Indie Dark Comedy Horror: Just Buried
Rose Byrne, Graham Greene and Jay Baruchel star in this black comedy
Aug 1, 2008
As a film that is humble in aspirations, yet consistently engaging despite an air of predictability, Just Buried succeeds enough to warrant some lukewarm, but mostly positive attention. For a dark comedy it hits the right notes, but is neither dark nor comic enough to completely succeed in either category. It’s the kind of movie that effectuates light chuckles and an occasional raised eyebrow and should remind some Canuck viewers of the similarly stylized and thematically analogous Top of the Food Chain.
Rose Byrne & Jay Baruchel form an unlikely romance
After Oliver (Jay Baruchel), a chronically nervous and socially awkward slacker, inherits his father’s funeral home, he quickly learns from the handyman (Graham Greene) that a lack of dead bodies equates a lack of money. While drunk driving following a night of drinking with the peculiar and morbid embalmer, Roberta (Rose Byrne), Oliver accidentally strikes and kills a Swiss-German hiker.
The resulting influx of cash stemming from the funeral, in addition to a questioning potential witness leave the pair to take the success of the funeral home into their own hands.
Heathers inspired morality killings
Mixing morality and survivalist killings to progress the plot forward, Just Buried is a didactic hybrid of the questions and issues raised in both Heathers and The Last Supper. It explores the struggle between guilt and power after an ethical line has been crossed and how quickly ideologies can be modified when coping with perceived self-preservation.
The inevitable darkly comic approach could have been more successful had a more consistently stylistic aesthetic been applied to the film through art direction or set design. This isn’t to suggest that a Tim Burton approach was necessary, but if the environment were somewhat more reflective of the overall tone, the film could have connected on a deeper level with auds.
Rose Byrne is a pleasure to watch
This analysis is only partially successful as the character of Oliver doesn’t progress in an entirely believable manner, which stems from both a stark screenplay and a twitchy, unreflective performance from Baruchel. Rose Byrne on the other hand is a treat to watch, giving a great deal of intrigue to Roberta in her often stoic reactions and line delivery. To be fair, this stems not only from her natural abilities, but from the fact that her character is by far the most interesting one on screen with all of the best dialogue.
Had the outcome not been quite so predictable, more thrills and excitement could have been derived from a fairly well staged and appropriately grim finale, which in truth could be said about a great deal of the film on the whole. It’s good, but not great.
For more Darkly comic horror, check out Teeth and for more indie Canadian features, check out Young People F***ing
