Written by Jennifer
June 19, 2011
Passable for a midnight movie you just want to make fun of, but definitely not up to standard for prime time viewing.
There's something about boarding school (or camp for that matter) that's inherently creepy. Dispense with parents and siblings, put a bunch of kids in unfamiliar surroundings, and horror is entirely likely to ensue. The quality of the film surrounding the horror may be questionable, but unsavory happenings are pretty much a given.
Based on Edgar Allen Poe's short stories, the 1990 Ginger Lynn Allen vehicle Buried Alive has all the trappings of a so-bad-it's-good movie, yet somehow still manages to come up short. Janet Pendleton (Karen Witter) works as teacher in a correctional school for girls, and becomes concerned when her students begin disappearing. Certain that these bad girls are meeting unfortunate ends through no fault of their own, Janet pursues the mystery and discovers connections to the school's past (as an insane asylum) and to herself. All good stuff, as far as I'm concerned, but with a dawdling pace and dark, vaguely grainy production values. Passable for a midnight movie you just want to make fun of, but definitely not up to standard for prime time viewing.
