Buried

Ryan Reynolds

"I only appear to be dead.” – Hans Christian Andersen, a note left by his bedside every evening

“The earth is suffocating. ... Swear to make them cut me open, so that I won’t be buried alive.” - Composer Frederic Chopin

It is called taphophobia. Fear of being buried alive. Our first President George Washington was so gripped by it that he asked those around him on his death bed not to bury him for three days just in case. The mother of Southern General Robert E. Lee, Ann Hill Carter Lee, suffered from narcolepsy and lived in constant fear of being buried alive. If legend is to be believed, she nearly was. The creator of the escape coffin, a bell attached to a sting that signal you were still alive, George Bateson in 1896 was so fearful of this fate that he dosed himself with linseed oil and set himself ablaze rather than possibly suffer such an end. At one point in the 19^th century it was the most common fear of most people and with good reason. With medical technology and methods imprecise, it was not unheard for someone to be mistaken for dead. In the 17^th century, Marjorie Elphinstone was buried in Ardtannies, Scotland cemetery. That night grave robbers decided to dig her up and steal her jewelry. She gave them the scare of their lives when she moaned, then got up and walked home. She then went on to out live her husband by two years. At Matthew Wall’s funeral in Braughing, England, one of the pallbearers tripped causing the casket to crash to the ground. A very much alive Matthew tumbled out much to the shock of everyone present. Another woman Marjorie Halcrow Erskine of Chirnside, Scotland let out a howl when the sexton who had just dug her up tried to cut off her finger in order to steal her ring. She went on to have two more children. Not everyone was so lucky. Poor Oran, a St. Columba monk, was dug up after his death and found to be very much alive. He related to his fellow monastic brothers that he had seen heaven and hell. They promptly killed him on the grounds of heresy. In one cemetery alone, after a massive exhumation and relocation, it was reported “nearly 2 percent of those exhumed “were no doubt victims of suspended animation.”

Stories of hands raised in crawling motions when a casket was unearthed and skeletons found outside their boxes were common urban legend in almost every community. Edgar Allan Poe wrote three horror stories about taphophobia, “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Cask of Amontilado,” and “The Premature Burial”. Other authors like Wilkie Collins, Gertrude Atherton, and Bram Stoker also played with this fear in their writings. Candles were held to mouths, boiling liquids poured on bodies, and people stabbed through the heart to insure that accidental alive burial did not happen. One of the early sales pitches of embalming was that if the loved one was still accidentally alive, the chemicals would make sure they assumed room temperature. Over 22 patents have been issued by the US Patent Office for various “safety caskets” that include such things as feeding tubes, windows, electronic alarms, and ladders. The great magician Harry Houdini understood that the being buried alive trick was one of his most power illusions. Expressions like “saved by the bell” and “dead ringer” might come from this phobia. If you are ever in Middlebury, Vermont, a person should visit the grave of Dr. Timothy Clark Smith (1821-1893). His tombstone features a 14x14 inch plate glass opening which leads to a six foot tube and his coffin just in case he was alive. For years, visitors claimed if they looked in the plate, they could see the face of Dr. Smith looking back at them. Another cemetery worthy of a visit is Wildwood Cemetery in Williamsport, Pennsylvania and the grave of firefighter Thomas Pursell which many describe as looking like a giant pizza oven. What makes his grave special is that it can be opened from the inside, allowing escape, but not the outside. Buried inside with Pursell are an ax, a hammer, and a piece of bread to eat.

Think being buried alive is something from the past? In 1994, 86-year-old Mildred C. Clarke spent 90 minutes in a body bag in the Albany, New York Medical Center Hospital’s morgue. A watchful attendant noticed the bag moved. In the 1970s Frenchman Angelo Hays built the Rolls Royce of safety caskets complete with a food locker, books to read, an oxygen supply, toilet, shortwave radio, and enough headroom to sit up. What would make him go to such lengths? He was buried alive for two days. If not for an insurance investigator who insisted that he see the body before the life insurance claim could be paid out, Angelo might have died there.

The fear is easy to understand. Waking up in pitch darkness. Unable to move. No one can hear you screaming. Oxygen running out. Panic setting in. Six feet of earth between you and safety. It has been played for great effect in television shows like “Lost” and “Monk.” Now it is silver screen time. Buried stars Ryan Reynolds, who is on the verge of superstardom with his upcoming superhero roles in Deadpool and Green Lantern. He is U.S. military contractor Paul Conroy who is working in Iraq. Much like Jaws, the title pretty much describes the movie. It is 90 minutes inside a coffin. Much like Phone Booth before it, the lack of movement is used to build up suspense. Paul is a truck driver from Michigan who has come to Iraq to make money. He wakes up inside a wooden box and all he has on him is a lighter, a candle, a cell phone, some anti-anxiety pills, and a flask. At first, he has no memory of how he got there. Things come back to him slowly. He was delivering food. There was an explosion. Many of his friends were killed. Iraqis coming at him. His uses the cell phone frantically, dialing numbers only to get people who are suspicious, do not know what to do, or even how to help him. He even calls his wife but all he gets is their answering machine. What do you say? Will she even get the message before it is too late? The cell phone buzzes. On the other side of the line is an Arabic sounding man, named Jabir, who tells Paul he will die unless he makes a series of ransom videos that will be sent to the US embassy. In return for $5 million, Paul will be rescued. With the battery dying, he reaches a man named Dan who is some kind of expert in hostage situations. Dan assures Paul not to worry, that help will be there soon. He tells Dan that this is a common practice. When asked how many people Dan has found, he does not answer. Then the bombs start falling and the shaking ground starts sand leaking into the casket. Claustrophobia. Fire ants. Heat. Sand. Oxygen running out. The creaking of the lid. Fear. Will Paul be able to maintain his sanity? Is help really on the way?

This is the kind of film that Alfred Hitchcock would have made. It preys on the fear of taphophobia. I love this movie. Ryan Reynolds gives a great performance. He has too, because the entire film rests on his acting ability. Sometimes Hollywood thinks it has to throw everything at the audience, this is a film that shows how a single fear can be ratcheted up slowly, allowing the tension to build. You know from the premise if this film is for you.

Verdict: Great