I Bury The Living

I Bury The Living is a movie that asks the question, “What if humans had supernatural powers without knowing it?” It's not a super hero movie, though. In this imagining having such a power might not be such a good thing.

Kraft, a local pillar of the community and regular kind of guy, has been appointed the position of watching over the town cemetery for a year. He doesn't want the position, but his colleagues urge him to accept it because of what people might say if he were to refuse. On the wall of the office is a map of all the burial plots. Kraft learns that if he places a marker on the map the owner of the plot he marked dies. As people try to convince him the notion is nonsense they lead him to kill more and more people. Wracked with guilt and questioning his sanity the poor man tries to figure out what he should do even to the point of calling the cops on himself. Yet he can't seem to simply stop putting the markers on the map.

While some aspects of the story border on being plot holes (pun most definitely intended) this tends to be a surprisingly interesting and fairly well done flick. The acting is not bad with the likes of Richard Boone at the helm, and the story keeps my attention. There are some camera tricks that, while nothing compared to what we might do today, are moderately better than what I've seen in the average black and white era movie. We get some creative visuals of the map that enhance Kraft's mounting insanity that much more.

There's an interesting if somewhat convoluted mystery that comes into play. As it unfolds some may find its directions satisfying while others might find it hard to swallow. It has some creativity to it, but it's not a Sherlock Holmes level story.

MORALITY:

There's nothing really questionable in the movie. While we do see some corpses they are bloodless. The violent deaths are not shown or even implied, only referenced. We do get some moments of a man with a gun to his own head which may be intense for some, but we don't see any blood then either. There is no sex, nudity, or strong language.

SPIRITUALITY:

Much of the story leaves us to question if this man really has the ability to kill with a push-pin which reeks of voodoo, however voodoo is most definitely not involved. How would you react if you thought something you were doing in perfect innocence was resulting in the death of others?

FINAL THOUGHTS:

This is a movie that might actually be worth seeing. It's got some drama and mystery played out pretty well. I don't know that I would rush right out and pick it up, but it's one I would be willing to watch more than once.

#IBuryTheLiving