-
@ Lauren Weinstein
2025-05-24 15:18:43
There are some films that I originally saw on TV when I was very young, that then vanished for decades, leaving me wondering years later if I remembered the flashes of often disturbing imagery correctly. In the days before home video recording, cable, or widespread public use of the Internet, there weren't easy ways to fill these gaps.
One such film is 1958's "I Bury the Living", starring Richard Boone and Theodore Bikel. So many years after originally seeing this film, I rediscovered it, and realized that my memories of it were actually correct. A terrifying little nightmare of a movie.
In reality, the real star of this film is not a human being at all, but a large map on a cemetery office wall, that over the course of the film, we begin to think of as being a living thing itself.
When the newly appointed chairman of a cemetery takes over (Boone) we learn about the rather ominous looking map. Occupied plots are marked by black pins, empty but sold plots are marked by white pins. When Boone's character accidentally inserts a black pin into a plot on the map instead of the appropriate white pin, his own nightmare and descent into madness begins.
This film is at times quite surrealistic, as it portrays the enveloping horror as Boone's character tries to convince those around him of what is happening, and we see the map changing as well as everyone's attempt to prove him wrong only seems to prove him correct.
This is a dark, claustrophobic film. I probably should not have originally viewed it so young. If the musical score sounds somehow familiar, it's because it's composed by Gerald Fried, with echoes of uber-famous cues he'd write for the original "Star Trek" years later.
"I Bury the Living" is easy to find online, and I recommend it highly. But please, DON'T watch the colorized version that's around. Colorizing a film like this is an utter travesty.
And don't mix up those pins.
L