Reviews (21)

A Cult Classic, Not to Be Missed!
This one is a real puzzler, and I was caught off-guard at the end. It's surprisingly good for a low budget horror film, going for the brain rather than the jugular.

The film is a horror/psychological thriller. Richard Boone plays a man who is part of a trustee group. Part of the duties of the members is to take turns overseeing a private cemetery.

Boone finds a map in the cemetery office that shows the occupied and unoccupied plots marked with white or black pins.

Boone discovers that when he places a black pin in a plot that is unoccupied, the owner dies. Is Boone going mad, or does he really have the power to bury the living?

This is an entertaining film, very creative and stylized. Boone often said it was his personal favorite, and he was proud to have worked on the film.

A well-mounted, underated chunk of entertainment
So, I suppose you've never heard of this film, RIGHT? Well, I guess it's one of those films that have a brief cult status until everyone suddenly stops thinking about it for some unknown reason. Get what I mean?

Richard Boone gives a strong performance as a cemetary owner who has a map in his office of all the tombstones. If the tombstone has a white pin in it, it means that it's reserved; if it has a black pin in it, it means that a dead person already lies beneath the stone. Boone discovers that if he replaces the white pin with a black pin, whoever reserves it automaticly snuffs it. So the map is like one, big voodoo doll.

I BURY THE LIVING is very original for it's time (which is probably why not many people pay attention to it). It's a throughly enjoyable film which has a couple of effective moments.

I Bury the Living
Although you'll find it listed under "Horror/Thriller," about the only claim I BURY THE LIVING has to the genre is its provocative title and lurid tagline: 'A creature to freeze your blood! A story to chill your soul!'
The creature referred to must be Robert Kraft (Richard Boone), president of Kraft's Department Stores and newly selected committee chairman of Immortal Hills Cemetery. The cemetery's caretaker is Andy McKee, played in not very convincing aged makeup and with a Scottish brogue by veteran character actor Theodore Bikel. McKee introduces Kraft to The Map. The Map displays all the plots in the graveyard and their owners - a white pin in the map means that person is still alive, a black pin means they're dead. On his first day on the job Kraft mistakenly puts a pair of black pins where white ones ought to be and the owners of the plots die. When he replaces a third white pin with a black and THAT owner dies, all sorts of mayhem ensues.
Richard Boone is effective in what is nothing much more than a longish Twilight Zone episode. Rather than a slime creature carting off the living to their final rest I BURY THE LIVING sprays a mist of sweat on Boone's forehead and follows his descent into madness. Well, that may be overstating it a bit, but he does have to wrestle with an inner demon that seemingly gives him the power of life and death over people. At least he believes it's so, long after the audience has cast skeptical eyes at more likely suspects.
You'll have to stretch credibility to the breaking point to accept the premise of this movie and stretch it again some more to accept its resolution. I BURY THE LIVING doesn't deliver many shocks or thrills, but it does offer some fine performances, especially by Boone.

An Unacknowledged Classic
This film is terrifying. I expected some hoky fun when I rented it (judging from the cover), but then recalled that Stephen King had listed it (in "Danse Macabre") as one of the ten most frightening films he'd ever seen. All the same, I figured his memory must have gone foggy.

I was wrong. The plot, when laid out bare, sounds ridiculous. A rather ordinary, boring caretaker of a cemetery (accompanied by a hilarious 'Scottsman') happens to gain power over the fundamentals of life and death with a board that lays out the structure of the cemetery--where people are buried, have been buried, and will be buried. All this sounds absurd and very 1950's, yes, but it turns out well. You actually start believing it yourself and can feel the protagonist's anguish. The end is disappointing, but the buildup is more than worth it. Black pin, white pin, black pin, white pin.....

Pretty darn clever!
The title conjurs up images of violence, grossness, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Made in 1957, the movie has the tone and production values of an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS...not a cheap horror flick. It moves slowly, and when Richard Boone keeps testing his theory (if I try THIS pin, will someone die?) it gets a bit wearying.

But the movie, obviously shot on a low budget, is pretty nifty all the same. The protagonist as a classic man of the '50s...a well dressed (in gray tones) department store owner...a minor pillar of the community. A sane, rational man with a nice "American dream" sort of life ahead of him. But when the shock of what he may or may not have done by putting the wrong colored pins on the cemetary map begins to sink in, we get to see him slowly unravel. The music gets hokey, and the camera-work is either very static or goes totally off into "la-la land." But behind it all, we've got a fairly solid script, with enough twists to keep things interesting, and a solid performance by Richard Boone. Never a huge star, this is one of the best performances I've seen him in. I recommened the movie for that alone.

Theodore Bikel (who later played Teyve in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) plays Angus, the cemetary jack-of-all trades caretaker. His makeup is as thick and phony as his accent, and this does distract from the power of the ending, no question. But all in all, this is a movie worth taking a look at. It can be obtained quite inexpensively on many of the horror movie compilations out there now...you know the ones...10 movies on 2 DVDs for $6. Well, this movie is certainly worth $3 of that investment!! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

I Bury The Living getting bottom billing? I don't think so.
This transfer of I Bury The Living is OK, if a bit dark and contrasty. It is nowhere near archival quality, but there's nothing in this particular transfer to destroy the experience.

The films basic plot involves a man's discovery that people seem to die every time he marks their plot with a black pin on the caretaker's map of a cemetary. Richard Boone is memorable as the inheritor of the position of cemetary caretaker. Boone was notable among actors of the '50s for being able to generate deadpan credibility without being either too Method on the one hand or too Jack Webb on the other. And although it is jarring at first, after a couple of viewings, even Theodore Bikel's thick and near-vaudevillian Scottish brogue may grow on you.

I Bury The Living is really about the ordeal the Boone character undergoes through his encounter with The Unknown. The dis-ease the film achieves with minimal means is impressive. The score suffuses every frame with a subtly eerie mood, and for film history buffs, the fx may at times make the film feel like a flashback, believe it or not, to German Expressionist cinema of the 20s.

Recommended. This is definitely not just another 50s drive-in flick. Director Albert Band made one other thoughtful late 50s moodstudy --usually bundled in TV movie packages as a horror film, too-- entitled Face of Fire, based on a short story Stephen Crane. Find that if you can. (As for The Killer Shrews, which shares this DVD and inexplicably has top of the box billing, it IS pretty much just another 50s drive-in flick. But we won't dwell on it.)

Great low budget turkey - lots of laughs!
"Wa(t)ch ou(t) for the killer shoes!" says the actress who can't pronounce her "r"'s or her "t"'s in this fun packed B fossil. There is much here to enjoy for bad movie lovers: the co-pilot of the boat who is such an offensive African-American stereotype that even racists would roll their eyes, the actress who has so many speech defects that she is sometimes unintelligible ("don' you evah wonduh abou' the many unusual dings around heah? The shews, my accen(t)?"), the absurd shrews who are nothing but dogs with silly masks on them, the studly lead actor with bad skin who has the best line in the movie when the scientist, relieved that the shrews are no longer a danger, states that we still need to worry about overpopulation. Our manly hero grabs the heroine, plants a wet one on her and says, "oh, I don't think I'll worry about overpopulation for a while" (maybe not, but make sure your kids get a good speech therapist if the heroine is going to be their mother!). This is everything a low budget horror movie should be. The disc also contains a Gumby movie, trailers, and another B movie. Lots of fun!

FUN DVD's and the Power Of Cheese
OH THE POWER OF CHEESE!

I love schlock! I can't help it, I just do. I have several of these Killer Creature Double Features and I think that they are great. The whole drive-in motif and the cartoon intermissions are really fabulous.

The Killer Shrews is a good way to see James Best (remember Roscoe P. Coltraine from the Dukes Of Hazzard?) Well, this is Roscoe, only MUCH younger. The Shrews (poor dogs dressed up with fangs and long hair) are a stitch.

I Bury The Living is a surprisingly good movie and not as schlocky as The Killer Shrews.

I like watching films of this nature and these DVD's are a steal! Yes, the quality isn't there, but who..[cares]! The lines and poor sound actually ADD to the whole experience. For those of you who are HARD CORE DVD lovers, this is bad news for you . But I think that the [bad] quality is great. It's like listening to an old LP on a turntable...

To view all of the Killer Creature Double Features, just do a search under : MADACY

They are the distributor of these gems....Keep em' coming Madacy!

A bargain! Pass this up at your own risk!
If you've gone so far as to look this one up, you may as well take my word for it and purchase it before they're all gone. It's that simple.

OK, no one expects Ingmar Bergman when we're talking about "The Killer Shrews", and the good folks at MST had *their* take on it. It *is* silly - the "shrews" are dogs with rubber fangs and carpet remnants glued on - heck, you can even see some of them wagging their tails. But still, this is the good old-fashioned cheese: no pretensions, no frills, and prime material for your own riffing (or to wax nostalgic over, recalling some rainy Saturday afternoon when you were stuck with this or watching professional bowling....)

And to continue in the MST mode, you get a "Gumby" feature - the very same "robot" feature that we saw on MST! (Sigh - I would have preferred a different "Gumby", or better yet, how about a "Bosko"?)

But the treat on this disc is "I Bury The Living" - a "waste no time" thriller starring Richard Boone (looking a LOT like a poor man's Vincent Price here) as the reluctant chairman of the local cemetary. Poor man finds out about 15 minutes after being sworn in that when he sticks a black pin (indicating deceased) into a map of the cemetary's plots (instead of a white one, indicating "lot purchased"), well, the owner is going to buy the farm, and darned soon, too. Neat, uncomplicated, fast-moving: "Twilight Zone" would have been proud to have this one.

The transfers? THAT'S the surprise - they're pretty good! Oh, sure, "I Bury The Living" has some dark spots, but I'm willing to wager that the original print looks like that. "Shrews" is just as good, even if the movie is kid stuff.

So - trailers, a cartoon, and two decent (well, let's say "watchable", ok?) old-tyme "Creature Features" for about a ten-spot. That's about the best bargain I've seen in a LONG time. I can't speak for the other "Double Features", but this one is a "best buy".

Now, if we could only get "Angry Red Planet" and "Journey to the Seventh Planet" on one of these things..... ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Who let the vampire dogs out?
Ah, those Communists; it's all their fault, you know. In Zoltan, Hound of Dracula, the forces of Communism unleash a mean, lean, killing machine in the form of a huge, fanged vampire dog on the good old USA. Sure, the film makes it look like it was accidental, but I have to ask: why was the Red Army going around blowing up holes all over Romania? There can be only one explanation: they were trying to find an ancient vampire tomb so they could bring a vampire back to life and enlist him in their cause. And that comrade who sacrificed his life for the cause? Clearly a ringer. Let's say I'm guarding a newly discovered Dracula family tomb when the earth starts quaking and a coffin slides out of the mausoleum onto the floor? Do I open the coffin? Do I then, seeing a stake projecting from the innards of the shrouded corpse inside, reach right in and pull the stake out just for the heck of it? No. Nobody would do that - unless they were acting under orders (or were just born stupid). What soon emerges from the coffin is a huge black dog (code name: Zoltan) who sates hundreds of years of blood hunger on his benefactor. The vampire canine quickly frees his old buddy, one of Dracula's servants, from another coffin, and the two reunited friends scurry off into the night. The servant is only a partial vampire; the sun doesn't bother him and he has no craving for blood; all he has is a fervent need to serve a master and a really silly expression on his face whenever he supposedly concentrates. Inspector Blanco, played by Jose Ferrer, knows all about the Dracula family, and he knows that the risen servant will go looking for a new master - and there is only one surviving member of the ancestral Dracula bloodline remaining (which is strange when you realize the guy has a son and daughter of his own), a perfectly normal human fellow named Drake living in California.

Drake and his family have just begun a two-week camping vacation - it's not one they will soon forget. The family keeps being bothered by and eventually attacked by great big dogs, losing their own dogs in the process. Dracula's servant's master plan is to use his ever-growing number of vampire dogs to get the family out of the way and then take Drake's blood, thereby turning him into the Dracula heir and master he is seeking. The film completely goes to the dogs by the time Inspector Blanco finally finds Drake to warn him about the whole vampire thing. If you think your neighbor's dog barks loudly in the middle of the night, wait until you hear a constant cacophony of huge dogs whooping it up for a full half hour. This isn't a bad thing, though; I rather liked the way the dogs were used in this film, doing all of the dirty work for the weird undead servant. The ending of the film gets a little bit hokey, and then it gets even a little hokier, but I actually enjoyed this film a great deal.

I must warn fellow animal lovers out there that some dog characters meet with an unhappy fate in this film. Worst of all, a litter of cute little adorable puppies gets dragged into the whole mess. Personally, I don't care what happens to human characters in horror films - the more gruesome the death, the more I like it. But to bring pain and misery to poor little puppy characters is hard for an animal lover like me to watch.

You know, a number of really talented canine actors and actresses basically carried this movie on their backs; they acted their hearts out, looked more like fanged vampire killers than most humans ever do, and for what? For no credits whatsoever, that's what. Sure, the trainer gets his name listed; even the person who supplied the dogs gets to see his name up in lights; yet not one canine actor was given any credit in the making of this movie. You name the movie after a canine vampire, but you won't even list the dog's real name? Where is the justice in this? This is a good horror movie, and credit should be given where credit is due.

Pretty scary dog!
I've watched this movie several times and never found it boring. To think of meeting a dog like that on a dark lonely street. Heck, I'd be scared in broard day light. Any horror fan would love this movie. Just don't watch it alone!

Creature Of The Night
plain bore with no redeeming values at all unless you enjoy listening to demonic barks or watching dog attack training techniques for fun

Badder than Cujo!
I just discovered this gem, it is now a favorite horror movie of mine. If you like that 70's type of campy horror like I do, you'll love this one. The action is good and the dog is totally cool. The characters are pretty good considering the type of movie it is also. This a different look at Dracula movies that is not very well known.

Zoltan, Hound of Dracula
An interesting entry in the vampire legend, I think any horror fan should see this film. This movie has some genuine chills, and it makes you want to think twice before you leave the family pooch out at night. Reggie Nalder's performance as the undead slave and the eerie atmosphere of the film make it worthwhile to checkout. ... Read more

Reviews (21)

A Cult Classic, Not to Be Missed!
This one is a real puzzler, and I was caught off-guard at the end. It's surprisingly good for a low budget horror film, going for the brain rather than the jugular.

The film is a horror/psychological thriller. Richard Boone plays a man who is part of a trustee group. Part of the duties of the members is to take turns overseeing a private cemetery.

Boone finds a map in the cemetery office that shows the occupied and unoccupied plots marked with white or black pins.

Boone discovers that when he places a black pin in a plot that is unoccupied, the owner dies. Is Boone going mad, or does he really have the power to bury the living?

This is an entertaining film, very creative and stylized. Boone often said it was his personal favorite, and he was proud to have worked on the film.

A well-mounted, underated chunk of entertainment
So, I suppose you've never heard of this film, RIGHT? Well, I guess it's one of those films that have a brief cult status until everyone suddenly stops thinking about it for some unknown reason. Get what I mean?

Richard Boone gives a strong performance as a cemetary owner who has a map in his office of all the tombstones. If the tombstone has a white pin in it, it means that it's reserved; if it has a black pin in it, it means that a dead person already lies beneath the stone. Boone discovers that if he replaces the white pin with a black pin, whoever reserves it automaticly snuffs it. So the map is like one, big voodoo doll.

I BURY THE LIVING is very original for it's time (which is probably why not many people pay attention to it). It's a throughly enjoyable film which has a couple of effective moments.

I Bury the Living
Although you'll find it listed under "Horror/Thriller," about the only claim I BURY THE LIVING has to the genre is its provocative title and lurid tagline: 'A creature to freeze your blood! A story to chill your soul!'
The creature referred to must be Robert Kraft (Richard Boone), president of Kraft's Department Stores and newly selected committee chairman of Immortal Hills Cemetery. The cemetery's caretaker is Andy McKee, played in not very convincing aged makeup and with a Scottish brogue by veteran character actor Theodore Bikel. McKee introduces Kraft to The Map. The Map displays all the plots in the graveyard and their owners - a white pin in the map means that person is still alive, a black pin means they're dead. On his first day on the job Kraft mistakenly puts a pair of black pins where white ones ought to be and the owners of the plots die. When he replaces a third white pin with a black and THAT owner dies, all sorts of mayhem ensues.
Richard Boone is effective in what is nothing much more than a longish Twilight Zone episode. Rather than a slime creature carting off the living to their final rest I BURY THE LIVING sprays a mist of sweat on Boone's forehead and follows his descent into madness. Well, that may be overstating it a bit, but he does have to wrestle with an inner demon that seemingly gives him the power of life and death over people. At least he believes it's so, long after the audience has cast skeptical eyes at more likely suspects.
You'll have to stretch credibility to the breaking point to accept the premise of this movie and stretch it again some more to accept its resolution. I BURY THE LIVING doesn't deliver many shocks or thrills, but it does offer some fine performances, especially by Boone.

An Unacknowledged Classic
This film is terrifying. I expected some hoky fun when I rented it (judging from the cover), but then recalled that Stephen King had listed it (in "Danse Macabre") as one of the ten most frightening films he'd ever seen. All the same, I figured his memory must have gone foggy.

I was wrong. The plot, when laid out bare, sounds ridiculous. A rather ordinary, boring caretaker of a cemetery (accompanied by a hilarious 'Scottsman') happens to gain power over the fundamentals of life and death with a board that lays out the structure of the cemetery--where people are buried, have been buried, and will be buried. All this sounds absurd and very 1950's, yes, but it turns out well. You actually start believing it yourself and can feel the protagonist's anguish. The end is disappointing, but the buildup is more than worth it. Black pin, white pin, black pin, white pin.....

Pretty darn clever!
The title conjurs up images of violence, grossness, etc. Nothing could be further from the truth. Made in 1957, the movie has the tone and production values of an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS...not a cheap horror flick. It moves slowly, and when Richard Boone keeps testing his theory (if I try THIS pin, will someone die?) it gets a bit wearying.

But the movie, obviously shot on a low budget, is pretty nifty all the same. The protagonist as a classic man of the '50s...a well dressed (in gray tones) department store owner...a minor pillar of the community. A sane, rational man with a nice "American dream" sort of life ahead of him. But when the shock of what he may or may not have done by putting the wrong colored pins on the cemetary map begins to sink in, we get to see him slowly unravel. The music gets hokey, and the camera-work is either very static or goes totally off into "la-la land." But behind it all, we've got a fairly solid script, with enough twists to keep things interesting, and a solid performance by Richard Boone. Never a huge star, this is one of the best performances I've seen him in. I recommened the movie for that alone.

Theodore Bikel (who later played Teyve in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF) plays Angus, the cemetary jack-of-all trades caretaker. His makeup is as thick and phony as his accent, and this does distract from the power of the ending, no question. But all in all, this is a movie worth taking a look at. It can be obtained quite inexpensively on many of the horror movie compilations out there now...you know the ones...10 movies on 2 DVDs for $6. Well, this movie is certainly worth $3 of that investment!! ... Read more

Description

The Ghoulies are back, and more devilish than ever, as they turn an unsuspecting carnival into a House of Pandemonium in this wildly outrageous sequel to the original smash hit "Ghoulies"! "Satan's Den" has received its final warning. Either the not-so-creepy House of Horrors spooks-up its act and scares-up some customers fast, or its gateway to hell will be closed -- for eternity. Just when Larry Prentice believes there's not a ghost of a chance to save his show, he gets some uninvited visitors to spice things up. The Ghoulies make "Satan's Den" their home, and profits soar as the demonic little creatures wreak havoc on the helpless fairgrounds. So take a ride on the Ghoulie-Go-Round and play some Bumper Ghoulies - enjoy yourself - 'cause the Ghoulies will get you in the end! ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Wonderful Family Movie
If your father hasn't accidentally taken you to a movie recently, I highly recommend he takes you to see Ghoulies II. Or, as I like to refer to it Ghoulies vs. Carnies. The movie stars no other than "that guy" and Oates (my father asked if it was Lionel Richie) as a foppish dandy. Throughout the movie, carnival goers are terrorized by a toilet dwelling ghoulie, what appears to be a flying caelacanth, a bukkake rat ghoulie, and a cat ghoulie with tourette's. At no point do the Rat and Cat Ghoulie fight, they've learned to coexist peacefully despite eachother's shortcomings. The effects are a wonderful display from the geniuses at Thunderbirds, and Rankin and Bass. Everyone go find your Boglins. I know you've got one somewhere.

More B-Movie goodness
Ghoulies 2... what can I saw about ghoulies 2.. well I own this movie! This is the height of good bad movies, this movie stars some people I'm sure you've seen before.. you just don't know they're names.. Like the midget.. I've seen him somewhere.. Thats right! this movie has a midget in it, not only that, but this midget runs the whole horror ride. The movie revolves around a down on they're luck Horror ride entertainers who are going bankrupt, an old man, his grand son, a midget and some other people that arent important, then theres the evil money guy and the love interest.. One night, kids go into the haunted house expecting it to be boring but run into some tiny little demons, they think they are rats. Now.. remember the makers of this movie tried to make it a serious movie.. I had to tell you that before I say this, the demons put on a show for the crowd as the crowd chants "rats! rats!" and then the demons high five each other... that was great!! :) but it's not all fun and games, people start to die and dissapear.. and the old man thinks it's his fault.. lots of story line fallows and some death scenes.. Now.. I found this movie quite entertaining, but if your not a B-Movie fan such as myself, give it a rent first.. this movie is really funny.. but its not supposed to be.. the puppets are pretty cool looking. As I write this review, I see that they've made a 4th one.. god help us all.. Go out and buy/rent it now!!!

Ghoulies 2
Warning! Before even thinking on purchasing this product read the following. If like me you grew up mostly in the 80's and loved films like these you might be interested to know that this title is cut!!!, and the sound and picture quality are below average at best. This may sound harsh but if you have seen the quality of Fright Night, what was released in the same year and is also a B-Movie you will know what they could have done with this title. Better off buying the video for 2.99.

Not bad, the ghoulies are fun little monsters
This is a pretty good movie. Oh, it's on the B-movie side of films but the ghoulies are fun. In this film you actually get more from the actors than in most movies like this. This movie is very similar to Troll ( 1986 ) and it was made by the same exact people. There was a film called Ghoulies that came out before this , but in that movie the ghoulies were actually always in the backround. The first Ghoulies was more about witchcraft and spells, not too much about the title creatures. I hated it. In this one they had a much better budget, the ghoulies have way more screen time, and they used some cool effects to bring these little likable monsters to life. There are plenty shots of the Ghoulies as Puppets, but these puppets are very well done and they give the Ghoulies there own unique personality. There is also some stop-motion animation shots of these creatures as well. The animation models are very well sculped and well animated. The Puppet Ghoulies were created by John Buechler; the stop-motion animation was handled by master David Allen. Great for people who love " little monster " movies. ... Read more