Buried Alive

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' seems too-good of a title to be placed on this piece of garbage. The cover art; though cheesy and unrealistic, actually looks half decent compared to the movie. The logo 'Dimension Extreme' is placed on top of the cover as if the film was somewhat 'too extreme or intense' to be shown in theaters.

I have lost a lot of interest in Dimension Extreme films mostly because they release films like this. 'Buried Alive' is a failed attempt to bring back a once promising genre (horror) and revive it into something new.

The main problem I had with this film is that it never truly finds itself a climax or a theme. It doesn't decide whether its a witchery film, a slasher flick, or a spiritual horror movie. I'm not saying that all horror films need to set one theme, but when the story gets so confusing and the plot gets all twisted up into nonsense, you kind of need a set theme to rely on. The movie tries to save itself by bringing up some foreign Indian voodoo symbolism story but by then, you realize that the movie just got too ridiculous to continue watching.

The poor acting did not help the movie either. The best performances were probably by Steve Sandvoss and Lindsey Scott. They both made their characters presentable and easy to understand, specifically Lindsey Scott's character who I found humorous and enjoyable. As for Tobin Bell, he played the dirty Lester character fairly well but my main issue with him is that we are so used to seeing him as the man behind Jigsaw that he ultimately fails in bringing a new character into life. All other actor's screwed up in some way or form. Their acting was really poor (mhmm...Leah Rachel) and it was hard for me to have any sympathy for them when they got butchered by the old ugly witch.

The gore and screams were minimum. I felt that the movie took way to long to explain the story that it waited till the very end to give us the blood-thirsty gore (which wasn't much to have been waiting for). The old witch that was killing everyone off was ridiculously stupid and did not even scare me one bit.

All in all, this is the typical stereotype horror film that doesn't offer anything new to the horror genre. It's a pathetic attempt and in the end, we're left with a horrible ending that does not resolve anything. I am being generous by giving it a 2 star rating, but thats only because of the two all-stars of the film.

Buried Alive: 2/10

Watch It or Miss It: MISS IT!

#i'm trying a new simple review system like this so i don't know if its hard or easy to read XD#

IN A NUTSHELL: hatable teen personalities stay in a haunted house. a potentially good plot line is lost within the endless repetition of sorority rituals. good movie to sit and laugh a with friends.

Positives: -the movie is fun to watch. the acting is very laughable in most parts and actually add to the enjoyment of the film IMO -there is at least one creepy scene. i wont say where, but the classic horror style of "things changing their position at the speed of light" really gets used in an okay, albeit clichéd way. -THE SOUNDTRACK!!! i don't know who most of the artists are...but the soundtrack was so catchy for me the whole way through, especially tracks by Poets & Pornstars -Constant TnA throughout makes it a real teen horror movie. -an attempt at a deep plot is introduced roughly halfway, which, although failing miserably by the end, does give the viewers the chance to pick out he plot holes and make a better fold of events in their minds. -I'm not really a fan of Tobin Bell, but he wasn't awful in this. -some gore, although much of it was so bad that it was laughable again. -fairly decent special effects for a B-movie -nice set, even if it did seem highly unusual to me that a mansion sat in the middle of the desert. -predictable, but overall acceptable ending.

Negatives: -as described in the positives, the acting is laughably bad...and for some it may be turn off straight away -the constant insinuation of incest seems unnecessary as it doesn't add to the plot.had it been developed into the plot line it may have worked, but it wasn't, and it didn't. -the personalities of all the characters sucked. rich, stupid, snobby and bitchy seemed to flow through most of the characters. a little diversity could have gone a long way. -MASSIVE lack of back story behind the only remotely interesting character, who didn't even become remotely interesting until the last third of the film. -lots of repetition -lots of repetition -lots of repetition

VISUAL: decent sets, some great and not-so-great specialFX CAMERA: decent shooting, nothing too special, but good placements SOUND:great music choices, average sound effects CAST: great to look at, but their characters seemed out.

CUTE: no CREEPY: nope DRAMATIC: no FUNNY: Yes MELODRAMATIC: not really GORY: not very SAD: no SCARY: No SEXY: moderately SMART: not at all TENSE: maybe WORTH WATCHING: for fun WORTH PAYING: no

RECAP: -worth watching purely for some eye candy and something to chat about with friends once in a while. not scary-

IF YOU LIKED THESE, You'd LIKE "Buried Alive": horror movies that sucked but had potential: Dead Mary Dead Silence Deadly Visions Rest Stop

Overall: 6 out of 10:

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Robert Kurtzman is a seasoned horror vet, no one can deny that. However he made a truly terrible film in this case. The new Dimension Extreme label has gotten off to a hot start with the excellent Black Sheep and Broken. In addition you have a good director and the always at the top of his game Tobin Bell in the cast. Who by the way the way does have a decent amount of screen time, as some have said it's just a cameo. Now if you look at my past reviews you can tell I'm a generous critic who makes an effort to highlight the strengths' of a film, but thats really a difficult task here. For one the film is quite boring. The cast is annoying with the exception of Tobin. They didn't make me laugh and they certainly didn't make me care about there fates'. Most of all Buried Alive goes a good thirty or forty minutes before anything scary or gory happens, and then you have another long wait to the end. Your just stuck with the lame interaction of the characters lounging about, really not doing much. Tobin Bell is the only bright spot here. Now a couple things barely save this from a one rating, and thats a few much welcome moments of nudity, and maybe two kills done much better in Wrong Turn 2. Still it's so awfully boring for so long that I was actually just looking at the back of the DVD case for the running time, to see how long my misery would last. As an easy to please critic I give Buried Alive a "very" generous 3 rating. Kurtzman's other new film The Rage actually looks quite good, so I'll forgive this effort.

Two college students Rene (Leah Rachel) and Zane (Terence Jay) invite their friends (Erin Lokitz, Lindsay Scott, Steve Sandvoss and Germaine De Leon) to their family ranch for the weekend somewhere in the desert. Which like any college students, they just want to have a wild party and getting laid. The Caketaker (Tobin Bell) is been trying to look for gold in the house. He accidentally digs the dead body of a old witch. Her spirit wants revenge and one by one, they are killed by this vengeful ghost.

Directed by Robert Kurtzman (The Demolitionlist, The Rage, Wishmaster) made an pretty dull, lifeless supernatural slasher horror film with some neat special effects and good production values can't save it. Most of the college students are pretty unlikeable in the movie expect for Scott as the cute blonde. Only Bell seems to be having any real fun with his supporting role, he is the only one to give some class in this movie. Kurtzman's previous features are more fun than this. Especially he's one of the best make-up artists around and he owns an independent film production titled "Precient 13". Which he is named after John Carpenter's cult classic "Assault on Precient 13". Too bad this premise is very uninteresting and even Horror fans will find boring. (* ½/*****).