Update: Lionsgate has won the bidding war to distribute the film domestically.
In June 2009, /Film reported that Ryan Reynolds (Waiting, Smoking Aces) was going to participate in an small independent thriller called Buried, a movie about a civilian contractor who is abducted in Iraq and wakes up buried alive inside of a coffin. Buried follows the very real terror of Paul Conroy as he wakes up to realize he is left for dead inside of a coffin at an undisclosed location with only a lighter, cell phone, and a limited supply of oxygen to last him until either his rescue or death, all while still having to meet the demands of his captures.
As the months passed and the hype for Buried grew, I had come to realize that Buried could very well be this year’s Paranormal Activity, seeing how that film was an extremely small production, in almost every possible way. Paranormal Activity was shot for only $15,000, yet made almost $108 million, making it the most successful small budgeted film of all time. I can see Buried doing that, or being close to it because of the marketing for this film, a completely unsettling film, full of the real terrors anyone at any time could be unfortunate to be put through. Buried is the kind of film that hits the key fears in everyone. Claustrophobia effects everyone to some degree, at least when in the situation of Paul Conroy, which seems to be the driving point behind this film.
Luckily, after months of hype, and an overall unbearable wait, MTV released the teaser trailer for Buried which, to me, was completely amazing. Giving both the rush of terror and mix of mystery Buried needed to grab the audience with. Not only did we get the teaser trailer, we were given a clip from MTV as well – giving us a better feel for the film as a whole. When I watched the teaser trailer, I got feel of the teaser for Cloverfield that was in front of Transformers for some reason, in that it was a shaky camera and a completely unknown situation. I wish that they had left the title of the film out of the teaser trailer but kept the website, experienceburied.com, to grab even more at the audience, almost making them run to the internet to find out more.
Check out the trailer and clip below, and let me know what you think! Buried was screened at Sundance last night, but currently has no distributor.