Dead & Buried

The Unsung Legacy of Dan O’Bannon, Part III

After the release of ALIEN, Dan O’Bannon should have been on top of the world. But thanks to a high-profile dispute over the film’s writing credits, his career didn’t soar the way you might expect.

Fortunately, O’Bannon’s ALIEN co-writer Ronald Shusett had another project in the works—a slow-burn horror film about a small New England town with a zombie problem. He invited O’Bannon to co-write the script, and the result was DEAD & BURIED (1981), a cult horror oddity directed by Gary Sherman.

In this episode, we unravel the conflicting accounts of O’Bannon’s contributions to the film (including O’Bannon’s own denial of involvement), explore how DEAD & BURIED came together behind the scenes, and highlight the early work of future genre icons like Robert Englund and makeup effects legend Stan Winston.

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Theme Song: "There's Still a Little Bit of Time, If We Hurry and I Mean Hurry" by Slasher Film Festival Strategy.

This episode was written, produced and edited by Gary Horne, Justin Bishop, and Todd A. Davis.