AllMovie

Exploitation king Fred Olen Ray bulldozes Edgar Allan Poe's story "The Premature Burial" in this sleazy direct-to-video thriller. B-movie babe Brinke Stevens stars as an heiress tormented night and day by the ever-present phobia of being buried alive. Thanks to hypnotic past-life regression sessions under the guidance of New Age therapist Karen Black, she learns that she was indeed buried alive in a previous existence. Despite her relief at this discovery, Stevens' money-hungry husband (Jay Richardson) still goes through with his plan to place her in a sealed box while she sleeps, hoping it will cause her to die of fright. Instead, she goes completely berserk, breaking free and coming after him with a knife. Though no cheaper than Roger Corman's early forays into Poe territory, this incoherent and sex-laden mess more closely resembles recent exploitation product from Corman's Concorde-New Horizons direct-to-video outfit, and makes 1962's The Premature Burial seem masterful by comparison.