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I Bury the Living (1958)

Dir: Albert Band

Robert Kraft (Richard Boone) is made Head of the 'Immortal Hills Cemetery' committee and (reluctantly) takes over the management of the cemetery.
In the Caretaker's office is a map of the cemetery plots. A black pin means they are 'occupied', a white pin means they have been reserved for when someone dies.

When a young couple arrange to buy a couple of plots, Kraft accidentally places 2 black pins on the map instead of white pins. Later that day the couple die in a car accident.
Intrigued, he swaps a white pin for a black pin on another plot…and that guy dies too.

Now horrifyingly convinced Robert tries to explain to everyone what is going on, but either no one believes him or, like the old cemetery Caretaker Andy McKee (Theodore Bikel), warn him to leave well alone.
So a frustrated, scared and increasingly unstable Kraft is told to test his theory (as it's never happened when other people have changed the pins) with one more conclusive experiment, he is told by three sceptics to change, in one go, their white pins for black ones…

The biggest fault with "I Bury the Living" is actually its biggest strength…the plot.
The idea of the pins is great, but the fact that the pin's theory is played out openly in front of all the characters means logic is stretched to breaking point.
IF Kraft really thought he did have this power, would he causally change a pin? Would he really be persuaded by others to do it? After all…the outcome if it is true is death!
And even after all these experiments, when people do indeed die, would others still insist you try it out? Let alone on THEM?
At one point, after various deaths, the Police even trick Kraft into changing a pin, as an ultimate test because the chosen guy is fit, healthy and in another Country!

The film also spends way too much of it's running time on these endless arguments and 'tests' so as scenes basically repeat themselves and the movie, instead of moving the plot along, simply treads water.
Director Albert Band (who would go on to set-up the famous 'Empire Pictures' with his Son, Charles) creates the odd effective scene (especially during the finale) but basically this plays like a TV show, which it would have been better as.

Boone (who would go on to be a great character actor in movies like "Big Jake") does an okay job as the unfortunate Kraft, but his jump into madness seems rather hasty, and everyone else is merely adequate.

The film is really an overly sketchy and simplistic study of one man's psychosis more than a horror film and the twist, which is set up as if the film has moved into a genuinely atmospheric scare trip, is in reality a big letdown purely because of the kind of revelation you were expecting you didn't get.
So you don't see it coming, but in this case that is a bad thing.
And given some of the events that we actually SEE near the end this twist makes no sense unless these 'sights' were meant to be in Kraft's mind. But we are never given an answer.

A film of great potential that is damaged beyond repair by logic problems, the clever basic idea being fumbled and a disappointing twist ending.
As a half-hour "Twilight Zone" episode it would have been pretty effective, but as a feature film it's sadly a failure.