Directed by Gérard Kikoïne
A young woman goes to teach at the Ravenscroft Institute, a spooky old girls' school overrun by ants and staffed by some unusual types. Spurred on by a series of horrific hallucinations, she begins to investigate the mysterious disappearances of several students.
Todesschrei im Mädchenpensionat, Lost Girls, Θαμμένος Ζωντανός, Edgar Allan Poe's Buried Alive, エドガー・アラン・ポー 早すぎた埋葬, Sepolti vivi, Emparedada, Похороненный заживо, Élve eltemetve (Bosszú a sírból), Lost Girls - Verloren in der Dunkelheit, 乌鸦田医院, Diri Gömülenler, 烏鴉田醫院
South Africa 
USA 
UK18 
France France South Africa UK USA 
There are one too many plots and Poe adaptations jumbled together here - the best being a slasher with a Ronald Reagan masked killer at a boarding school - but I pretty much dug them all. This is best watched late at night with herbal enhancements, so you're not sure if you dozed and missed ten minutes or if the editor did.
Plus, Donald Pleasance (with a silly hairpiece and accent) shows up again as a weirdo doctor who spends too much alone time with the students at a bug-infested all-girls school.
"Buried Alive" or "Edgar Allan Poe's Buried Alive" is for sure a film that is buried. Mentioning the title and most mention or think of the Frank Darabont title "Buried Alive" (1990) that came out around the exact same time. Now this doesn't diminish the construction of the film within, just an added shortcoming to the film on why not many people have heard of it. Where other's find many hidden gems this way, this one is simply ok. Worth owning if you're a completionist of titles, not so much if your being selective with dynamic film.
There are some scattered Poe references in the film but nothing really fine tunes to a point. Honestly, I found myself becoming lost…
Therapist Robert Vaughn is experimenting with unconventional methods at a girls' reform school where girls are disappearing, the new teacher is haunted by dreams of people buried alive, and Donald Pleasence with a doofy haircut is wandering around constantly snacking. Plus, John Carradine pops up in his final film appearance but a portrait of him gets more screentime than the man himself. A jumbled mix of slasher with a Ronald Reagan masked killer, hallucinations and dream sequences featuring lots of ants, mad scientist movie, and a bunch of unexplained close ups of a black cat watching things unfold. Some interesting sequences but the movie's all over the place, doesn't fully commit to its sillier elements and the pacing's a bit too slow.
Not to be confused with Buried Alive starring Tim Matheson and Jennifer Jason Leigh from the same year (!) but made for TV. We liked that one and I reviewed it awhile back.
Things you will see in this screenplay claiming to be based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe:
- A black cat
- Visions of persons being walled in with bricks
Therein ends all of the Poe stuff. There’s also:
- Ronald Reagan-masked antagonist dumping and dragging bodies to the basement
- Creepier-than-usual Donald Pleasence attempting some kind of German accent
- A woman scalped by an electric hand mixer
- Playboy playmate Karen Witter and adult filmstar Ginger Lynn Allen miraculously remaining clothed for the duration…
A South African film made during its apartheid period, you may find viewing Buried Alive to be highly questionable based on the nature of the production. Those that continue on the journey, will find acting heavyweights that should also know better - including Robert Vaughn, Donald Pleasence and David Carradine in his final role. All the cast speaks English, and you don’t need the most random marriage proposal ever committed to celluloid to feel the Italian horror dream logic at play, but it’s there anyway! What tale of macabre madness have you stumbled upon? Why an Edgar Allan Poe yarn that could only created by the powerhouse producer team of the late great Harry Alan Towers and Avi Lerner.
Combining…
Coming to your theater, October 1990: an Edgar Allan Poe adaptation starring Robert Vaughn, Donald Pleasence, John Carradine ... and adult film star Ginger Lynn? You heard it here, folks!
Well, contrary to the title's claim, Edgar Allan Poe's Buried Alive (which was filmed in South Africa in 1989) is not actually based on any short stories by the revered literary master, although its killer's preference for suffocating victims by trapping them behind brick walls presumably derives from the Poe tales "The Black Cat" and "The Cask of Amontillado." It's possible that the author's name was added to differentiate the production from a TV movie that came out around the same time, Buried Alive by Frank Darabont, but it's just…
the most expected killer reveal ever
Watched the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray.
Not to be confused with the Frank Darabont film starring Tim Matheson released around the same time.
This must be part of the oddball Edgar Allen Poe 1989 adaptations featuring a couple of mesmerizing veterans in the form of Robert Vaughn, Donald Pleasance and John Carradine hamming it up like there's no tomorrow. The other titles being "The House of Usher (1989)" and "Masque of the Red Death (1989)".
Directed by French porn director Gérard Kikoïne, who's also responsible for "Edge of Sanity (1989)" starring Anthony Perkins, and featuring ex-porn star Ginger Lynn Allen in a mainstream role. Playboy playmate Karen Lorre is the lead having to star opposite our classy veterans in what feels like…
legit didn't realize I was watching the wrong movie until about 1/3 in but I wasn't about to stop watching something where a woman scalps herself with a hand mixer so we will consider it a (mostly) happy accident - Ginger Lynn and Donald Pleasance are a dream team
Ach I picked the wrong Buried Alive film, but I stuck with it cause I seen Edgar Allan Poe, and Donald Pleasence.
Shoot me now!
If I'm ever lying there watching someone brick me up in an attempt to bury me in a pit. Well I have to say I'd be silent chuckling to myself, yer cement is wet pal, I'll see you in an hour. Anyway lets not focus on those small details.
An electric whisk instead of a brush to dry your hair. I cant even fathom it, but it was a set up for and insane death scene. The FX were quite delicious, so points for that.
I watched on nibbling my snacks very much like the stout Donald Pleasance does throughout this film
I'm probably going to have a nightmare about this film tonight cause it was total pants. I'm trying my uptmost to put this in a dark place and brick it up.
creepy 80s gem that stakes out somewhere at the crossroads of a women in prison/reformatory/insane asylum and slasher film, fit with the coinciding absurdity one might expect would stitch itself to the seams of such oddity, including, but not limited to: Donald Pleasance donning a hairpiece, a Ronald Regan-masked menace, and skeletons of various Edgar Allen Poe references (if one would consider the titular event and the occasional black cat any sort of credit)—what should be a total disaster ends up being completely enthralling, adhering to the decade’s strongest tropes without succumbing to them, while simultaneously housing some really great sequences of wide-awake nightmares reminiscent of Italian maestro genre efforts. add Karen Lorre to the B-movie knockouts this continues to become a fan page for.
Kikoïne's in Poe's armchair, ⸖Buried Alive preamble hoiston a cantilever stag stalk, scampish postgradee thrown against cavern confinings. And it's a four/half traque with bricks cycly dioxiding Karen Lorre's whines. Unco shakespiriancy, almost a Ænigma anthill of schoolshrews; herettps a page out of Cambridge Uni.
