts us in a superior position over Dan - who has no clue that the people he greets on the street and serve him coffee in the diner are cold-blooded murderers - and possibly undead ones. As I mentioned earlier, the mystery is not about "who," but "why." And when all is revealed in the last fifteen minutes, you will be floored. '
The cast is skilled and solid and is the main reason the potentially farfetched voodoo/serial killers plot of DEAD AND BURIED plays as strongly as it does. They approach their roles with just enough seriousness and the right sprinkling of humor. James Farentino is convincing and sympathetic as the Sheriff who can't understand why his hometown in suddenly on its way to being the Murder Capital of New England. Melody Anderson is sexy, fun, and vibrant as Janet, the seemingly-wholesome schoolteacher who might be harboring some deadly secrets of her own. Without going into too much detail, her final scenes with Farentino as Dan are heart-rending - especially with Joe Renzetti's haunting musical score playing in the background. The rest of the cast is similarly good, with Jack Albertson standing out as the egotistical (and potentially diabolical) town mortician. Also, keep an eye out for Robert "Freddie Krueger" Englund in an early role as one of the killer townies.
Bottom line: DEAD AND BURIED is not what you'd expect from a zombie movie, but it is a zombie movie, nonetheless. And a smart, scary, classy one at that. Definitely one that thinks outside the box - and succeeds at it.
