Dead and Buried

Director: Gary Sherman
Year Released: 1981
Rating: 2.5

The sheriff (James Farentino) of a weird-ass, teensy-weensy town starts finding suspicious activities going on: not only are people getting murdered left and right (and in nasty ways, like having their eyeballs burned out of their heads), but his wife may or may not be dabbling in the Dark Arts and the town mortician (Jack Albertson) seems to have some kind of God Complex. Nice little rift on a concept not far removed from one of Rod Serling's stories, with the exception of Serling's gift for brevity and depth: this flubs its ending completely, and the concept could have used some revision (don't think too hard about its own logic). Still, the special effects are worth mentioning (by Stan Winston), and the needle-in-the-eye scene is worth noting for making me actually flinch (which hasn't happened because of a movie in a long time).