Cemetery Man (DVD, 2006)

Originally released as Dellamorte Dellamore, this is from director Michele Soavi, who mostly to this point was known as a right-hand-man to some of the most inventive Italian directors of the 70's and 80's such as Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, and Joe D'Amato. He even worked side by side with Monty Python legend Terry Gilliam. But with this effort known in the states as Cemetery Man, he took those influences to new heights of the surreal and in doing so, sort of alienated the core Italian Horror fanbase in the process.

I first recognized his solo work in his 1988 film The Church. But like that film he takes to Horror, unlike his teachers, by putting the gore and frights second and the dream-like visuals and themes first. But it was the reverse order that made Italian Horror cinema so successful in the 80's, and in my opinion adding more "class" is what killed it as a whole by the mid-90's. Sure, Horror can have broader themes, and at times it can work quite well, but when you deal with things such as language barriers, small budgets, and a world outside of Hollywood, if what you did worked already, you shouldn't try to fix it.

And that's what Soavi tried to do with Cemetery Man. Starring a pre-famous Rupert Everett, is a story of a groundkeeper of a small cemetery where the people buried in it rise from their graves about a week later. The film starts like any other of the Italian Zombi group, and quite well with real-time gore effects that are impressive, but soon the story takes a weird romantic turn as Francesco falls for a young bride of a new burial and the whole film get very surreal. Along the way, with his faithful mute sidekick Gnaghi, who's a dead ringer for Curly Howard's Italian cousin, things go quite strange. The local goverment has an idea that the dead are rising here, but doesn't seem to care. Francesco's love eventually meets a grizzly fate only to return in his life in not one but three different incarnations. And when Francesco himself questions existence here, his over-the-top actions are not only passed by, but not seeming to even be ever happening in the first place. And in the end, we get a glimpse of closure of what we saw, but leaving many questions unanswered and sorta empty inside.

The disc itself is quite nice, with a long documentary on the background of Soavi, a 5.1 audio mix, trailers of other classic 80's/90's underground horror (strangely all American releases this time), and a beautifully remastered picture. Sure, I would have loved to have a commentary track explaining why the plot was what it was, or any involvement from Everett after the fact, but Anchor Bay has yet again presented a movie with great detail, if it deserves it or not.

Concluding, I'm sorta torn on Cemetery Man. Visually it's stunning with it's images and themes of love and the afterlife with Zombi tones, but honestly that's not what we wanted or was accustomed to from Italy's Horror Zombi crowd. Sure, greats like Bava or Argento provided similar themes in their 80's works, but with Soavi it somewhat falls flat in the 90's. Probably the last decent Italian Horror film to come out from there, Cemetery Man shows just why that unfortunately came to pass and their Zombiworld's days were numbered.
(RedSabbath Rating:7.0/10)

Cemetary Man (or Dellamorte Dellamore--of Death and Love -- in the original Italian title)provides the rare wonderful combination of humor and horror.
The handsome Rupert Everett stars as the caretaker (Cemetary Man) of a strange graveyard where the dead come back to life after seven days. In one of his best roles, Everett plays the sexy sloucher with sardonic black humor. His sidekick, played by Francois Hadji-Lazaro, should be repellent, but plays the role with such lovable charm -- you want to hug him! Everett's beautiful co-star, Anna Falchi, proves to be not only a great beauty, but a very adept actress.
The screenplay by Gianni Romoli was based on the 1991 graphic novel by Tiziano Sclavi. Sclavi had modeled the character (both physical appearance and personality) on the actor Rupert Everett. This film thus provides an interesting twist on art imitating life imitating art.
This thoroughly enjoyable romp has a surprise ending that makes the viewer realize the film is a philosophical treatise, much more than the average horror genre piece. It also satirizes Italian politics.
Sadly, Michele Soavi, the director, hasn't made a film since Cemetery Man (his fourth film). He is devoting all his time and effort caring for one of his children who is terminally ill. It's cinema's loss.
Renowned director Martin Scorsese called Dellamorte Dellamore one of the best films of the 1990s. What more can I say?

Cemetary Man is a one of a kind, type of movie. You'll never see another quite like it. It's full of gore,zombies,murder,and morbid situations, but it's all off hand and aside from the main focus of the movie, giving it a surreal and dark humor. The focus is on the lives of the keeper of the cemetary, Francesco Dellamorte(Rupert Everette)and his assitant Noggy, as they try to discover the meaning of life and death and find love (consistantly horrific results). With an almost Edgar Allen Poe type feel and never boring, this movie is highly recomended to those who enjoy the unique and grim.

THIS IS A GREAT SILLY HORROR MOVIE! I LOVE SCARY MOVIES THAT BREAK UP THE TENSION WITH LAUGHTER! THE ONLY THING IS.....I DON'T KNOW THAT THEY MENT IT TO BE SO FUNNY! EITHER WAY, IT'S A REALLY FUN MOVIE! I'M SO GLAD IT'S FINALLY OUT ON DVD!

I really enjoyed this movie. Any movie with zombies is a good start and then when you add a fat retarded guy as a side kick who makes out with the head of a zombie girl you know you are watching a good film. I sure this movie has won many awards across the globe even though there is no record to confirm this I am sure that it is true. I did however have to rate this movie at only "good" because as in all foreign films ever made the ending is strange and makes my cats want to cry. That is all I can tell you with out giving the ending away. I could do a spoiler alert, but that's just lame. If you like zombie movies you will like this movie, if you like movies with cartoon animals that act and talk like people you should stick with Pixar. Hope I didn't waste too much of your time. Enjoy, or don't.