This is a real sleeper, although the presence of screenwriter Dan O’Bannon’s (‘Alien’) name in the credits automatically assures us we are in for a treat. And this is most certainly the case; ‘Dead and Buried’ is a real class act. James Farentino is excellent as the bewildered sheriff of the small American fishing community of Potter’s Bluff. And the opening scene, in which an unsuspecting photographer is burned alive in broad daylight, still shocks more than twenty years after the film’s release. To reveal too much of the plot would be to spoil the surprise; suffice it to say that it involves a series of bizarre and brutal murders investigated by Farentino’s character.

Stan Winston provides some great special makeup effects; witness the particularly gruesome sequence in which a man is embalmed… while still alive! Also, Lisa Blount appears as the seductive young lady on the beach in the opening scene (she can be seen in ‘John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness’), and watch out for a fledgling Robert Englund before he rose to international stardom as serial killer Freddy Krueger in the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ franchise. ‘Dead and Buried”s final twist is really kick-ass and wonderfully macabre, and it wraps up a creepy, atmospheric outing. Definitely worth a look.