The Premature Burial (1962)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

As Good As It Gets

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

'The Premature Burial' was the third film in Roger Corman's series of eight Edgar Allan Poe themed movies. Unlike 'House of Usher' and 'The Pit and the Pendulum' this one stars Ray Milland instead of Vincent Price because Corman went to produce that film without AIP who had exclusive contract with Price. Compared to Price, Milland's performance is less manically intense, but rather subtle with playing around with character's inner demons and sufferings. The film occasionally seems little campy and outdated, but these misty graveyards still work when watching alone after midnight. Although the film's story is little different from Poe's original by the same title, the film is quite well put together and surprises us with a little (perhaps, over dramatic) twist at the end. Nonetheless, 'The Premature Burial' is nicely creepy tale about paranoid obsession and living on the verge of madness.Recommended for Gothic horror/mystery fans.

This is a fun story if one doesn't think too much. Ray Milland stands in for Corman's usual suffering protagonist, Vincent Price. Milland lives with catalepsy, which makes a person appear dead, even if he is not. He lives in abject fear of being buried alive. He then builds a state of the art crypt with numerous fail-safe devices that can be employed if he finds himself in his suspended state. It seems if he could just get someone to leave him on a shelf if they think he is dead, it would work out better. Hazel Court plays his suffering wife. He is a true nut who believes his father had been buried alive, even though his sister tells him that is not so. The thing is that there are so many things that happen, as we reach a conclusion, that require some big time suspension of disbelief. Still, it's quite entertaining watching Milland being dragged down by his fears.

A good film adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's story "Premature Burial".A quote from Guy Carrell (Milland) "A recent invention by a man named Nobel... it's called dynamite." ---> Now the wiki says this film Set in the early dark Victorian-era 1830s or '40s but this cannot be because dynamite was patented in 1867 by Alfred Nobel while Poe died in 1849. So might be an anachronism within the film - but then again this is an *adaptation* of Poe's Premature Burial also the wiki must have gotten the time era of this film slightly off... that would mean this film would be set in 1867 or '68 (a RECENT invention says Carrell).Now the tune "Molly Malone": according to the wiki: The song is not recorded earlier than 1883, when it was published in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was also published by Francis Brothers and Day in London in 1884 as a work written and composed by James Yorkston, of Edinburgh, with music arranged by Edmund Forman. If this is true then this movie would have been set in a little later era which would be after 1883. So maybe this movie is set somewhere between mid to late 1880's or 90's - and this also means that dynamite would have been still considered a RECENT invention (to quote Carrell). The wiki states: Embalming has been around for centuries - in middle ages and the renaissance is known as the Anatomists period of embalming while contemporary embalming methods advanced markedly during the height of the British Empire and the American Civil War. In the United States there was a period known as 'Funeral period of embalming' in 1861. Dr. Thomas Holmes is called 'father of American embalming' and, just prior to the American Civil War, he starting experimented with arterial embalming based on the earlier work of Jean Nicolas Gannal of Paris - AND In 1867, the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann discovered formaldehyde - again, all from the wiki. SO with all that said, if in fact this movie is set 1867 or '68 OR as late as 1880's or 90's then embalming was NOT overly common/wide spread -- this means there is a good chance of a premature burial to occur and Guy Carrell's fears are well founded.Now outside of my minor nick-picking (trying to find the date this film is actually set in) this is a decent film.... it's quite good. Yes there has been real life cases of premature burials. And I am willing to admit that it is a fear of my own... Guy asks Emily in the beginning of the film if she can comprehend what it would be like to be buried alive - I for one can. Guy Carrell's fear is much worse than my own.Worth watching if you like Poe, Milland, or horror movie classics.7.5/10

An artist (Ray Milland) grows distant from his new wife (Hazel Court) as an irrational horror of premature burial consumes him.The story of this film's creation is almost as interesting as the film itself. This film was the first one Roger Corman made after "The Intruder" flopped. While today "Intruder" is considered one of the highlights of his career, its failure at the time convinced Corman to stay with horror -- much to our benefit.Also of interest, Corman went to Pathe, rather than American International Pictures, in order to make this film. Thus, he had to cast Ray Milland rather than Vincent Price, who was under contract with AIP. Sam Arkoff, the head of AIP, was furious, and purchased the film back from Pathe (threatening to pull lab work from them) before it was made -- but after Milland was cast.Thus, we have only one of the two AIP Poe films without Price (the other is "Murders in the Rue Morgue", which also did not have Corman). Is this a blessing or a curse? Well, among horror fans, Vincent Price is probably the single greatest figure in history. However, in general, Milland is probably the better actor. So what we have here is a film that is probably less campy, less overly dramatic than it would have been with Price. This makes the tone somewhat different from the others in the series, but perhaps not in a bad way.Mike Mayo says "Corman makes the fullest possible use of a few richly decorated and fog-shrouded Gothic sets" and calls the story "a cracking good yarn." I completely agree on the sets. While the scenery is minimal (we rarely venture out of a single-room mausoleum), it works by being elaborate. The many-layered escape plan scene really is the highlight of the film.Like Mayo, Howard Maxford points out that we witness "the studio dry-ice machine working overtime." Indeed, if you remember nothing else about the outdoor scenes, you will recall the seemingly endless amounts of fog drifting by. Perhaps a bit too much?Overall, the story is well-told, well-paced, well-acted and builds up as it goes. Maybe the premise is a bit far-fetched, because even the severest case of catalepsy would require breathing, but it serves as a great plot device and I can handle that.Bonus: the legendary Dick Miller appears in a cameo role.