L'emmuré vivant

My review was written in October 1990 after watching the movie on RCA/Columbia video cassette.

Lensed in South Africa, this horror pic runs through several themes fro Edgar Allan Poe (his name misspelled in the credits) stories with dull results.

As with three other Harry Alan Towers productions ina Poe vein, it's a direct-to-video release in the U.s. (Item should not be confused with last year's USA Network pic "Buried Alive", starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Matheson and William Atherton).

Though of historical footnote as John Carradine's final assignment, film disappoints because there's only a few seconds of blurry Carradine footage. He plays evil doctor Robert Vaughn's dad, holed up in his mansion/asylum for wayward girls.

Carradine supposedly experimented on his son, resulting in the nutcase who now preys on the young women who live in at his asylum Ravens Croft.

Karen Witter narrated the tale as the beautiful new teacher who suffers from hallucinations. Psychological horror mixes elements from Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" and "The Black Cat" among other tales. Overall, pic resembles an earlier South African effort "The Stay Awake", especially when the girls have an after-hours party in the basement with some boys.

Witter's fans will probably be disappointed because she remains clothed throughout this one, unlike "Midnight", a pic she also made in 1988. Former porn star Ginger Lynn Allen has one of her best mainstream jobs as a tough-talking inmate who proves to be an excellent screamer.

There's plenty of gore on display. Former porn director Gerard Kikoine keeps the sex content down, even having the gals' requisite shower scene stage with their bikini bottoms on.

Pleasence, Vaughn, and porn queen Allen are entertaining trying to make sense of a silly script that's like a cross between a cruddy Euro gialli and a made for TV suspenser. Most of the other actors appear to be phoning in their performances from another planet. Some of the cinematography has some thought and care put into it and there's one death scene via hand mixer that's a tad inspired, but it's not enough to make it worth sitting through this again.

A woman leaves the Raven Croft Mental Facility, which for some reason is filled with only women who do not seem insane, but more like juvenile delinquents (played by women in their 20s and 30s, to be sure). Outside, she's attacked by a short person in a Ronald Reagan mask and pushed through a trapdoor down a very long chute. Mr. Reagan shows up at the bottom of the chute seconds later, suggesting he has his own chute nearby or an express elevator. It was lucky for him her escape route passed by his trapdoor anyway.

The late Reagan is infamous for (among many other things!) being responsible for the closing of federally funded mental institutions, essentially kicking many patients out onto the streets. I wonder if this movie was trying to comment on that, in its own stupid way. The "Ronald Reagan Home for the Mentally Ill" in Airplane II may have been making a jab at the same thing. Anyway, a Reagan mask isn't really scary-looking. Even though it seems to be painted a solid color, suggesting the William Shatner mask in Halloween, it still looks like a caricature of Reagan, and thus, silly.

The next day a young woman shows up at the facility to be a teacher. On the way she has a Psycho moment when a sunglasses-wearing cop (Vosloo, years before the Mummy!) finds her asleep in her car. At the institution, she has some odd hallucinations relating to people falling down the chute (which she's never seen) or being walled up behind bricks.

And about those bricks - the killer walls people up behind a single row of red bricks which he does not appear to cement together. Even though he puts his prisoners in straitjackets, they could still simply push against the wall and have it fall down.

Donald Pleasance has a character that is ridiculous and serves practically no purpose except to be weird. John Carradine shows up for all of about ten seconds. I understand in his later years people would film him doing something, before even having an idea of what to do with it, just so they could put him in their movie. Perhaps this fits in with that.

Robert Vaughn looks, sounds, and dresses the same in this as in everything else I've seen him in. C'mon, an accent, some facial hair, and different haircut, do something to make your character superficially different! Or is it the director's fault?

The movie is definitely not adapted directly from Poe. It suggests The Black Cat, The Premature Burial, The Fall of the House of Usher, The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether among others, without really having much to do with any of them except superficially.

This movie is supposedly based on Edgar Allen Poe, but aside from a cat and some people being entombed behind a wall, I'm not so sure. (And it also seems to involve ants, lots and lots of ants). It takes place at some kind of institute for sexy, delinquent, orphaned female mental patients. (I would gladly work as the unpaid janitor at one of these places, but they only seem to exist in the movies). The name actors in this movie are Robert Vaughn, Donald Pleasance, and John Carradine (in what would be his final film). You may question the judgment of these actors in appearing in this film, but when did any of these guys ever show any judgment? I would question the judgment of the producers in their choice of the female cast. The lead is Karen Witter, a former Playboy Playmate. Very few Playmates are known for their acting abilities and Witter is definitely NOT doing what she does best here. You could probably say the same thing about Ginger Lynn Allen, at that time in a hiatus period of her XXX porn career. But at least she has brief nude scenes (well, sort of) and is not very convincing, but still somewhat entertaining as the tough "queen bee" of the institution.

The French director of this, Gerard Kinkoine, is also an interesting choice. He WAS technically a porn director, but he was one of the more talented "softcore" directors like Just Jaeckin, Jean Rollin, Walerian Borozyx, and Max Pecas rather than simply a hardcore hack. Almost all these European directors ended up working in off-Hollywood American co-productions like this at the end of their careers, but it was actually a step down for them (whereas for Ginger Allen it was a definite step-up from "servicing" the likes of Ron Jeremy and Jerry Butler).

This is OK I guess overall. I probably won't sue to get the 90 minutes of my life back. . .

When Janet (Karen Lorre) starts her new job, teaching at the Ravenscroft reformatory for girls, she has no idea what sort of place she's gotten mixed up in. It's clear to the viewer almost immediately that something is terribly awry. The girls are mostly bada$$es, but they're the least of Janet's worries.

BURIED ALIVE centers around Janet's attempts to uncover what is behind the mysterious disappearances of some of her students. Robert Vaughn plays Gary Julian, who runs the facility with a seemingly carefree, more open-minded approach. Even so, it's evident that something is up with this guy. Donald Pleasence also stars, playing a teacher who definitely has some issues.

The movie draws from several stories by Edgar Allan Poe, mixing them together, and rolling the dice. It works for the most part, especially if you're a fan of Mr. Poe. It's fun to spot the tributes to the author's terror tales. Otherwise, it can get a bit confusing.

This movie is best viewed with like-minded friends. Inebriation is advised...