Buried Alive (2007) - New DVD Movie Reviews

By The Vocabulariast • December 9, 2008

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Buried Alive is another film from Dimension Extreme’s mediocre horror factory. The film suffers from many of the problems that most of the films from the line suffer from, such as bad acting, low budgets, clichés, and most discouragingly a brainless approach to horror that comes off as lazy and exploitive.

The film follows six college kids as they journey to a house in the desert that has a disturbing past. An evil spirit is unleashed and starts chopping them all up. The filmmakers make some half-hearted attempt at explaining the occurrences, but in the end, it doesn’t seem like the filmmakers knew why anything was happening. It’s not the worst story I’ve ever seen, but the fact that the first half is just some sorority slut daring her pledges to do lame shit and bossing them around while her burnout cousin and boyfriend drink beer and smoke ganja brings the film down a peg.

The direction in the film is fine, if you count the fact that the film is clichéd and composed of recycled material from every slasher flick ever made as fine. The film is directed by Robert Kurtzman, who is mostly known for his kick ass special effects work with KNB and not for the job that he did directing his earlier films Wishmaster and The Demolitionist. Kurtzman’s film is technically fine, but the pacing leaves a little something to be desired as the first half of the film is largely filler and an excuse to trick the viewer into thinking they are going to see some nubile babes naked. Nothing really groundbreaking happens until the end of the film. The film’s uneasiness and poor writing make all the professional looking cinematography and the few scenes of awesome gore largely pointless as most viewers will have turned off the film by the time they happen.

The film’s actors are a decidedly uneven bunch. Leah Rachel, who plays Rene, one of the two cousins who have a tie to the house in question, is bland as the female cousin of Zane (Terence Jay). Rachel’s performance is largely worthless and the worst part is that she is probably the best actor in the film besides Tobin Bell, who is obviously trying to become the next Robert Englund by staring in shitty straight to DVD flicks while moonlighting on his only cash paying gig as Jigsaw in the Saw series. To be fair, Bell doesn’t just phone it in and his performance is actually quality, but he’s such a small part of the film that it doesn’t amount to much. The rest of the cast is forgettable, except for Erin Lokitz… who never exposes her goodies no matter how badly you wish she did.

The special effects in the film are awesome, but what do you expect from special effects master Robert Kurtzman? Kurtzman throws together some brutal killings that are memorable and satisfying. The gore isn’t enough to save the film though as they come too late in the film do it any good. Still, if you ever wanted to see a face get chopped off in one stroke, you’re in luck.

Buried Alive is nothing more than a generic slasher flick with a couple of good kills, three hot chicks, and only one that will get naked. As far as slashers go, Buried Alive is run of the mill.

Final Synopsis: This film doesn’t have much going for it besides some cool kills. You can skip it unless you’re a special effects fiend and have to see cool kills even if they are sandwiched in the middle of boring flicks. Skip it.

Points Lost: -1 for being a nudity cocktease of a movie, -1 for being boring, -1 for having a lame plot, -1 for some bad acting, -1 for bad pacing, -1 for being clichéd

Lesson Learned: Evil spirits love to accessorize.

Burning Question: What was with the whole incest subplot? I was waiting for some hot cousin on cousin action and they never delivered.

Buried Alive
4/10