Premature Burial (1962)
Not so much a great story as a frightening essay on what seemed to be Edgar Allan Poe's greatest fear - that of being buried alive in a state of catalepsy.
Ray Milland stars (Vincent Price is not missed) and is brilliant, being a star of many romantic films over his career it's easy to see why scheming Hazel Court falls for him as she works out how best to kill him off thanks to his obsession of being buried alive, but in truth the plot is almost secondary to the Gothic atmosphere on offer from director Roger Corman. Everything from rain lashed nights and swirling graveyard mists to eerie dream sequences, Premature Burial is a film that positively reeks with decay leading up to a genuinely chilling and tension filled finale.
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