dead & buried (gary sherman, 1981)

This is the fourteenth film I have watched in "My Letterboxd Season Challenge 2024-25", a "33-week-long community challenge" where "you must watch one previously unseen film that fits the criteria of the theme for the week." This is the 10th annual challenge, and my sixth time participating (previous years can be found at "2019-20", "2020-21", "2021-22", "2022-23", and 2023-24). Week 14 is called "Voodoo, Hoodoo & Afro-Caribbean Religions Week":

Western films that depict religions and traditions with roots in African spirituality are often highly problematic, containing many inaccuracies and stereotypes that vilify practitioners of Voodoo, Hoodoo, and the many other varied religions, traditions, beliefs, and practices of diasporic Africans as they were enslaved and forced to labor in North and South America. Fear of the role that practitioners of Vodou had in the successful Haitian Revolution led to action against practitioners of Voodoo in the United States and elsewhere and since then Voodoo has been synonymous with a generalized evil, dark magic or even witchcraft or satanism in direct opposition to white Christianity. The most famous trope of Voodoo in popular culture is Voodoo dolls, which are not even a part of either Haitian Vodou or Louisianan Voodoo. The term Zombi also comes from Voodoo and refers to people who are magically emptied of agency and thus easily manipulated, a great metaphor for enslavement.

This week's challenge is to watch a movie featuring Voodoo, Hoodoo or other Afro-Caribbean religions from MikkelHH's list here.

Way back at the beginning of my foray into the Letterboxd Season Challenge (the second movie from my first participation), I watched a pretty terrible movie. The director of the movie actually saw this and left a comment, explaining what had gone wrong with the film, and recommending another of his movies that he was more proud of (I later saw it, and it was a definite improvement).

I mention this because, while I don't have a very large readership, I still worry when I am going to pan a film, that I'll be stepping over the bounds of fairness if one of the creators pops in.

Dead & Buried came out in 1981, but a lot of the people who worked on the film are still around, so if any of them see this, I want to emphasize that this is an honorable attempt at a horror film, one that has developed a cult following over the years. (It has a Metascore of 71/100). Having said that, Dead & Buried didn't work for me.

The best thing about the film is the work of special effects artist Stan Winston (in his career, he won four Oscars for his work). There are lots of truly gruesome things in Dead & Buried, great stuff if you're so inclined.

Another selling point was the participation of Dan O'Bannon, although O'Bannon later denied having influenced the film.

The budget was small, which makes Winston's work all the more impressive. The cast was filled with recognizable actors. The lead, James Farantino, had been a regular on the TV series The Bold Ones, and had plenty of other TV credits. Melody Anderson was another who was frequently seen on television (and we remember her from Flash Gordon). The biggest name was Jack Albertson, who had won an Oscar, an Emmy (as "The Man" in Chico and the Man), and a Tony. Albertson had cancer during filming, and died soon after the film's release. The movie even has Robert Englund, who three years later began his long run as Freddy in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies.

These people are all professionals, and they do a professional job. It's pointless to complain, especially since the movie has a lot of fans. It's not so-bad-it's-good, it's not embarrassing, it's not a waste of time. But I'm going to forget about it as soon as I am done writing this.

For a different take, here is the great Guillermo del Toro: