UK, 1981
92m, 94m (uncut)
Technicolor
mono, English
An American horror film directed by Gary A. Sherman and written by the Alien (1979) duo of Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon. The only credited production company is the copyright holder, the UK-based Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance Limited meaning that with no other supporting evidence we have to list the film as British and not American.
Plot Summary
In the small town of Potters Bluff, Rhode Island, life seems to be quite and idyllic. But Sheriff Dan Gillis is soon investigating a series of strange accidents and mysterious deaths that befall the rare visitors to the town. Even more mystifying, the victims are seen walking the streets again a few days later…
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Gary A. Sherman
Copyright MCMLXXXI [1981] Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance Limited
Richard R. St Johns presents a Ronald Schusett production
Executive Producer: Richard R. St. Johns
Produced by: Ronald Shusett and Robert Fentress
Associate Producer: Michael I. Rachmil
Screenplay by: Ronald Shusett and Dan O'Bannon
Based Upon a Story by: Jeff Millar and Alex Stern
Director of Photography: Steve Poster
Film Editor: Alan Balsam
Music: Joe Renzetti
Sound Mixer: Bill Randall
Costumes by: Bill Jobe
Make-up Artists: Zoltan Elek, Edouard Henriques, Vincent Prentice
Hair Stylist: Jan Cook
Make-up Effects Designed by: Stan Winston
Special Effects: Knott Limited
Art Directors: Bill Sandell and Joe Aubel
Cast
James Farentino (Sheriff Dan Gillis)
Melody Anderson (Janet Gillis)
Jack Albertson (G. William Dobbs)
Dennis Redfield (Ron)
Nancy Locke Hauser (Linda)
Lisa Blount (girl on the beach[/nurse/Lisa])
Robert Englund (Harry)
Bill Quinn (Ernie)
Michael Currie (Herman)
Christopher Allport (George LeMoyne/Freddie [the photographer])
Joe Medalis (doctor)
Macon McCalman (Ben)
Lisa Marie (hitchhiker)
Estelle Omens (Betty)
Barry Corbin (Phil)
Linda Turley (waitress)
Ed Bakey (fisherman)
Glenn Morshower (Jimmy)
Robert Boler (Mr Haskell)
Michael Pataki (Sam)
Alternative Titles
D̦d och begraven РSwedish title
Kuolleet ja haudatut – Finnish title
Morti e sepolti – Italian title
Muertos y enterrados – Spanish title
Noituutta – Finnish title
Reencarna̤oes РPortugese title
Tot & begraben – West German title
Links
Extracts included in
Dan O'Bannon: Crafting Fear (2003)
Robert Englund: An Early Work of Horror (2003)
Stan Winston's Dead & Buried EFX (2003)
Press
1981
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.48 no.573 (October 1981) pp.196-197
This curious affair gets off to a mildly intriguing start, with Jack Albertson's elderly undertaker, sporting a carnation in his button-hole and a Homburg hat and forever tuning in to Thirties swing, cutting a suitably ambiguous figure (as well as constituting a dead ringer for Sam Jaffe's Doc Riedenschneider in The Asphalt Jungle). But in all other respects, this marriage of the writers of Alien and the director of that assured British horror of some years ago, Death Line, proves a non-starting affair. The gratuitously explicit death-dealing mounts up, the reductive echoes of superior ventures into similar territory grow stronger, and it all peters out in a welter of speciously manufactured hysteria. – from a review by Tim Pulleine
References
Periodicals
Cinefantastique vol.11 no.1 (Summer 1981) p.6 – illustrated preview (by Kyle Counts)
Empire no.183 (September 2004) p.160 – DVD review (Remote control: RWD by [JB])
Fangoria no.202 (May 2001) p.59 – DVD review (DVD Dungeon by Michael Gingold)
Film Review no.647 (August 2004) p.115 – illustrated DVD review (Home entertainment to buy and rent by [GK])
Films and Filming no.336 (September 1982) pp.32-33
Monthly Film Bulletin vol.48 no.573 (October 1981) pp.196-197 – credits, synopsis, review (by Tim Pulleine)
Starburst no.314 (September 2004) p.102 – DVD review (DVD reviews by David Richardson)
Starburst no.40 (1981) pp.16-19
Books
The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction by Phil Hardy (ed) p.366
Horror and Science Fiction Films II by Donald C. Willis p.84
Horror Films of the 1980s by John Kenneth Muir pp.150-151 – credits, synopsis, review
The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia by Peter Dendle p.49-50
Other sources
BFI Southbank Guide February 2020 p.42 – illustrated listing
