Let's be realistic.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is not on par with "The House of Usher" with Vincent Price two years earlier but in the same style and category. The main character is as sickly and haunted as Vincent Price but tougher and more self-determined, as he actually tries to deal with his own fate but fails in a satisfactory revenge. This is as far from Edgar Allan Poe as the Usher film, but the atmosphere, mood and creepy settings are the more Poean for their very illustrative sustaining character. Ray Milland is or was a great actor, and although not as creepy as Vincent Price could be when he mobilized his resources and forces to the full, he is more intelligent and does not fumble or commit mistakes in unnecessary exaggerations. Ray Milland is thinking while he is lying dead and actually succeeds in understanding what is going on, although the ladies outwit him.It's more an entertaining film than a horror movie, and although there are some startling effects, the main satisfaction of the film is that of an entertainment, since it's impossible to take any of the absurd goings-on for serious. .

I saw this movie once way back in the 80's when i was just a teenager. What especially stayed with me all these years was the Irish song Molly Malone that is whistled by the gravediggers and used to drive the main role player crazy.30 years later i like to re-watch a lot of films i watched when i was a teenager and a big fan of horror and suspense but this one was difficult to find because i couldn't remember the title.I found it however and I still like the movie despite it's age because of the simple reason that we are all afraid of being buried alive. The fear of Guy is excellently played by Ray Milland so that you really feel his fear yourself. The settings of the movie in an old mansion with very foggy grounds completes the eery atmosphere that this movie needs.The story however has some holes in it and is sometimes a bit far fetched, therefore 7 out of 10.

The third in Roger Corman's cycle of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations sees Charles Beaumont & Ray Russell on script duties and Ray Milland star. The story follows Milland's cataleptic Guy Carrell, whose fear of being buried alive like his father drives him to build a tomb that should ensure against such a disaster occurring...Pulpy, Gothic and at times silly, The Premature Burial is still very much a nice slice of Corman pie. Some critics have bemoaned the lack of AIP mainstay Vincent Price for this one, yet that's unfair on Milland who does some neat work as he blends lunacy with sympathy to great effect. Though the plotting lacks any imagination, since it's obvious from the get go that poor Guy is going to find his nightmare become a reality, this frees up Corman to conjure up as much atmosphere as possible. Backed up by Floyd Crosby's sumptuous Eastman colour photography (in Panavision too), Corman is able to craft some genuinely macabre moments. The appearance of genre babe Hazel Court is a pleasing bonus and the set design coming from old sharp eye himself, Daniel Haller, rounds the film out as a pretty effective piece.Nice creepy use of Molly Malone too! 6.5/10

Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe cycle ranges among the most essential moments ever in Horror cinema, some of the adaptations such as "Pit And The Pendulum" (1961), "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964) or (the actually Lovecraft-inspired) "The Haunted Palace" (1963) being among the greatest Gothic Horror films ever brought to screen. The brilliance of these films lies in the creepy Poe-themed stories, Corman's outstanding talent for eerie Gothic atmosphere, and, not least, the leading performances by Horror-deity Vincent Price."Premature Burial" of 1962 treats an eponymous subject that is as essentially 'Poe' as it gets - being buried alive, or more precisely, the terror of being buried alive.While I did have high expectations for this film, it had been lying on my DVD shelf for a long while before I finally saw it, the only reason for delaying the viewing being the lack of Vincent Price in this film. Ray Milland, who plays the lead here, was a fantastic actor, but simply not quite as fantastic as Vincent Price (who happens to be my all-time favorite actor). Price simply was one of the greatest actors who ever lived, and the Poe-adaptations are arguably the ultimate highlights of his career. The only flaw of this film, is therefore not really a flaw, but the greatness of Corman's other Poe-adaptations: The fact that the other films had Vincent Price, and this one doesn't. As great as Milland is - and he IS great - every fan of the other films will see that Price could have been greater in some scenes. Vincent Price had a unique quality of being likable sinister. Price played dozens of Horror villains and murderous madmen, yet one always somehow had to like them (the one notable exception being his entirely diabolical eponymous role in Michael Reeves' 1968 masterpiece "Witchfinder General"). Ray Milland is a great actor, but he doesn't share this unique talent for being macabre, creepy, even scary, and yet somehow likable at the same time. Actually, his character here is not villainous, and yet he is somewhat unlikable.This being said, "Premature Burial" is still and wonderful Gothic Horror experience, which once again proves that Corman is a true master of creepy greatness and beautifully eerie atmosphere. Ray Milland plays Guy Carrell, a man living in paralyzing fear of being interred alive. The beautiful Emily (Hazel Court) nonetheless falls for him and becomes his wife. Once they are married, however, his obsessions become worse and worse... The setting in an eerie mansion near a foggy cemetery is perfect for a Gothic Horror film like this one, and, apart from the usual atmosphere donors such as foggy grounds, Corman includes many morbid set-pieces, such as a demented live-in mausoleum. The fact that Milland's leading character is a painter of very morbid pictures also helps the film's creepiness. The stunning Hazel Court is, as always, absolutely wonderful in the female lead.Overall, "Premature Burial" isn't quite as essential as films like "House of Usher" (1960), "Pit and the Pendulum" (1961), "The Haunted Palace" (1963) or "The Masque of the Red Death" (1964), but it is still a fantastic Gothic Horror that no genre-lover can afford to miss. The true genius of this film manifests in that it creates a uniquely claustrophobic atmosphere - which actually makes the viewer afraid of being buried prematurely!