Don't Bury Me - I'm Not Dead! Images of Premature Burial in Horror

After being victimised by not one, but two other bloggers (thanks Chuck Norris Ate My Baby and Fascination With Fear!), I’ve been coerced into continuing on with the recent ‘meme’ pandemic, in which bloggers are urged to come up with a series of screen grabs, all focusing on a specific theme. So, after MUCH procrastination I decided on the theme of premature burial in horror movies. Natch.

The fear of being buried alive is an ancient, primal one. Man’s preoccupation with this, most ghastly of fates, can be traced back throughout the ages in literature, art, film and of course, documented historical fact - perhaps the reason why this fear is still so rife and so universal – because it is rooted in truth. Of course, this darkest of fates has been represented in cinema too, particularly in the dark visions of horror cinema…

The subject is of particular interest to me (not just because I’m a morbid puppy with a severe melancholic disposition) but because of my (albeit tenuous) connection to one such case in my home town, Lurgan, Co Armagh. My mother and her sisters grew up in the local graveyard house – my grandfather was the caretaker (perhaps the source of my obsession with horror?). He, and indeed many adults in town, regaled tales of a local ‘bogey-woman’ by the name of Margorie McCall - whose body was buried in the very cemetery where my mother grew up (Shankill) – to keep naughty children in check. McCall was a resident of the town in the mid 18th century and her grave was no ordinary one – to this day it still bears the inscription –

‘Lived Once, Buried Twice.’

Her story is still a popular one amongst townsfolk today - many times I myself have stood at her graveside and pondered, weak and weary, her tale (told you I was morbid). After a little research it became obvious to me that tales such as McCall’s were rife throughout Europe. Therefore it is impossible to say with any authority that this tale is true – however her gravestone is still there in Shankill graveyard today, and still bears the inscription. I for one would like to believe it is true. If only because it had a (sort of) happy ending…

Anyway. On with the meme…

Some images depicting premature burials in cinema…

Kill Bill Vol.2 - 2004

Misfits - 2010

Premature Burial - 1962

Vampyr - 1932

Superman - 1978

The Serpent and The Rainbow - 1988

Spoorloos - 1988

Bedlam - 1946

The forthcoming Buried

City of the Living Dead - 1980

Pleasant nightmares...