5 college kids go to a country house belonging to the relatives of some of them. There's the nerd, 2 cousins Zane and Rene, Rene's boyfriend and 2 sorority pledges who for the weekend have to obey whatever the Rene says. Zane though has found out that there might be gold on the property which would come in handy since he's a good-for-nothing on academic probation.They party on the way there in a spectacular Cadillac. But Zane starts having visions of some lady that looks like a witch. Once they get there, the caretaker is the obligatory creepy guy. Soon the nerd is killed brutally. The witch seeks other victims but is allergic to Indian talismans which one of the pledges has tattooed on her.The kids find a box that tells them the family secrets. Some forefather married an Indian girl but buried her alive to marry a second lady. Rene inherited the talisman from her Indian ancestor who's come back to seek revenge. As the kids fool around more of them start dying until Zane and Rene confront the ghost.Buried Alive is a high quality B horror movie- small cast, few locations, CGI gore effects. But it's a great looking movie, has a very likable and attractive cast, and a decent story. Lindsey Scott is particularly lovely. The relationships among the teenagers is well portrayed and the dialog is natural. No bickering teens screaming at each other for hours, thankfully. These are normal kids, not wanna-be actors in a reality show casting. Sure, the story could have used a bit more of an edge, it could have been scarier, and the CGI gore could have been replaced by real effects. Still, I enjoyed this movie a great deal. When you think B horror movie, this is the kind of movie you want to see- with pretty girls, some nudity, gory death scenes. The ending is not what you expect in horror movies or movies in general, it's surprising and courageous, but the final scene is a bit too sudden and gives the movie an unfinished note. I'm surprised the director and writer aren't doing more work. They are good at what they do and together make a good team.

BURIED ALIVE is directed by Robert Kurtzman and went straight-to-DVD and exclusively to your local Blockbuster store. No doubt a copy ended in a bargain bin when Blockbuster went belly-up and dismantled a lot of their stores. The troubled Zane(Terence Jay)has flunked out of school and is so down took himself off of his meds. Cousin Rene(Leah Rachel)is wanting to extend a sorority hazing by accepting Zane's offer of taking a road trip to an abandoned family home complete with old gold mine. Rene's boyfriend Danny(Steve Sandvoss)is joined by two sorority girls(Erin Reese and Lindsey Scott)and a nerdy friend(Germaine De Leon)of Zane's as the group heads out to be frightened and violated and more. Adding to the atmosphere is the grounds keeper Lester(Tobin Bell), a bit quirky and a true touch of scary. There is the rumor of a an ancient curse being guarded and carried out by a vengeful spirit. Some gruesome images as well as some nudity. Wonder why it went straight to video?

I think the creators of Buried Alive took a dare. Someone said I bet you can't make a good horror/slasher flick and they said 'oh yes we can...you need hot buxom girls too old to be teenagers, gratuitous nudity, an old man, a haunted house, and some gory death and its gonna be perfect.' In all fairness that idea doesn't sound half bad. However the makers of the film managed to prove that there does need to be something else and if you asked me to nail something down I would say a far more solid story was necessary to really make Buried Alive worthwhile. Its true enough that they had some of the recipe right and for horror fans its decent enough to entertain but it certainly won't blow your mind and essentially it will leave you feeling like you need more out of it and that's just disappointing. Buried Alive is part ghost story, part slasher flick and part cheap thrills and cheap scares. All can be worthwhile especially if you're aiming to make something more cheesy. However Buried Alive sadly doesn't even hit the level of cheese, and it falls short of being serious or truly scary so it sits in limbo and therein lies the problem.Most of this cast are newcomers or at the very least early in their acting career and I'm not sure that this film will boost them in any way. The characters don't get a lot of back story and they are mostly shallow in the writing. I could easily lump most of them into one swoop of a category. The lead college 'kids' are played by Leah Rachel, Erin Reese, Germaine De Leon, Terence Jay, Steve Sandvoss, and Lindsey Scott. They all fit their extremely stereotypical roles and purpose. The bimbos, the jocks, the sorority girl and the geek. They all have one single purpose and they look the role and therefore do a decent job at it and yet its a shame none of them really get to flex any acting muscles at all even being scream queens or horror hunks. Then you have the man who is becoming synonymous with horror Mr. Tobin Bell who is always awesome and actually does have a more meaty role and is fun to watch. He is appropriately creepy and has great screen presence and ups the ante on the film just enough to be reasonably watchable.Special effects master Robert Kurtzman helms the film. I call him a master mostly because he has had some incredible experience doing special effects over the last three decades and even has a classic horror (more cheese than horror) Wes Craven's Wishmaster. Still his directorial experience is limited and he just seems to want to crank this out and get it over with. Considering his experience with special effects I would also have expected to see more in that field in this film although there are some bloody, and cool death scenes its nothing extreme. Also there is a lack of people in the film to be victims so you can only get so much out of the film from a horror/blood perspective. Buried Alive is campy but worst of all it is slow and not incredibly endearing. It won't stay in my horror collection and if you have the choice I would avoid this one because it isn't going to provide you with a favorite by any means. Maybe more can be done with some future (certainly straight to DVD) sequels but we will see. 6/10

Synopsis: A group of college kids at an abandoned house pull a prank that sets loose a murderous ghost.Review: There's something strange, these days and in the past, that often happens to stars of major horror films. After their success, even if their fame is not at an end, they will star in random paycheck movies simply because they're asked, regardless of the quality of the film. Buried Alive is that paycheck for Saw-series star Tobin Bell (Jigsaw). When it comes to a straight-to-video slasher film like this (especially one marketed by the usually trustworthy Dimension Extreme), there are certain things horror fans have come to expect: Heavy gore, attractive women (who, most often, take off their clothes), and, at the very least, some entertainment. Unfortunately, even on as 'unrated,' the film does not deliver on the blood & guts. There is some violence, but not enough, and the result of the violence doesn't have enough splatter. The women are attractive, so they did deliver to us the eye candy. And, as far as entertainment and enjoyment go, well. . . it varied. At some points, the film is a good time and worth a few laughs. Other times, however, the film turns into a bit of a slow-drag bore (especially during the sorority stuff). From the plot to the effects, there's nothing here that hasn't been seen dozens of times before, so if you're in need of some predictability with a bit of enjoyability, you might want to check this out. . . but, you can do a whole lot better.Final verdict: 4/10.-AP3-