BURIED ALIVE (1990)
Ridiculously contrived, but enjoyable
It wasn't until I actually had the box for this movie in my hand that I found out that it was directed by Frank "The Shawshank Redemption" Darabont. It's based on a short story by David A. Davis, and not Poe's "Premature Burial", as you might have already suspected.
A man is murdered by his wife and her lover so that they can sell his business. However, he's not murdered enough, and he comes back for revenge. The setup for this movie is absolutely absurd. If you're going to murder somebody, make sure you use all the poison. Then, don't dispense with the embalming. Then, don't go cheap on the casket, sticking him in a water- damaged coffin. Then, bury him a little deeper than two feet under. And then, only then, might you get away with it. Otherwise, you run the risk of him waking up, post-funeral (where's his family? might they have insisted on a wake?), punching through the soggy wood, and digging his way through two feet of mud.
And the payoff is no less unlikely - without giving anything away, let's just say it'd take a lot more than eight mere man-hours to do what's done here. Nevertheless, the film is rather enjoyable, if nothing too special. Darabont squeezes quite a bit of suspense from some scenes, while never taking it all too seriously, and all the actors do a good job (even though they're hampered with some cheesy one-liners).
I'd only really recommend this one to Darabont fans, but it's worth a look if you happen to fall into that category. Good to see he's gone on to better things, though. I look forward to The Green Mile with great anticipation, although I fear that the poor guy is seriously type-directing himself as a director of Stephen King drama adaptations set decades ago in rural prisons.