20140322: Horror Review--Buried Alive

Buried Alive

1. Fundamentals, reception.
1. American live action feature length film, 2007, UR, 94 minutes, horror, supernatural.
2. IMDB: 4.0/10.0 from 1,549 audience ratings.
3. Rotten Tomatoes: 'No score yet..' and 13% liked it from 685 audience ratings.
4. Netflix: 3.0/5.0 from 30,239 audience ratings.
5. Directed by: Robert Kurtzman.
6. Starring: Terence Jay as Zane, Leah Rachel as Rene, Tobin Bell as Lester, Erin Reese as Laura, Steve Sandvoss as Danny, Lindsey Scott as Julie, Germaine Scott Grimes as Phil.


2. Setup and Plot
1. The protagonists are in their late teens or early twenties and in some college somewhere in New Mexico, USA.  The characters are Rene, who seems to have a lot of bad dreams; Zane (Rene's cousin), who's looking for a lost fortune from his family's history; Phil, the nerd who's helping Zane; Danny, who's cool for some unseen reason;  Julie (dressed as cow) and Laura (dressed as dog), two sorority pledges who try to make Rene happy.


2. The six of them head out to the desert to find the 'treasure.'  In parallel, Lester has been digging for gold out in the sticks, and seems to find some early on.


3. Zane starts seeing things.  He does a panic stop at freeway speed to avoid running over someone; no one else sees anything.  Oi.  The group meets Lester, who is the caretaker for Zane's family's deserted house.  There is friction there from the beginning.


4. Rene makes Phil tell the rest of the group about Zane's request for  research on the family history.  This is a bit troubled, but also seems a bit hard to have documented.  The common great grandfather of Rene and Zane had two wives. When Phil goes outside for a better signal, someone kills him.


5. The group gets into a discussion of ancient totems and symbols.  They find pictures of the great-grandfather's two wives; both of them wore the necklace which Rene currently wears. Laura has the symbol on the necklace tattooed on the back of her neck.


6. Rene sends Laura (dressed in boots) to bring back something from Lester's trailer.  She gets there, selects a stuffed rabbit, and returns.  Julie (dressed in jeans, poor choice; her feet suffer) makes the run to Lester's next.  Zane carries Julie back after the ankle injury.


7. Still, no one checks on Phil, who is dead, but propped up in the car.  After so many hours one might think they would notice something.


8. Looks like an elimination derby.   How many of the remaining five will survive?  Do Rene and Zane figure out the knot in their ancestors' history in time for it to do anyone any good?


3. Conclusions
1. One line summary: Good visuals, but not much of a story in this teen slasher film.
2. Two stars of five.


4. Scores
1. Cinematography: 10/10 Well done, no complaints.


2. Sound: 5/10 Leveling problems, conversation versus 'music.'  The music during the credits was really hideous.


3. Acting: 4/10 Germaine Scott Grimes, Steve Sandvoss: useless. Lindsey Scott, Leah Rachel, Erin Reese: not that good.  Terence Jay: almost OK.  Tobin Bell: rather good in an extended cameo.


4. Screenplay: 2/10 The central threat, the motivation for the revenge, and the ending did not make a lick of sense.  What was the point of the Danny character, except to supply drugs?  What was the point of the Phil character, except to slam people with computer skills?  What was the point of the Julie character except her pneumatic figure?  The characters Rene, Zane, and Laura were not interesting enough to make up for the general lack of story.