coffins occasionally were equipped with emergency devices to allow the "corpse" to call for help, should he or she turn out to be still living. It was such a strong concern, Victorians even organized a Society for the Prevention of People Being Buried Alive. Belief in the vampire, an animated corpse that remains in its grave by day and emerges to prey on the living at night, has sometimes been attributed to premature burial. Folklorist Paul Barber has argued that the incidence of burial alive has been overestimated, and that the normal effects of decomposition are mistaken for signs of life. The story emphasizes this fascination by having the narrator state that truth can be more terrifying than fiction, then reciting actual cases in order to convince the reader to believe the main story. The narrator in "The Premature Burial" is living a hollow life. He has avoided reality through his catalepsy but also through his fantasies, visions, and obsession with death. He does, however, reform—but only after his greatest fear has been realized. Burial while alive in other Poe works "Berenice" "The Cask of Amontillado" "The Fall of the House of Usher" "The Black Cat" (short story) Adaptations The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935), starring famous silent film director and occasional actor later in "talkies" Erich von Stroheim released by Republic Pictures. The Premature Burial (1962) is a Roger Corman film starring Ray Milland, Hazel Court, Alan Napier, and Heather Angel. A novelization of the film was written by Max Hallan Danne in 1962, adapted from Charles Beaumont and Ray Russell's screenplay and published by Lancer Books in paperback. In 1961 the TV series Thriller – starring Boris Karloff – featured their own version of "The Premature Burial", written by William D. Gordan and Douglas Heyes and guest starring Patricia Medina, Sidney Blackmer and Scott Marlowe. Gothic soap-opera television series: Dark Shadows (1966–71), incorporated "The Premature Burial" into its narrative along with "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Pit and the Pendulum". A subsequent movie was made in 2012 based on a revival and re-telling of the saga of the old TV series. The film Nightmares from the Mind of Poe (2006) includes adaptations of "The Premature Burial" along with "The Tell-Tale Heart", "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Raven". Jan Švankmajer's film Lunacy (2005) is based on "The Premature Burial" and Poe's "The System of