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Simply A Masterpiece

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

"I Bury the Dead" is a cool horror tale that feels like a blown-up episode of "Tales From the Crypt".Robert Kraft (played by Western actor Richard Boone) gets a job as a caretaker of a cemetery where a detailed map provides the location of every burial plot. A white-headed pin shows that the owner of the plot is still among the living. A black-headed one means that the owner is now also the occupant.Kraft, by accident and on a whim, replaces some of the white pins with black ones, and begins to feel that the map has some supernatural power over life and death.I have said that the film feels like a blown up episode of a television show. This is not such a bad thing, as it would make for a good episode. Unfortunately it does drag on a little bit in places, and I couldn't help thinking it would have worked better as a short. Further, the ending is a little disappointing. It seems forced, to bring a conclusion to the supernatural theme that wasn't really necessary.

I've heard of this movie being referred to as just a long episode of The Twilight Zone and that is accurate for sure (and pretty perfect, I kinda wish I had come up with the comparison myself). It's moody and a little silly at times and dramatic and while the ending was a disappointment, it has such an original storyline leading up to it that you can almost forgive it. (Almost.) Directed by Albert Band (father of Charles Band, who is known for quite a few B movies himself), it was referenced as a favorite of Stephen King's back in his 1981 non-fiction book Danse Macabre, though even he criticized the ending.Robert Kraft (played by Richard Boone, who was primarily known for his roles in Westerns at the time) is to take over as chairman of a committee that oversees Immortal Hills Cemetery, much to his chagrin. As he is learning the ins and outs of operations from the caretaker, Andy (Theodore Bikel), he is shown the cemetery's map, where pins are used to mark the plots — white for the living and black for the dead. When he accidentally marks a newly wed young couples' recently acquired plot with black pins instead of white and they turn up dead the next day, he becomes suspicious, and upon further testing seems to realize he has the ability to take lives with the simple placement of a pin…** SPOILERS! **This movie surprisingly flies under the radar considering how solid of a film it is. It's no masterpiece, but I thought the acting was great (particularly by Boone) and the atmosphere throughout is fantastic.The thing that got me was how much it focuses on Kraft being wracked with guilt. This is not a movie where someone realizes they have some kind of supernatural power and uses it to exact revenge, or even for some kind of vigilante justice… he is just straight up horrified about the power he wields and is consumed with regret. He doesn't believe it's simply the map that holds the power, since others have come before him and utilized the same map… he believes it's the combination of the map and something evil inside of himself. "I destroyed them. Something in me killed them."There's one shot in particular when he is sort of staggering around the office after he has decided he must also be able to bring people back to life by changing their pins to white. He is bumbling around and locking the doors and windows and he comes to rest against a locked window and you see him in silhouette from outside the building and then they used a sort of zooming out effect with the film and just… awesome.There's all of this tension and dread building up after he runs around the cemetery and finds the graves of the people he supposedly killed all dug up — you start to think that he was right, he has brought them back from the dead, and who knows what their plan is now? But then — after a particularly tense (and brilliantly shot) scene with the caretaker, we realize it was simple murder all along. The guy is angry that his job was being taken away (they simply offered him a retirement plan so the dude could chill a bit in his old age) so he went on a killing spree. It's an awesome scene, really — he's standing under a single light as the banging from the outside (which turns out to be the police) gets louder and louder, giving his explanation to Kraft — but it's a bummer of an ending since the whole supernatural story was a fascinating one. It almost felt lazy, as if they didn't know quite where to go so they pinned it on the caretaker. A let down, for sure.But overall, totally worth the watch, if for nothing else than the awesome use of lighting and simple techniques to evoke dread and tension.

Then try the men who run the cemeteries where the work of those usually tall, lanky Lurch like men ends up, if not in some crematorium. Creepy cemeteries have haunted audiences ever since the silent movies, and this one is a definite rise above the cardboard headstones of "Plan Nine From Outer Space". There aren't any grave robbers here; In fact, there seems to be a goal in filling up the cemetery rather than taking bodies away for medical experiments. Richard Boone is the new director of the cemetery and as soon as he takes over, the bodies of the board members begin to pile up as the pins on the maps change from "white" (available) to "black" (unavailable), even though the grave plots for the board members have already been purchased. The map gets more sinister looking as the film goes on, looking like a pair of evil eyes staring down at whoever enters the office with definite evil intentions.Right before taking on the role of Captain Von Trapp in the Broadway production of "The Sound of Music", Theodore Bikel added old age make-up to his handsome face to play the very Scottish cemetery handyman who is put out to pasture with a lifetime salary guarantee. He spouts all sorts of Scottish wisdoms as if he was MacBeth on acid, and it is a hoot to behold. Richard Boone is the frantic new director who believes that somehow he might have become possessed to kill off the board and even seems to suffer from blackouts. Obviously made on the cheap, but convincingly set up, this is better than a lot of shock fare released on either the big screen or in drive-ins during the late 50's. One of the cast members, very recognizable, is Herbert Anderson, the wise father of none other than "Dennis the Menace".

... that protagonist being Richard Boone of "Have Gun Will Travel" fame as the member of a prominent small-town family. Years ago, before WalMart and Best Buy, each town would have a department store, usually owned by local people. Such a department store is the source of the Kraft family wealth, and since the source of their wealth is local, it matters to the Krafts how they are perceived in the community. Thus a town committee of seven local wealthy people, including members of the Kraft family, take turns doing public service. One of these public services is managing the local cemetery. Thus it becomes Bob Kraft's (Richard Boone's) turn to do this task. The job isn't difficult and only requires a few hours a month. It is explained to Bob by the grounds keeper that a map of the cemetery on the wall basically does your work for you. A white pin is inserted on grave sites yet to be occupied. Black pins are inserted on grave sites that are already occupied.So Bob reluctantly takes up this task when along comes his first two customers - a member of the committee and his new wife. It was a stipulation in the young man's father's will that he buy graves for himself and his wife as soon as he married before he could collect his full inheritance. In his haste or sloth, whatever it may have been, Bob Kraft puts black pins in where white pins should have been, and in twenty four hours the young couple is dead from a horrific traffic accident. Bob is a bit unnerved by this, feeling that he somehow mystically "marked the couple for death", but as the pin misplacements continue and the bodies pile up so does Bob Kraft's panic. He even calls the local police and asks them to investigate these deaths as homicides. The police don't exactly call him a crackpot because of his prominence, but they can't ignore the up-tick in the death rate either.So the question becomes, since these are obviously natural deaths and it couldn't be some Mr. Hyde version of Bob running around and killing people and not remembering it, is he killing these people, some of them total strangers, with the power of his mind in some unconscious matter? Is this a case of "monsters from the ID"? With only a few cheesy special effects and very little action this movie manages to convey man's fear of that which he cannot control - his own subconscious and death itself.The dialogue is rather spartan but well presented with one exception. Bob is engaged, and every conversation he has with his fiancée might as well be in another language as none of their dialogue makes any sense - it sounds like something Ed Wood would have written. The minute either talks to someone else the conversation becomes comprehensible again. The reason for this I have no idea. If you like the old 50's low budget horror films, I think you'll like this one.