Nigel P I have always found it difficult to enjoy Roger Corman films, which surprises me. I like low-budget productions, and Corman always assembles very impressive casts. And yet, his projects appear to strive to create a staginess, a campy theatricality that I find difficult to become immersed inVincent Price was originally slated to play Guy Carrell, but the part went to Ray Milland. Milland has always been a very impressive actor in my view, able to transcend even average productions and emerge with dignity intact. Ten years later, he would exert his excellence on the notorious 'The Thing with Two Heads', where he somehow managed even there to inject his role as the titular creature with humour and above all, gravitas. He does the same here, as does Hazel Court, who plays Emily, his wife. Richard Ney plays family friend Miles and all characters are fairly staid and unengaging, lifted hugely by the playing.Perhaps Price would have injected Carrell with a bit of a twinkle, which would at least have lightened this humourless piece. What we have here is a very earnest reimagining of Edgar Allen Poe's short story. There's a certain inevitability to Carrell's fate once we learn of his dread of being buried alive, and certainly the atmosphere reaches impressive levels as a result of this, and what happens beyond.I would have liked to enjoy this more, but often couldn't get past the style of the piece, which for the most part, looks like it has the production values of a television continuing serial, or soap. This is no slight on the budget or production team, it just fails to convince me, or to inject proceedings with any kind of eccentricity or outlandishness that offsets the limitations.

TheRedDeath30 I am a big fan of Roger Corman's work, even some of the schlock you find in those bargain bin collections that are, now, public domain. I think that the man was exceptional at doing a lot with nothing. That fact that his low-rent films are still remembered, while so many others are lost to the sands of time, show that he was doing something right. That something was that he really understands story and how to make a riveting movie.I had, until now, seen all of Corman's "Poe Cycle" with the exception of this film, the anomaly in the group. Corman was in a dispute with AIP, who had produced his previous two Poe films and tried to create one without them. Since AIP owned the rights to Corman's muse, Vincent Price, he went with Ray Milland in the main role. Milland is best known to horror fans for THE UNINVITED and another Corman classic, X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, though his most famous role may be in Hitchcock's DIAL M FOR MURDER.As with most of the movies in this cycle, the Poe short story is not enough material to fill out a 90 minute movie, so Corman has to pad the proceedings with other material. Most of this movie is a "parlor film" much like the classic Gothic movies (a la Dracula), meaning that a great deal of the action takes place in the same few rooms, with minimal camera work and movement, but focusing on our actors and their lines, sort of a play on film. That can be disastrous in the wrong hands, but the acting here is what makes it work so well. Milland is fantastic, as usual. He plays a man whose father may (or may not) have been buried alive. His fear of repeating his father's fate is propelled by an incident at the beginning of the movie, where Milland's doctor robs a grave, only to witness a clear example of another man buried alive. As the movie goes on, the viewer is never sure if Milland is just plain crazy, or if anything has real grounding in reality. He builds an elaborate vault with a dozen escape routes to prevent his burial and his obsession begins to tear apart his marriage to AIP beauty Hazel Court. Milland is the main reason all of this works. He never feels "hokey" even in the most bizarre circumstances and evinces a clear sense of investment from the audience as they share his fear.In the end, we find that what Milland really had to fear was much more mundane, as we get more of a "whodunit" plot in the final act that is, also, played out with tight film making until our exciting finale. Corman's eye for Gothic detail is on full display here. Even though most of the movie takes place in a few rooms, they add to the sense of constriction. The dungeon laboratory is a great scene, full of cobwebs and vaults. There is so much fog in this movie, you feel the dampness coming through the screen. The most feels far more "epic" than the limited scenery would warrant.It's not the best of the Corman/ Poe Cycle, for that check out MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH or PIT AND THE PENDULUM, but it is certainly a great example of Gothic 60s horror and well worth a watch.

MartinHafer Like all of Roger Corman's movies based on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, this one only has a superficial similarity to the Poe tale. In many cases, Corman took only the title from Poe and the story was completely new! In this movie, Ray Milland plays a bit of a flake. When the movie begins, the grave of his father is opened--to reveal that the man had not been dead but in some sort of catatonic stupor and had been buried alive. Naturally this would mess with Milland's mind (he shows many, many signs of post-traumatic stress disorder), but frankly he seems quite a few fries short of a Happy Meal, so to speak. To put it bluntly, he's rather obsessed with his own death--so obsessed that his new bride thinks he's crazy--and, based on his actions, this isn't too far-fetched! He spends so much of his time worrying about death and his own potential premature burial that he even designs the coolest burial vault in history. Watching him proudly show off its many, many innovations to allow for easy escape is pretty cool, but as for me, give me the old burning Viking long ship! As far as the plot goes, you eventually see that all is NOT as it seems. There are lots of interesting twists and in the end, there is a wild and crazy finale. I could say more, but don't want to spoil the suspense. However, I would say that the ending, though perhaps filled with too much exposition, was quite entertaining.Overall, a very good low-budget horror thriller. It has the usual excellent Corman direction and Milland is very good taking on a role that usually would have gone to Vincent Price. The only negative, and it's tiny, is the part played by Milland's on-screen wife--she does overact a bit here and there--but not so much the film is seriously impacted.By the way, this is one of two Milland/Corman films that have been packaged together on one DVD--the other being "X, the Man With X-ray Eyes". Both are very enjoyable and seem like a pretty good deal if you're in the market for horror/sci-fi stories.

Witchfinder General 666 Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe cycle ranges among the most essential moments ever in Horror cinema, some of the adaptations such as "Pit And The Pendulum" (1961), "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964) or (the actually Lovecraft-inspired) "The Haunted Palace" (1963) being among the greatest Gothic Horror films ever brought to screen. The brilliance of these films lies in the creepy Poe-themed stories, Corman's outstanding talent for eerie Gothic atmosphere, and, not least, the leading performances by Horror-deity Vincent Price."Premature Burial" of 1962 treats an eponymous subject that is as essentially 'Poe' as it gets - being buried alive, or more precisely, the terror of being buried alive.While I did have high expectations for this film, it had been lying on my DVD shelf for a long while before I finally saw it, the only reason for delaying the viewing being the lack of Vincent Price in this film. Ray Milland, who plays the lead here, was a fantastic actor, but simply not quite as fantastic as Vincent Price (who happens to be my all-time favorite actor). Price simply was one of the greatest actors who ever lived, and the Poe-adaptations are arguably the ultimate highlights of his career. The only flaw of this film, is therefore not really a flaw, but the greatness of Corman's other Poe-adaptations: The fact that the other films had Vincent Price, and this one doesn't. As great as Milland is - and he IS great - every fan of the other films will see that Price could have been greater in some scenes. Vincent Price had a unique quality of being likable sinister. Price played dozens of Horror villains and murderous madmen, yet one always somehow had to like them (the one notable exception being his entirely diabolical eponymous role in Michael Reeves' 1968 masterpiece "Witchfinder General"). Ray Milland is a great actor, but he doesn't share this unique talent for being macabre, creepy, even scary, and yet somehow likable at the same time. Actually, his character here is not villainous, and yet he is somewhat unlikable.This being said, "Premature Burial" is still and wonderful Gothic Horror experience, which once again proves that Corman is a true master of creepy greatness and beautifully eerie atmosphere. Ray Milland plays Guy Carrell, a man living in paralyzing fear of being interred alive. The beautiful Emily (Hazel Court) nonetheless falls for him and becomes his wife. Once they are married, however, his obsessions become worse and worse... The setting in an eerie mansion near a foggy cemetery is perfect for a Gothic Horror film like this one, and, apart from the usual atmosphere donors such as foggy grounds, Corman includes many morbid set-pieces, such as a demented live-in mausoleum. The fact that Milland's leading character is a painter of very morbid pictures also helps the film's creepiness. The stunning Hazel Court is, as always, absolutely wonderful in the female lead.Overall, "Premature Burial" isn't quite as essential as films like "House of Usher" (1960), "Pit and the Pendulum" (1961), "The Haunted Palace" (1963) or "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964), but it is still a fantastic Gothic Horror that no genre-lover can afford to miss. The true genius of this film manifests in that it creates a uniquely claustrophobic atmosphere - which actually makes the viewer afraid of being buried prematurely!