Buried Alive II

Buried Alive II is a horror/thriller television film, a sequel to the 1990 film, Buried Alive. It starred Ally Sheedy, Stephen Caffrey and Tracey Needham. It was directed by Tim Matheson, who also reprised his character from the previous film, Clint Goodman.^[1] It first aired on June 18, 1997 on the USA Network.^[2]

Background

The film stars Ally Sheedy as Laura Riskin, Stephen Caffrey as Randy Riskin and Tracey Needham as Roxanne. Others in the film include Tim Matheson as Clint Goodman, Brian Libby reprising his role as Earl, the Embalmer, Clifton Daniel as Walter and Tommy Hinkley as Sheriff Jim Puller. The film was produced by Niki Marvin who also produced the original film.

Since the film's release, the film remained only available on out-of-print VHS in America, distributed by Universal Home Video.^[3] A VHS was also released in the Netherlands via Universal Pictures Benelux.^[4] In mid-2011, the film was released on DVD in the UK via Boulevard Entertainment.^[5]

The film's video premiere was in the summer/autumn of 1997 for America, the UK, Hungary and Portugal.^[2] The film made its premiere in Finland on August 11, 2005, via Mainostelevisio (MTV3).^[4]

Buried Alive II has a similar plot to Buried Alive, with the gender of the main characters reversed.

Plot

The film takes place ten years later after the events of the first film. Clint Goodman, the man whose wife, Joanna and lover, Cort, tried to murder by giving him a toxin, was buried alive after being mistaken for dead. He woke up in the coffin and exacted revenge on his wife and her lover. Following the first film, Clint has been living a solitary life elsewhere under the name Michael Haden, while everyone in the original town believes he is dead.

His friend, Sheriff Sam Eberly has died, and so Clint decides to come back for the funeral. At the funeral, Sam's niece, Laura Riskin, who knew Clint a long time ago, notices him but he leaves before she can approach him. After the funeral, Laura finds out that Sam bought some stock that is worth $250,000, which he left to her. Laura wants to use the money to start a family but her husband Randy, who hates his life in the small town wants to buy a yacht and leave town for good. Laura doesn't empathize with him, but unknown to her, he is cheating on her with local vixen, Roxanne. He tells her that once he finds a way to get away, he'll leave Laura for her, however she's not patient.

Randy hears the story of what happened to Clint and decides to do the same thing to Laura. Meanwhile, Laura corners Clint, who tells her to forget him because technically he is a wanted man. Randy comes to Laura, and Laura, thinking he has changed, decides to forgive him. When they go out to dinner late that evening, he gives her the same toxin that was originally given to Clint, slipping it into her wine during their dinner. Laura seemingly dies after consuming some of the poisoned wine, and going into cardiac arrest. When the doctor asks Randy if he wants an autopsy he declines, stating that Laura would be against it. The police do not treat the event as suspicious as Laura's family has a history of heart failure.

While Randy plans Laura's funeral, Clint reads about her death in the paper, which causes him to have a heart attack. While he is at the hospital recuperating, he asks how Laura has died, but the doctor only tells him that her funeral is being prepared. He wishes to go to her funeral but the doctor tells him that he won't be able to leave the hospital.

At the morgue, as Laura is about to be embalmed, the machine malfunctions. As a result, the staff does not embalm her, despite Randy having previously requested that her body be embalmed twice.

After Laura's funeral, Clint approaches Randy warning him that Laura may not be all dead, with Randy questioning who Clint is, as well as his sanity. After Clint has a nightmare about his escaping, he digs Laura up and believes that she really is dead. He then dies, due to health issues caused by the toxin originally given to him. Laura wakes up and escapes her grave. She then puts Clint's body in her coffin and fills it up. She goes home to find Randy and Roxanne in bed together. She plans to use a spear gun on them but when she hears that Randy wants to have kids with Roxanne, she changes her mind, deciding to plot a better revenge.

Over the next few days, Randy starts to notice strange things happening around his home, like the place being really clean and his wife's wedding ring lying in the middle of the table. He has his wife's grave exhumed to make sure she is really dead, but instead finds Clint's body. When the funeral director investigates they discover that the deceased person was in fact Clint. When they exhume Clint's grave, they find the skeletal remains of Joanna and Cort, along with the money they got from selling Clint's business. Randy, who now knows that Laura is still alive decides to leave town and purchase the yacht immediately. As he and Roxanne are packing, they are trapped inside his shed, Laura then takes a hose attached to the exhaust pipe and puts it through the vent, causing them both to pass out.

Randy and Roxanne awake to find themselves in a bedroom of the yacht with all doors and windows locked. When the yacht leans, he realizes that Laura intends to bury them alive at sea. He goes to shut off the valve but she has broken it off. In another room, they find a set of funeral clothes and a buoy that says "Rest in peace Randy and Roxanne". Laura soon reveals herself and wants to know why Randy tried to kill her. Shortly after, Laura blocks off a vent and before the yacht sinks, she leaves on a speedboat. At the end of the film, Laura leaves her home and goes to Clint's grave, thanking him for what he's done. She then leaves town, with the final shot of Randy and Roxanne screaming after being buried at sea.

Cast

• Ally Sheedy as Laura Riskin
• Stephen Caffrey as Randy Riskin
• Tracey Needham as Roxanne
• Tim Matheson as Clint Goodman/Michael Haden
• Brian Libby as Earl, the embalmer
• Shawnette Baity as the Gospel Singer
• Clifton Daniel as Walter
• Ron Dortch as Doctor Diner
• Keith Flippen as the Assistant Embalmer
• Tommy Hinkley as Sheriff Jim Puller
• Lonnie Horsey as Ed
• Elaine Nalee as Edith
• Eric Paisley as Minister
• Mike Pniewski as Dr. Ford
• J. C. Quinn as Curtis
• Ruth Reid as Geena
• Nina Repeta as Sherry
• Gina Stewart as Dr. Unser
• Robert C. Treveiler as Eric
• David Wells as Harold
• Jeff Johnston as E.M.T. (uncredited)

Reception

Allmovie.com gave the film two out of five stars and summed the film up by stating "Entertaining in its own 'they liked it once, they'll love it twice' fashion."^[6]

The Video Graveyard gave the film two out of five stars and wrote "Ho-hum sequel basically steps into the same plot mold as the original only with the sexes reversed as Ally Sheedy finds herself the victim of a murder plot by husband Stephen Caffrey and his lover Tracey Needham only for her death to be mistaken after which she returns from her grave and extracts revenge. While familiarity with the original is a plus this is only a mild thriller that panders to its television limitations and suffers from having too much in common with the first one. Not nearly as gripping with Matheson's involvement weak and revenge that's too little, too late. Pretty tedious with Caffery and Needham eventually slipping into bad acting territory during the finale. Brian Libby reprises his comic relief role as the town's embalmer."^[7]

Both the Video Movie Guide 2002 (Ballantine Books)^[8] and The Video Source Book (Performing Arts) gave the film a rating of 2.5 stars out of five.^[9]

References

External links

• Buried Alive II on IMDb