Dead & Buried

Dead & Buried (1981)

Timing: 1:34 (94 min)

6.403/10
268

6.172/10
1124

6.5/10
17000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 15

Actors and characters

Release date

1981-05-29

Country

United States

Production

Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance

Genre

Horror, Mystery

Budget

$3 000 000

Revenue

$216 166

Website

Director

Gary Sherman

Actors

James Farentino, Melody Anderson, Jack Albertson, Dennis Redfield, Nancy Locke, Lisa Blount, Robert Englund, Bill Quinn, Michael Currie, Christopher Allport
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Ronald Shusett, Robert Fentress, Richard R. St. Johns

Operator

Steven Poster

Composer

Joe Renzetti

Artist

Audition

Linda Francis

Editing

Alan Balsam
All team (80)

• The original title translates as “Dead and Buried,” but the title “Dead, But Not Buried” more accurately reflects the film’s plot.
• Stan Winston (1946-2008) created the special effects for the film. Among other things, these effects included a mechanical mannequin lying on the hospital bed of the character played by Christopher Allport (1947-2008). Winston’s mannequin was made very realistically and could even move, making it appear convincingly like a real person, which was even more shocking to the viewer when an needle was inserted into the pupil of its eye.
• During filming, director Gary Sherman went to great lengths to avoid showing any red color in any of the scenes. This is what made the appearance of blood in the murder scenes so unexpectedly shocking. To the same end, he even ordered that the red taillights of cars be replaced with purple ones.
• On the day the first beach scene with Christopher Allport and Lisa Blount (1957-2010) was filmed, the weather was, in Gary Sherman’s opinion, far too good and sunny. The film crew had to erect a huge canvas and make it hang from the cliff to block the sun.
• Due to the strict legislation regulating child labor, the filmmakers were unable to obtain permission to use the child actors playing Jamie for nighttime filming. Considering that everything with the children happened exclusively at night, the film crew was forced to build a huge tent under which a family car, a haunted house, and everything else needed to create the illusion of night could fit. Fans were installed inside the tent to dissipate the stuffiness. Unfortunately, they worked so loudly that all these scenes had to be dubbed during post-production. That's why you can see Nancy Lock’s lips moving even when she is silent.
• The scene in which Robert Boler’s character parks his car at the gas station next to the car of the character played by James Farentino (1938-2012) was filmed from inside the latter’s car.
• In the surgery scene featuring the surgeon played by Jack Albertson (1907-1981), the hands shown actually belong to Stan Winston, not him.
• One of the most innovative special effects in the film was the severed hand on the car radiator grille. The hand was a prop, but it was able to move – all this long before the advent of sophisticated animatronics and robotics. An actress hidden under the hood of the car was manipulating it.
• A nurse (played by Lisa Blount) enters the hospital room, approaches the patient (a mannequin completely bandaged, with only one eye visible), and plunges a needle directly into his eye. This special effect was conceived by Stan Winston, and he was very proud of it. The eye injection was filmed in reverse. A tiny hole was drilled in the mannequin's pupil, and when the take began, the needle was already inserted into it, with the eye closed. On the command of “Action!”, the actress pulled the needle out of the pupil, and the eye opened. During editing, this scene was reversed and inserted into the film, creating the illusion that the needle is entering the pupil.
• During production, the film was edited and re-edited numerous times. Initially, the attack on the family occurred later in the film, after the murder of the hitchhiker, which is why the resurrected hitchhiker can be spotted among the attackers in the scene with the family in the old house.
• Special effects for the film were created by Stan Winston. Among other things, these special effects included a mechanical mannequin lying on a hospital bed – it could move, making it appear like a real person.
• During filming, director Gary Sherman tried to remove the color red to make the sight of blood in the murder scenes more shocking. For the same reason, red headlights on the cars were replaced with purple ones.
• On the day they filmed the first scene on the beach, the weather was good and sunny. The film crew had to construct a huge canvas to hang from the cliff and block out the sun.
• Due to the strict laws regarding child labor, the filmmakers were unable to obtain permission for nighttime filming with the child actors playing Jamie. The plot required the scenes with the children to take place at night, so the film crew erected a huge tent and placed both the family car and the haunted house inside it. Fans were also installed in the tent to dissipate the stuffiness, and they operated so loudly that all these scenes had to be re-dubbed, which is why the lips of the character Nancy Lock move even when she is silent.
• The scene in which Robert Boler's character parks his car at the gas station next to the car of James Farentino’s character was filmed from inside the latter's car.
• In the surgery scene featuring the surgeon played by Jack Albertson, the hands actually belong to Stan Winston.
• The shot of the needle going into the mannequin's eye was filmed in reverse. A tiny hole was drilled into the mannequin's pupil, and at the beginning the needle was already sticking out of it, while the eye was closed. The actress pulled the needle out of the pupil, and the eye opened.
• One of the most innovative special effects in the film was the severed hand caught in a car radiator grille. An actress hidden under the car's hood was moving it.
• The film was re-edited many times during production. Initially, the attack on the family happened later, after the murder of the hitchhiker, which is why the resurrected hitchhiker can be spotted among the attackers in the scene with the family in the old house.
• The original title translates as 'Dead and Buried,' but the film's plot is more accurately reflected by the title 'Dead But Not Buried.'