A film that arrived early in the 80's horror cycle and fell completely by the wayside upon its theatrical release in 1981 though it found a following after the video release due mainly to the fact that the deranged BBFC (British Censor) found it worthy of including on its list of "obscene" films and slapped a ban on it which has only just recently been lifted. The film was also noted by genre fans due to its much hyped association with Alien as both movies had been scripted by the team of Dan O'Bannon and Ron Shussett.

This film did in fact come as a bit of a refreshing change in an era that was almost entirely dominated by masked knife-wielding maniacs of the Michael Myers and Jason variety. It kicks off in promising fashion in a sleepy, gloomy coastal town by the name of Potters Bluff where a visiting photographer snapping the derelict scenery comes across a blonde siren and when he approaches her upon her beckoning, things get seriously out of hand ending in the photographer being roasted alive at the hands of the demented locals. James Farentino plays the sheriff of the town where events have him utterly flummoxed what with visitors seemingly meeting horribly accidents and then recovering from them quite miraculously - after that they seem to stay on in Potters Bluff for some reason or the other as happy citizens of the community. The towns mortician cum coroner is a bozarre old fellow with a taste for 40's swing which he prances along to while patching up his cadavers.

As Farentino struggles to make head or tale of events the audience is shown that many of the towns' inhabitants are involved in the murderous attacks upon the visitors for dark reasons which will be revealed in a chilling finale of mounting horror. The basic idea of the movie is not far removed from Invasion of the Body Snatchers or even Stepford Wives but the makers of the film seem to be unsure of what kind of film they wanted to make, and who they wanted to appeal to. The film's emphasis on gore effects and make up seem to take precedent for the first two thirds or so and then the mystery element takes over in the far superior last third where the dark and sinister events take over and the gore effects take the back seat.

The first half of the movie is a little muddled and appears to be re-treading areas visited by famous horror classics from the past, and therefore the plot twists are also rather familiar and unsurprising. In fact most people would have guessed exactly what the final twists will reveal long before they arrive on screen. Yet despite the predictability of the plot when the finale arrives it is quite a showstopper and well worth the wait - almost saving the film from rising above its own confusion. The murky, shadowy and ultimately shocking events will satisfy most horror fans even if the more mainstream fans will reject Dead and Buried. Almost everything about this movie appears to be on the right track yet there is something not immediately identifiable that is missing. Perhaps that it is largely an amalgam of other, better films of the past is its main drawback. However despite its obvious weaknesses the film still has enough going for it to distinguish it from most of the slasher garbage that was being conveyor belted during the early 80's along with an ending that will stay in the memory for a while to come.

The reason the film fell foul of the Mary Whitehouse lobby contained in the BBFC was no doubt due to the graphic gore scenes particularly the eye being stabbed by needle scene which was quite a shocker and the very fake looking death by acid injection scene - but hardly worth banning the film for considering the kind of gore that is available on many video games which are aimed squarely at the teen market. The British censors under James Ferman became famous for their schizophrenic censor policies and the placing of this film along with stuff like Funhouse, Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The ten times Oscar nominated The Exorcist was quite farcical.