I BURY THE LIVING (1958)

Director: Albert Band

Writer: Louis Garfinkle

Producers: Louis Garfinkle, Albert Band

Cast: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel, Peggy Maurer, Herbert Anderson, Howard Smith, Robert Osterloh, (and uncredited cast members) Russ Bender, Ken Drake, Glen Vernon, Lynette Bernay, Cyril Delevanti, Matt Moore

Department store president Robert Kraft (Richard Boone) becomes the newly appointed chairman of the Immortal Hills Cemetery. In the rustic cottage serving as his office on the cemetery grounds, there is a huge wall map of the entire cemetery and its plots. Graves that have received their dead are marked with black stickpins and plots reserved for those still living are marked with white stickpins. When a young couple (Glen Vernon and Lynette Bernay) who had just reserved a pair of cemetery plots dies in an automobile accident, Kraft notices that he had accidentally already marked their reserved graves with black pins instead of white ones. Kraft becomes disturbed by the notion that he may have the power to cause deaths with the graveyard map.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

I Bury the Living is one helluva lot of creepy fun. I really dig its very clever variation on voodoo. Instead of sticking pins in a doll to kill the person it represents, black pins stuck in a person’s reserved burial place on a cemetery map does the deadly deed. This is a truly inspired gimmick that sets this morbid movie apart from anything else in the horror film genre of the time.

Director Albert Band pulls out all the cinematic stops to rev up the overwhelming paranoia generated by Robert Kraft’s fear of his suspected paranormal ability. Chiaroscuro lighting, optical effects, macro photography, jarring cuts, suggestive sounds, and prolonged silences are all calculated to play the horrible head game happening to the guilt-ridden and frightened protagonist.

Composer Gerald Fried was on a roll at this time doing effective horror film scores. His spine-tingling music is just as crucial a creep factor as the lighting, editing, and performances.

Speaking of performances, the always-interesting Richard Boone conveys guilt and terror very effectively. Close-ups of Boone’s unusual, rugged features breaking out in a cold sweat as his eyes glaze over in shell-shocked dread are very effective. Boone underplays at the same time the cinematography and music are accentuating the damage to his character’s nerves and sanity. Throughout I Bury the Living, Richard Boone’s performance is low-keyed and sensitive until he dashes about to confront his fears as the story approaches its climax.

Peggy Maurer plays Robert Kraft’s beautiful fiancée Ann Craig. Her character is more than just a pretty face to make us admire or envy Robert Kraft. Their scenes together demonstrate a tender compatibility that helps us empathize with our increasingly traumatized hero. Just as vital for the audience is that it seems Kraft has exerted a touch of psychic ability with Ann. This, as well as Kraft’s déjà vu experiences since childhood, makes it believable that he could arrive at the assumption that he has the supernatural power to kill when he sticks his black pins in the Immortal Hills map.

As if Robert Kraft cracking under the strain of guilt and dread was not bad enough, the old cemetery caretaker Andy McKee also manages to chip away at his composure. Speaking with a Scottish burr thicker than a tombstone, Theodore Bikel’s character is both amusing and annoying to Kraft and the audience. He is a kindly and dedicated 40-year cemetery employee that is constantly warbling folk songs as he chisels away at gravestones, much to the nerve-racked Kraft’s irritation. Andy provides a space heater for Kraft's dank cottage office that only Andy seems able to light up. He also begins to share Kraft’s dread of the graveyard map and of Kraft’s deadly potential. Andy McKee is not a very reassuring character to have around, even if he knows when and where to have a snort with the boss.

 I Bury the Living builds up relentlessly and masterfully to its crazed climax. It is that conclusion that seems to disappoint some viewers, even if they enjoy everything that precedes it. That horror writing maestro himself Stephen King loves the film but hates the ending. I for one appreciate the story’s insane twist that pulls the rug out from under our expectations. The film still ends with just a touch of unsettling ambiguity.

This film’s theme is that the supposedly sophisticated man in modern society is still very close to stumbling into the pit of superstitious fear. It drives home the humbling point that we still don’t have all the answers and things may happen we can’t rationally explain. That can be both frustrating and terrifying.

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