This is the style B B2 for the Japanese release of the American horror film Dead and Buried (opens in a new tab). The film was written by Ronald Shusett (opens in a new tab) and Dan O’Bannon (opens in a new tab), the two screenwriters responsible for the 1979 sci-fi masterpiece Alien (opens in a new tab), and was directed by Gary Sherman (opens in a new tab) whose previous film had been the creepy ‘cannibals on the London Underground’ horror Raw Meat (opens in a new tab) (AKA Deathline) almost a decade earlier. The story is set in the seemingly normal New England seaside town of Potter’s Bluff and sees the local Sheriff Dan Gillis (James Farentino (opens in a new tab)) investigating a series of mysterious disappearances of strangers visiting the area. The baffling thing for the sheriff is that the strangers are then reappearing some days later now seemingly a member of the community.

The viewer bears witness to a series of gruesome murders beginning with that of a photographer (Christopher Allport (opens in a new tab)) who is seduced on the town beach before being attacked by several people from the town who beat him and burn him alive whilst taking photographs. It soon becomes clear that Potters Bluff’s eccentric mortician William G. Dobbs (Jack Albertson (opens in a new tab) AKA Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory) has been practicing some fairly unorthodox patient handling in his morgue and the sheriff sets out to put a stop to his plans.

Apparently, the film went through a number of edits at the request of one of the financiers and was moulded into more of a dark horror film than Gary Sherman had originally intended, with two additional killings inserted and filmed without the assistance of effects maestro Stan Winston (opens in a new tab) (these are noticeably different in tone and quality of execution than the rest of the film). Despite this, Dead and Buried is a solid horror film with a creepy atmosphere, excellent production design and some memorable turns, particularly from Albertson and Melody Anderson (opens in a new tab) as Dan Gillis’ wife who harbours a dark secret.

The film’s original trailer is on YouTube (opens in a new tab).