Buried Alive (2007)

The Worst Film Ever

Simply Perfect

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

OK, Tobin Bell was in this one, but that is just about it.I really didn't find it to be more than the standard teen scare flick with a bunch of kids running around yelling and screaming. Maybe here just isn't anything new. Well, I don;t believe that because I did see a new horror film a few weeks ago with some original action and scare. Make me jump out of my seat! The only salvation was Lindsey Scott in her first full length film. I want to see much more of her, even if there isn't much more to be seen after this. She belongs in horror and directors should be listening.Oh, well, it passed the time.

Buried Alive starts as cousins Rene (Leah Rachel) & Zane (Terence Jay who also composed the music) decide to spend a weekend at a family ranch in the middle of the desert, Rene wants wants to play some tricks on two sorority wannabes Laura (Erin Reese) & Julie (Lindsey Scott) while Zane wants to search for some legendary buried gold. On the way there Zane has a few strange visions of a ghostly old woman holding an axe, doing some research it turns out that Rene & Zane's ancestor buried his first wife alive although her body was never found. As the teenage friends try to enjoy themselves it seems that the vengeful ghost of the buried woman has returned to seek revenge on the ancestor's of the man that murdered her...Directed by Robert Kurtzman who used to be part of KNB Effects buts seems to like directing horror films as much as providing gory make-up effects for them, while Buried Alive is competent as a teen slasher I suppose I expected a little bit more. There are several problems with Buried Alive that are common for this type of direct to video horror fare, the biggest problem is surely the pace & the fact that it's so bloody slow. The first kill doesn't happen until the fortieth minute & then nothing else happens until the final fifteen minutes when things finally pick up & the script realises that it's a horror film & not a cure for insomnia. The character's are walking clichés, there's a spotty nerd type who wears glasses & carries a laptop around all the time, there's the bitchy popular girl & her jock boyfriend, there's a crazy local who warns the kids about dangers & the whole back-story about the woman being buried alive & coming back for revenge is underwhelming. The majority of Buried Alive feels like padding, the subplot about Zane not taking his pills is seemingly pointless for instance & why does he start having visions even before they reach the ranch? Why is the ghost visible to some of the character's some of the time & not other's when at the end she is visible to everyone? At a shade over 90 minutes there's very little story here & the idiot, annoying, clichéd character's make the film a drag to watch & the lack of any proper kills until the last fifteen minutes means Buried Alive is a bit of a chore to sit through.Even though there's no much here the gores pretty good, someone is chopped down the middle with an axe & the two halves of his body are seen later, there's some blood splatter & a cool bit where someone gets his face sliced off with an axe but disappointingly some of the kills are off screen. As well as gore there's a bit of nudity & virtually all the tasks & pranks played on the two sorority babes involve them taking their clothes off. Although set mainly in the daylight to start with the end is set at night & Kurtzman directs things adequately, it's not that scary really though & the shock ending isn't that good either. Buried Alive is a fairly generic sounding title & there are at least ten other films that use the title.Filmed in Santa Fe in New Mexico this is well made with surprisingly good production values, it actually looks like a professional film even though it's rather dull at times. The acting is OK at vest, Tobin Bell for Saw fame gets about five minutes of screen time.Buried Alive is well made & has one or two decent gore scenes but the sluggish pace & predictable plot means actually sitting though it is harder than it should have been. Could have been fun, it isn't.

I hate to see all the bad reviews and bad ratings. The movie isn't anything spectacular, but as a slasher movie it's great. This movie is a good time, and Tobin Bell is what really makes it. A couple of kids go out to their families mansion out in the middle of the desert with no one around but Old Lester. The film has a thin story line that could have been good but they didn't really do anything with it to make it very effective. The best parts in the movie are when Lester the caretaker played by Tobin Bell shows up to mess with the kids and what not, he's definitely the most entertaining part of the movie, but you have to give props on the ending. The villain one of the best I've seen in a slasher in a long time, and the ending is one of the most realistic I've seen in a slasher. One girl goes to get the car, she pulls up to the house waiting for her friends to come out, she waits a while but then she says the heck with that and she takes off without them. Overall I found this one very enjoyable, it's a fun little movie that has some good points in it.

Gore, drugs, sex, nudity, teens, and bad dialogue; perfect ingredients for a B-movie; Buried Alive has them all. I had my doubts when the film first started off, as would anyone with this. About the first 20 minutes or so, you really could not care less about the film or about the characters. Then, things start get a little bit more entertaining and interesting, as watchable as they could be. Characters who you want to die start dying, for example, Phil was one of the most annoying characters ever, and I really hated Danny and Julie and actually got a little smile when they were slaughtered, and characters who you want to live survive, which I actually wanted Laura to be the only character that lived, no joke, which shocked me and totally blew my world when it ended, because I was so surprised. She's really the only interesting and good character that deserves any love, and movie survivors never turn out how I want them to be, so I enjoyed that. The plot left a lot unsaid and had a few holes, but overall not bad at all for a B-movie. The suspense scenes were actually very well done, such as the ones around the end, and they keep your eyes locked on the screen. Overall, the first 20 minutes suck, and you don't get a real performance out of anyone except Tobin Bell and Erin Reese which they both gave great ones. As a B-movie, it's pretty awesome, and I enjoyed watching it. I will say the rating is a little unfair, but I can see why it would have so many people who hate it, but yet I'm a person who can enjoy these types of movies for what they are and they have always had a small place in my heart, whether they are so bad it's good or just all around okay for any film in general. All in all, it's just to watch for a good time, and no one should have been expecting anything fantastic, or vice versa, and that's they key in appreciating it for what it is.