The Premature Burial

A horror film set in nineteenth-century England. Guy is the son of a wealthy family. He has a fear and it shapes his whole life: he believes his father was buried alive and is certain the same will happen to him. The reason is medical: there is a condition in the family called catalepsy; a person appears dead and is alive. Guy has a tomb built. Doors that open from inside, a rope, a bell, a ladder, food and poison; every possibility is thought of. His fiancée Emily tries to free him from the obsession. For a while she succeeds: the tomb is pulled down and he appears to return to an ordinary life. Then something happens in the garden one night and the fear comes back. What the film is interested in is not burial but how a fear takes a person over; throughout, how much of Guy's belief is real and how much delusion stays uncertain. The production belongs to an American studio's series based on Poe. What differs is that Vincent Price is not in the lead; Ray Milland plays it instead. Hazel Court plays Emily. Roger Corman directed. It was made quickly and cheaply; the fog, graveyard and castle sets were shared with other productions. A suitable choice for anyone who likes classic horror and the gothic productions of the 1960s. For a viewer expecting fast horror, the film moves slowly and builds its tension from its sets.