Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163917 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-07
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 76 minutes

Amazon.com
Newly appointed cemetery chairman Robert Craft (Richard Boone) notices some odd things about his new post: a creepy sense of déjà vu, an inability to get heat in the caretaker's shack, and Andy the caretaker's Scottish accent, one of the thickest in all cinematic history. Craft soon discovers to his horror that sticking pins into his map of the cemetery seems to make people die. As if this weren't bad enough, no one believes him. As Craft grows more and more distraught, his forehead covered in some of the most brightly glistening sweat you've ever seen, people keep trying to prove it's all a coincidence by getting him to stick more and more pins in the map. Though hilariously overwrought, I Bury the Living does take a couple of nice creepy twists at the end. Never before has a movie so eloquently made the case for keeping cemetery records in a text-only database. --Ali Davis

Customer Reviews

A Cult Classic, Not to Be Missed!
This one is a real puzzler, and I was caught off-guard at the end. It's surprisingly good for a low budget horror film, going for the brain rather than the jugular.

The film is a horror/psychological thriller. Richard Boone plays a man who is part of a trustee group. Part of the duties of the members is to take turns overseeing a private cemetery.

Boone finds a map in the cemetery office that shows the occupied and unoccupied plots marked with white or black pins.

Boone discovers that when he places a black pin in a plot that is unoccupied, the owner dies. Is Boone going mad, or does he really have the power to bury the living?

This is an entertaining film, very creative and stylized. Boone often said it was his personal favorite, and he was proud to have worked on the film.

Pin me!
Bob Kraft (Richard Boone) believes there is a sinister relationship between a string of recent deaths and black pins in a map of cemetery plots. This movie is an intriguing blend of The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock. Kraft, the innocent man caught in what appears to be a supernatural conundrum, suffers the torments of the damned. Each black pin he sticks in the map causes another person to die, or so he thinks. Boone is effective as a bewildered victim, caught in a web of mystery, a contrast to his tough guy roles. Take special notice of the large map on the wall of the caretaker's cottage. It is the mute monster of our story. White pins mean that the plot is sold, but not yet occupied. Black pins mean that the dear departed has, well, departed. Switching the pins before death appears to hasten the process. Hence, the mystery. The roads of the map twist, turn, and curve until they resemble a disjointed human face that sneers at the puny man. Kraft alerts the police that he is responsible for the recent deaths, but the cops are skeptical. The deceased people expired from natural causes. Classic TV fans will recognize Herbert Anderson (Henry Mitchell of "Dennis the Menace") as an owlish reporter. This little thriller is a classic horror gem. The presentation is low budget, but the result is superior. Ownership is a definite must. ;-)

One of my all-time favorite obscure movies
I BURY THE LIVING stars Richard Boone as a new cemetery caretaker who believes the cemetery plot map has ... special properties. The map shows all the plots, with a black pin indicating the plot is occupied and a white pin indicating the plot is reserved. Boone accidentally puts in black pins when a young couple make their plot arrangements, and the couple's subsequent tragic death seriously shakes him. He begins to obsess about the map, and eventually wonders what will happen if he replaces a black pin with a white one...

A fairly average story (admittedly rather "Twilight Zone" in style) is lifted immeasurably by the incredibly creative and imaginative cinematography and production design. As the map and its powers loom larger and larger in Boone's mind, so too does the map itself grow in size, eventually dominating the caretaker's office like a giant cyclopean seeing-eye. The imagery presented in the film is unforgettable.

I almost hesitate to mention the slightly disappointing ending because (A) it's really not THAT disappointing, and (B) it's so much fun getting there. This new release marks the first time the movie's been available in an VHS-SP edition (earlier video editions have been a fair VHS-EP copy and an excellent laserdisc). Now that it's readily available in a good edition for a small amount of money, you owe it to your collection and to your B-movie-loving self to see this overlooked gem!