Coventry Review of The Premature Burial

The Premature Burial (1962)

Terrific Gothic horror! Actually phobia-evoking!!

[8/10 · 26 August 2005]

Being a huge admirer of the legendary Vincent Price, I (and I'm sure many Price fans with me) constantly had to suppress prejudices on Ray Milland's acting performance. Not that he's a bad actor or anything; it's just that Vincent portrayed the protagonist in the other 6 entries of Corman's Poe cycle and you can't help wondering that he would play certain sequences a lot better and more "Poe-like". That being said, "The Premature Burial" still definitely is a marvelous and warmly recommended horror film with a haunting Gothic atmosphere and a handful of ultra-macabre sequences. The screenplay suffers a little from its own ingenious and titular gimmick, though… The story handles about a man living with the incontrollable fear of being buried alive, so you can bet your bottom dollar on the fact that this will happen as a matter-of-course, no matter how waterproof his precautions are. Luckily enough, Roger Corman has directors-talent in abundance so he easily sails around the predictability of the story by focusing on the uncanny set pieces and morbid atmosphere. Overwhelming the viewer with typically Gothic aspects (thunderstorms, fog-enshrouded cemeteries, eerie vaults…) Corman actually camouflages that several of the sub-plots are poorly (or even not at all) elaborated. Like, for example, the grave-robbing business or the whole murder-conspiracy near the end. Notably sardonic (and downright brilliant) is the sequence in which Milland shows his wife and best friend around the tomb he designed himself, complete with numerous escape-routes in case his worst nightmare should come true. Great stuff!