The Premature Burial

1962 "Within the Coffin I Lie...ALIVE!"
6.5| 1h21m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 07 March 1962 Released
Producted By: American International Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

An artist grows distant from his new wife as an irrational horror of premature burial consumes him.

Genre

Horror

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Director

Roger Corman

Production Companies

American International Pictures

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The Premature Burial Audience Reviews

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.
BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.
Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.
Reno Rangan A very surprising mystery-thriller from the 60s that I usually won't write reviews for the old flicks, but for this one an exception. The film was based on the book of the same name that sets in the early 19th century. Since it was a short tale the film was just a 80 minutes long. It looked like the film 'Take Shelter', but while progressing its narration totally impressed me with the uniqueness in the development area. However, I did not understand the final scene after all those twists, yet it is obvious an agenda that was achieved.The cast was small and a single location concept where most of them takes place inside a building and its surroundings which were obviously settings. The story was very interesting with turns in every few minutes and incredible performances. This is not a popular film, but surely it deserves more attention for telling a quality tale. Or maybe a remake won't be a bad idea to make it more thrilling product with the availability of the present technical assistant. It is no masterpiece like Hitchcock films, but still worth watching, so I recommend it.7/10
Claudio Carvalho The wealthy cataleptic painter Guy Carrell (Ray Milland) believes that he overheard his father, who also had catalepsy, crying in the crypt of his family when he was a kid and is obsessed by the fear of being buried alive. He leaves his fiancée Emily Gault (Hazel Court) and lives alone with his sister Kate Carrell (Heather Angel) in the family manor. However Emily seeks him out and convinces Guy to marry her, despite the disapproval of Kate, promising that she would never bury him without the certainty of his death by her friend, Dr. Miles Archer (Richard Ney), and her father Dr. Gideon Gault (Alan Napier). After the wedding, Guy does not travel in honeymoon to Venice, as he had promised to Emily, and builds a crypt with safety devices to avoid that he is trapped alive inside. However Emily and Miles convince him to demolish the building. Guy has nightmares and visions with the gravediggers and weird events happen in the mansion. He decides to prove that is cured of his fear and opens his father grave, but someone has moved his skeleton and Guy is diagnosed of heart attack. However he is catatonic indeed and is buried alive as he has always feared. Will be the end of Guy? Who might have caused the shock on Guy? "Premature Burial" is a creepy tale of paranoid obsession and madness, with good scenarios and locations and good acting. Ray Milland is a great actor but does seem to be miscast for the role of Guy Carrell that should be of an insane man instead of so dramatic. The conclusion is disappointing with the overprotective Kate disclosing the mystery after killing her insane brother. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): Not Available on VHS / DVD / Blu-Ray
mamalv I am not a big fan of horror movies, but watched this one because of the great Ray Milland. Since others have reviewed that Vincent Price would have been a better choice, I disagree completely. Milland gives a wonderful portrayal of a man living a nightmarish preoccupation with death. His father, he believes was buried alive, and he is afraid he will follow the same terrible fate. Milland still has the looks to be believable as the newly married man, with a younger woman so so in love with him, or is she? The movie may be somewhat like GASLIGHT, where Charles Boyer is slowly driving Ingrid Bergman insane. The dimly lit home the caverns beneath, and the foggy woods where the bodies are buried, are a cinematic wonder. They almost look dreamlike as I would suppose that Corman had in mind. This is certainly one of Corman's best, mostly because of Milland's performance.
gavin6942 An artist (Ray Milland) grows distant from his new wife (Hazel Court) as an irrational horror of premature burial consumes him.The story of this film's creation is almost as interesting as the film itself. This film was the first one Roger Corman made after "The Intruder" flopped. While today "Intruder" is considered one of the highlights of his career, its failure at the time convinced Corman to stay with horror -- much to our benefit.Also of interest, Corman went to Pathe, rather than American International Pictures, in order to make this film. Thus, he had to cast Ray Milland rather than Vincent Price, who was under contract with AIP. Sam Arkoff, the head of AIP, was furious, and purchased the film back from Pathe (threatening to pull lab work from them) before it was made -- but after Milland was cast.Thus, we have only one of the two AIP Poe films without Price (the other is "Murders in the Rue Morgue", which also did not have Corman). Is this a blessing or a curse? Well, among horror fans, Vincent Price is probably the single greatest figure in history. However, in general, Milland is probably the better actor. So what we have here is a film that is probably less campy, less overly dramatic than it would have been with Price. This makes the tone somewhat different from the others in the series, but perhaps not in a bad way.Mike Mayo says "Corman makes the fullest possible use of a few richly decorated and fog-shrouded Gothic sets" and calls the story "a cracking good yarn." I completely agree on the sets. While the scenery is minimal (we rarely venture out of a single-room mausoleum), it works by being elaborate. The many-layered escape plan scene really is the highlight of the film.Like Mayo, Howard Maxford points out that we witness "the studio dry-ice machine working overtime." Indeed, if you remember nothing else about the outdoor scenes, you will recall the seemingly endless amounts of fog drifting by. Perhaps a bit too much?Overall, the story is well-told, well-paced, well-acted and builds up as it goes. Maybe the premise is a bit far-fetched, because even the severest case of catalepsy would require breathing, but it serves as a great plot device and I can handle that.Bonus: the legendary Dick Miller appears in a cameo role.