The horror genre is filled with immense talents who left the world too soon, and the great Dan O’Bannon sits high among them. As writer/co-writer, he’s the man behind genre gems like Dark Star, Alien, Lifeforce, Total Recall, and more, and as director, he gifted horror fans with 1991’s The Resurrected and the all-time classic horror-comedy that is 1985’s The Return of the Living Dead.
Some of his movies were hits right out of the gate, but most took the longer path of becoming cult favorites over time. 1981’s Dead & Buried – co-written by O’Bannon and directed by Gary Sherman – is one of those latter titles, and while it was pummeled at the box office by Peter Hyams’ Outland, its creepy vibes, grisly Stan Winston effects, and dark sense of humor have continued to earn it fans in the decades since.
We recently passed the 45th anniversary of Dead & Buried, and that makes it the perfect choice for this week’s Commentary column, as I know readers love seeing me cover older films. Every time I scan and skim the comments, it seems to be what you’re clamoring for, so let’s get to it!
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the 2021 commentary for…
Dead & Buried (1981)
Commentators: Troy Howarth (film historian), Nathaniel Thompson (film historian)
1. They refer to the film as a “California Gothic,” and that’s a pretty great subgenre framing. Side note: it was filmed in California, but it’s meant to take place in Maine. I’d argue that something like Messiah of Evil is equally fitting of the term.
2. The score is by Joe Renzetti, who originally crafted it with suite transitions in the belief that it was getting released as a soundtrack album. The film tanked, unfortunately, so those plans were scuttled (although this release includes a soundtrack CD). He won an Academy Award for The Buddy Holly Story, and he also worked with John Carpenter on his 1979 TV film, Elvis. Carpenter had wanted to do that score himself, but ABC and producer Dick Clark nixed the idea. Renzetti’s working relationship with Carpenter on the film was a bit uncomfortable as a result.
3. Howarth points out Lisa Blount’s initial appearance and adds that she’s in two of his favorite cult classic horror films from the 1980s: this one and John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness. I can’t argue with his assessment, but there are varying degrees of fun to be had in her less memorable 80s genre fare too, including What Waits Below, Cut and Run, Annihilator, and Nightflyers.
4. The film was budgeted around five to six million dollars, and roughly half a million of that went to Stan Winston’s effects work. This leads them to their third John Carpenter mention when they add that Winston did some unheralded work on 1982’s The Thing.
5. Thompson recalls seeing the novelization on store shelves months before the film was released. The book, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, is a terrific horror novelization as it does a great job exploring the story and fleshing out some of the film’s themes and characters. (My favorite horror novelization, though, remains The Funhouse by Dean Koontz.) Howarth adds that the choice to release the novel so early – it came out in 1980, and the film was released in 1981 – probably undercut the film marketing that was trying to build suspense around the story’s big twist.
6. The film was distributed by AVCO Embassy Pictures, which allows for another mention of John Carpenter, as he was the independent studio’s biggest draw at the time with films like The Fog and Escape from New York.
7. Director Gary Sherman had an issue with the MPAA on this film, similar to what happened on his Poltergeist III later that decade, but it’s not the problem you’re expecting. Both movies were initially granted a PG rating, but that wasn’t what their respective distributors wanted to hear, meaning reshoots were called for to add in some bloody punctuation. Talking about Sherman allows for a welcome plug of the filmmaker’s feature debut, 1972’s Death Line, which is also available in a slick release from Blue Underground.
8. Thompson draws a connective theme between this and some of co-writer Dan O’Bannon’s other films, including Alien, Return of the Living Dead, and Total Recall. They all touch on what it means to be human and the idea of the expendability of humanity. Androids, the casual need for collateral damage, virtual replacements – O’Bannon frequently explored our value in the face of how easy it is to replace or eliminate us.
9. The unforgettable needle in the eyeball bit at 30:36 sees the pair bring up other examples of memorable eye violence, starting with Strange Behavior, which was released the same year and also featured a syringe into the eye. Others referenced include Zombie, Black Sunday, The New York Ripper, Halloween 2 (which allows for yet another John Carpenter mention, as he directed the bloody insert), The Beyond, and Luis Buñuel’s “Un Chien Andalou.”
10. They share an appreciation for the film’s lead, James Farentino, and mention that he also stars in another Blue Underground release, the fun sci-fi thriller The Final Countdown. Farentino’s horror output is fairly limited beyond Dead & Buried, with only a handful of titles including Violent Midnight and The Possessed.
11. The film – or, at least, the script rewrite by O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett – was originally much more tongue-in-cheek, but it was reshaped to be more pure of a horror movie. There are still some humorous moments here, of course, but its released version is a spooky, creepy, atmospheric delight.
12. The pair share an appreciation of Michael Pataki, who has a small role here as the cemetery worker. His work in the horror genre is fairly extensive and includes Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, The Baby, Graduation Day, Sweet Sixteen, The Return of Count Yorga, Grave of the Vampire, and more. Howarth expresses a particular love for 1977’s Zoltan: Hound of Dracula, which makes the film’s very small fanbase that I’m a part of one person bigger.
13. They draw an interesting comparison between Dobbs (Jack Albertson) and makeup effects artists on films. Dobbs says, as part of his motivation for restoring people to life as zombies (effectively), that it’s frustrating when he does such great work restoring their faces to presentable form only to then bury people in the ground where no one can see. Similarly, Howarth says, “the best effects work is typically the stuff that you don’t even notice.” One great example is the eye violence referenced in #9 above – you know it’s a dummy that gets the needle in its eye, but did you know it was a dummy in the previous shots, too? Kudos to you if you did.
14. This track is the fourth audio commentary for the film to be commissioned by Blue Underground. Their earlier releases on Blu-ray and DVD featured new (at the time) commentaries from Sherman, Shusett, actor Linda Turley, and cinematographer Steven Poster. This Howarth/Thompson commentary was newly recorded for the 4K release, and they tried not to duplicate what’s been said before.
Quotes Without Context
“He’d already played Buck who liked to, you know what, in Eaten Alive for Tobe Hooper.”
“In the 1980s, to put out a horror film with a PG rating, that was suicide.”
“There was something about eyeball violence in the air in 1981.”
“I don’t think he was ever happy with anything that he had a hand in.”
“I like films, personally, that don’t spell everything out and we don’t get into the big, expository reveal at the end.”
“Just because you’re accustomed to seeing a grainy, nasty-looking VHS growing up doesn’t mean that’s what that film is meant to look like.”
“If it’s two dead people having marital relations, is that still necrophilia?”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.