Buried Alive

Clint Goodman is a hardworking building contractor living in a small western town with his wife, Joanna. Unhappy with her life there, Joanna has begun an affair with Cort van Owen, the local doctor. The two lovers decide to get rid of Clint and start over elsewhere, so Cort supplies Joanna with a poison designed to mimic a heart attack. Clint collapses, is pronounced dead and buried. The poison does not finish him off, however, and he wakes inside his own coffin. Once he has clawed his way out, he sets about turning the tables on the people who wronged him.

Frank Darabont directed the film, which was released in 1990 and runs 94 minutes. It was his first time in the director's chair, preceding The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Majestic and The Mist. Tim Matheson plays Clint, with Jennifer Jason Leigh as Joanna, William Atherton as Cort, and supporting turns from Hoyt Axton, Jay Gerber and Wayne Grace. Niki Marvin produced for Universal Television and Niki Marvin Productions on a budget of 2 million dollars.

Audience reaction is modest but favourable: on IMDb the film holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 5,700 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 190 votes. Made as a television movie, it blends crime and horror elements within a revenge story.