Cemetery Man (1994) User Reviews (195)

A zombie flick with a brain? Can it be true?

[The_Dead_See · 6/10 · 17 December 2000]

The great thing about this movie is that it's not scared to walk a dangerous line between two rarely compatible genres - tongue in cheek horror comedy and European art flick. On its simplest level, it's a schlock zombie flick - pandering to the gore fans. But on another level, it has enough thought-provoking material and poetic direction to please the turtle-neck brigade at your local arts and drama society.

Director Michael Soavi risked alienating both camps with this approach. After all - do fans of George A. Romero *really* want to see zombies that don't seem all that dangerous? Or hear philosophical dialogue about the blurry line between what is alive and what is dead? And conversely - do the coffee-house beatniks really want their poetic escapism dampened by bullets through nuns eyeballs and flying, biting severed heads in bridal veils??? If you had asked me a year ago I would have said that the mix sounded ridiculous.

Now though - I stand corrected.

On the side appealing to my sense of aesthetics and intellect - Michael Soavi's direction was wonderful. The screen is alive with wide angles, slo-mo flowing silks and drips of water. Reminiscent of Ridley Scott in his better days in fact. But wait? What's this cutting through the arty farty pretension? A Sam Raimi style track and pan here? A Jean Paul Jeunet style superimposition there? The whole film is an exercise in visual flair. I can only wish that hollywood had more directors of this calibre. On top of this - the screenplay was superbly written. It delivered shock, comedy or deep sentiment with perfect timing. The climax was stunning and left me very quiet throughout the closing credits.

On the side appealing to my sense of "Hey lads, let's crack open a few beers and watch some chicks get naked and eaten by zombies!" I was equally satisfied. The gore and heaving breast content is most adequate. The zombies were brilliantly designed and had distinct personalities. Even in its deeper moments the film always seems to have it's tongue firmly in its cheek and a mischevious gleam in its eye.

At various times I was reminded of Evil Dead 2, The Hudsucker Proxy, Bad Taste, City of the lost children, and Zombie flesheaters to name but a few. An unusual mix indeed - but one that somehow works. All said and done, I heartily recommend this movie to anyone willing to try out - just for once - a zombie flick with a brain (pun intended).

Brilliant horror film mixes zombies and existentialism

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 31 July 2015]

What can you say about a movie that brilliantly intertwines zombies inexplicably rising from the dead in one particular cemetery, one misfit man who has the lonely mission to kill them and then goes insane doing it, and the mixture of horror and religious symbolism as only the Europeans can do it? The final scene of the movie has you questioning whether any of these people ever existed at all, even within the context of the film. In this last scene, Dellamorte (the cemetery man) decides to just drive away from the existence he has had up to now and start over somewhere else. However, when he leaves the tunnel that connects the town with the main highway he finds ... nothing. The world just ends as if you were on the set of "The Truman Show". You'll certainly never look at a snow globe the same way again.

Did Dellamorte hallucinate the whole movie? Did the audience dream the whole movie? Are we all just characters in someone else's imagination? For you Buffy fans out there, you'll love the mixture of someone on a lonely thankless path to save the world and a tragically ended romance due to the protagonist's focus on his mission.

Wonderful film.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 5 October 2003]

Rupert Everett plays a cemetery caretaker named Francesco Dellamorte.He and his mute sidekick Gnaghi spend most of their evenings shooting zombies in the head,or splitting their skulls in half with the shovel,having to dispatch them again when they tend to rise from the grave after seven days.Rupert falls for a mysterious beautiful young widow(the breathtaking beauty Anna Falchi).After the two of them have sex on her husband's grave,her husband wakes up and takes a bite out of her,sending her to the grave."Cemetery Man" is one of the best Italian horror movies ever made.It's so wonderfully stylish that it truly blew me away.There is plenty of gore to satisfy fans of Italian horror.Highly recommended.Michele Soavi is a genius!

A bizarre but incredibly rewarding film

[SodaCan · 10/10 · 10 August 1999]

Okay, forget the really cheesy American title ("Cemetery Man") and just pick it up if you ever see it. Anyone with an open mind and any mind at all should be able to like this film, if not for the bizarre story for Michele Soavi's incredible visual style, the perfect performances by Everett and Lazaro, or just as a plain, good old time.

"Dellamorte Dellamore" begins like a fun B-horror movie telling us of the care-taker of th Buffalora cemetery, Francesco Dellamorte. In the cemetery some dead people come back to life 7 days after burial, but, Dellamorte isn't too bothered by this, he just takes it as part of his job to put the dead back in the ground, answering his door with a gun in hand, ready to dispense some Grim Reaper-type justice. But, within the first three minutes we know from the visual complexity of the film that this won't be just any B-horror movie, and within the first ten minutes we get a glimpse of what is to come - a fascinating meditation on the difference (if any) between life and death, a philosophical look at insanity and loneliness, a recurring love story that grows more bizarre with each telling, and eventually a big old representation about how life is just what we make of it. The dead returning and the whole zombie thing is just a doorway into Dellamorte's world. Fortunately, it never takes itself too seriously, if it had it would be a dull bore, but thankfully Romoli throws in lots of wit and dark humor ("I'd give my life to be dead"), and Soavi never lets us get bored with his always moving, floating camera and elaborate but never over-done sets.

Everett gives one of the best performances in film history because it is so subtle, he delivers his lines with just the right amount of sarcasm, cynicism, and un-emotionalism (is that a word?) to pull off what was probably an incredibly difficult performance - but he does it perfectly. Francois Hadji-Lazaro, playing Dellamorte's mute and retarded assistant manages to build more of a character with his simple one word vocab of "Nyah" and his facial expressions than most big over-done actors/actresses in movies now-a-days. Anna Falchi is mainly there to provide mysteriously beautiful looks, which she does, in all three of her roles and all of her many lives and unlives. Soavi was the protogé of Italian horror-stylist Dario Argento, but in "Dellamorte Dellamore" he comes fully into his own with his own bizarre and incredible style. This isn't just a case of the student copying the teacher, in this case the student might have even surpassed the master. Ah, if only you could see one movie this life time.

"At a certain point in your life, you start to realize you know more dead people than living."

[fdpedro · 9 June 2004]

Michele Soavi's DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE is not to be confused for a zombie splatter flick, it is actually a strong character study in form of a black comedy. Of course, the words 'Italian horror' and 'character study' are not the kind of stuff you read in the same review. That is what makes this intriguing little film, along with Argento's psychological thriller STENDHAL SYNDROME, one of the last great horror films to come out of Italy. DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE was even given a theatrical release in Uncle Sam's land circa 1996 under the name CEMETERY MAN and it did quite well thanks to Rupert Everett's star power.

We know this is going to be something special from the very first scene: After the camera zooms out of a skull (very cool effect) we are inside a small room while a young man answers a phone call. Then someone knocks on his door and when he opens it… tcham! A rotten zombie enters the room. The audience is surprised, but the man isn't as he grabs a gun and calmly shoots the thing in the head. He returns to the phone like it was some bizarre daily routine as the camera reveals he lives right by a cemetery. Roll titles.

We then learn, through a continuous narration, that the man happens to be Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) a caretaker of a local cemetery of a small Italian town. Dellamorte is one lonely and unhappy man: The entire town makes fun of him for being apparently impotent and having a miserable sex life. Every night, with the help of his mute nerdy assistant Gnaghi (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) he is forced to dispose of the living dead who return from their graves seven days after their burial. This is a major factor of the film that is left unexplained as we are left to assume the zombies exist thanks to an unknown plague. It doesn't even matter anyways, this is the whole set-up of the movie and instead of having a linear plot, Gianni Romoli's sharp script (based on an Italian comic book series) is a string of semi-unconnected events that shape the film as an episodic piece. In fact, one could somehow consider DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE as an anthology film linked together by the characters.

Throughout the film's duration, Francesco falls in love with many nameless women (all of them are played by the same actress: Anna Falchi) and these affairs usually end in bad consequences. The first woman is recently widowed nymph who is apparently turned on by ossuaries. When her jealous husband comes back to the grave and kills her, Dellamorte is left shocked and hopeless. But fortunately for him she is buried in that exact cemetery and not even death can split them apart. Then he ends up falling to the mayor's secretary who happens to have a strange phobia that forces Dellamorte to give up his manhood for love. Will he do it? And finally there is a strange college girl who ends up being too easy. What is her secret? These affairs end up driving Dellamorte insane until the point where he becomes a serial murderer and gets back at all the town folks that originally made fun of him. But is Dellamorte really committing the murders? Or is it someone else? Are those women real or a product of his imagination? Is his insanity getting out of hand?

CEMETERY MAN is so unusual for an Italian horror film, a genre that has been fairly stereotyped over the years as hot-blooded women being chased by schizophrenic, knife-wielding, black-gloved killers. It actually has interesting dialogue, sharp plot, and strong character development. Not only that, but it is filled with black humor that actually works. One of the (many) comedic subplots involves Dellamorte's mute assistant Gnaghi falling in love with the mayor's daughter named Velantina (Fabiana Formica) who is later decapitated at a road accident. Guess to whom Valentine's (talking) zombified head hooks up? The Valentina/Gnaghi subplot is actually a very sweet and funny touch in the film and you actually feel sorry at the tragic outcome. The ridiculous idea of a talking head reminded me of Dario Argento's terrible attempt that same year in TRAUMA where the Italian maestro used it in a serious tone. It all gets more bizarre when Mayor Scanerotti (Stefanio Mascearelli) uses his daughter's death as political propaganda, proving that politicians don't have a soul indeed. During the beginning of the film I thought Detective Straniero's (Mickey Knox) failure at suspecting there was something wrong with Dellamorte was a plot hole when later I realized it was actually being played for laughs. And I laughed. Is CEMETERY MAN parodying the usual narrative problems with Italian horror?

The entire movie is revolved around Rupert Everett who is given a lot to do here from the narration to the actual on-screen performance. It is a shame that Everett's performance in this is never mentioned when people talk about his work. In fact, his horrendous role along with Madonna in 1999's NEXT BEST THING gets more recognition. I would go as far as saying Francesco Dellamorte is the strongest role I ever saw Everett play. He nails the character's offbeat sense of humor from the very first scene and seems to play the whole thing dead serious, making us somehow laugh anyway. This is a performance that proves that we can always take an actor's performances seriously, no matter what his/her real-life sexual preference is.

Michele Soavi was one of the most enigmatic horror directors to come out of Italy. Being a strong protégé of Dario Argento early on his career, the young gifted director completed many music videos as well as some documentaries and assistant-director credits before making his directorial debut in 1987's STAGFRIGHT. With the international success of that film, Soavi soon became hot stuff and was said being the next carrier of the torch that was originally passed from Mario Bava to Argento, but sadly it wasn't so. After directing four acclaimed films (with CEMETERY MAN being the last) Soavi retired and isolated himself from the movie-making business never to be heard from the international public again. Sad really, one can only imagine what his career would have been like if he kept directing because Cemetery MAN is so well-crafted. Soavi breathes style into the picture that mirrors the work of Mario Bava, Sam Raimi, Tim Burton, Peter Jackson, and others. He is even inspired by Orson Welles at some point and I won't tell you where…

The special fx-work was made by Argento regular Sergio Stivaletti (PHENOMENA, SLEEPLESS) and it is one of the most puzzling aspects of the film. For most of the time, the gore looks horribly fake. But one can only guess that was the intention. The zombies look and act so exaggerated and the gore looks so forced and corny one can't help but laugh at it. And were all those visible 'invisible' wires intentional? I am guessing it was just the VHS transfer I watched the film with.

Few films manage to be as haunting, imaginative, weird, and even as darkly funny as CEMETERY MAN. If you ignore some weak dubbing (the one problem the Italian horror industry will apparently never get rid of) you will have one great time. From the eyebrow-raising introduction to the enigmatic conclusion, it will be frustrating to know that Michele Soavi wasn't able to save the Italian horror industry from being taken over by Asian horror as the major alternative from Hollywood slasher flicks and now the industry is far from the 70s glory it once had, with Dario Argento managing to come out with a few minor hits over the years.

(5/5)

Unconventional, Weird, Funny and Cult

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 3 June 2015]

In Buffalora, Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the administrator of the local cemetery and he lives in a house by the cemetery with the intellectually disabled gravedigger Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro) that is his only friend. The cemetery has a peculiarity since the dead reanimates on the seventh night after their death and Dellamorte and Gnaghi together hunt them down. When a gorgeous widow (Anna Falchi) attends the funeral of her old husband, Dellamorte falls in an unrequited love with her. One day, he shows the ossuary to her stimulating her sex drive, and they make love on the top of her husband's grave. However he awakes and bites her, and when she raises, Dellamorte shoots her. On the next days, Gnaghi falls in love with the mayor's daughter Valentina Scanarotti (Fabiana Formica) but she is beheaded in a motorcycle accident with her friend Claudio (Alessandro Zamattio). Along the next days, Dellamorte meets two women that looks alike his deceased love, but his romance ends tragically. He decides to leave Buffalora with Gnaghi, but their journey abruptly ends.

"Dellamorte Dellamore" is an unconventional, weird, funny and cult black comedy. The surrealistic plot has a great cinematography, direction and performances. Dellamorte is a detached character and Rupert Everett is excellent. Anna Falchi is very sexy and has an amazing body. Unfortunately the dubbing is terrible. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Pelo Amor e Pela Morte" ("For the Love and for the Death")

There isn't another film quite like Dellamorte Dellamore

[The_Void · 9/10 · 19 October 2005]

There was a distinct lack of truly great horror in the nineties; but this film, Dellamorte Dellamore, tops the list of what little good ones there were. It's actually quite shocking that this came out during a huge depression for horror cinema, because it's easily one of the greatest horror movies I ever saw. Dellamorte Dellamore is a rather strange mix of horror, romance, twisted fairytale and comedy that isn't quite like anything else in cinema; horror or otherwise. The film knows that it's not the usual sort of film, and revels in this fact throughout. Dellamorte Dellamore buys itself a licence do whatever it wants through the fact that it so weird, and therefore no matter what the film throws at you; it's easy to just back and enjoy it. The film is directed by Dario Argento's talented understudy, Michele Soavi and finds an unlikely lead in Rupert Everett. The story follows Everett; the keeper of a cemetery in a small Italian town called Buffalora. He lives there with his assistant; the deformed Gnaghi, but this isn't quite the normal cemetery, however, as here the dead come back to life and it's up the cemetery man to put them back to sleep. When he meets the most beautiful woman he's ever seen in his cemetery, however, it appears that his luck is starting to change.

The atmosphere presented in this film is truly brilliant, and one of Dellamorte Dellamore's main assets. A cemetery is always going to present a macabre location for a film's characters to inhabit, but the Gothic design in this film ensures that Buffalora's cemetery is more than the horror film norm. The way that the smoke protrudes from the graves, along with several little special effects that director Michele Soavi has seen fit to implement all help to give the film that unique ambiance that it portrays so well. Soavi has given this film it's own style throughout, and even the zombies adhere to it. Soavi's zombies, like the rest of the film, don't stick to convention and rather than being covered with blood, falling to pieces of screaming "brains!", these zombies really look like they've been underground, and also manage to tie in with the downbeat tone of the rest of the movie. A lot of imagination has gone into Dellamorte Dellamore, and almost every sequence is soaked in it. It's things like the way that the cemetery man's assistant takes the mayor's daughter's head from her grave and puts it in the television that makes Dellamorte Dellamore what it is, and not just any other zombie movie.

Horror movies aren't known for great acting, but Dellamorte Dellamore breaks convention once again on that front. Rupert Everett puts in a performance that goes over and above what audiences have come to expect from him given his earlier roles. Like the rest of the film, he just fits in; and if you'd never seen Everett in anything before, you would think that he made this kind of movie all the time. The fact that he isn't essentially a horror film actor only makes the performance even more impressive. Anna Falchi stars opposite him in three different female roles, and looks absolutely great in all of them. The rest of the cast is made up of lesser-known actors, with the very odd François Hadji-Lazaro standing out most among them. Director Michele Soavi started out working under the great Dario Argento, but the few films he has directed himself show that he is a bigger talent than his resume lets on. Here, for example, he has created a film that absolutely stands on it's own. Dellamorte Dellamore goes beyond the title 'horror film', and comes out in a sub-genre all of it's own. Films like this don't often come to the attention of the mainstream; and that's a shame because originality like this should be praised to high heaven. Dellamorte Dellamore is a film that is impossible to ignore and, providing you can find a copy, ignoring is definitely not the recommended action!

Cemetery Man

[cultfilmfan · 7/10 · 27 February 2005]

Cemetery Man, is an Italian film although it is in English and is based upon the novel by Tiziano Sclavi. The film is set in Italy and is about a man named Francesco Dellamorte, who lives and works at the local cemetery with his mute assistant Gnaghi. In the graveyard several bodies seem to come back alive a week after they died and Francesco, has to kill them. Francesco, then meets a woman who comes to the cemetery often to visit her late husband and soon she falls in love with Francesco. Things get complicated after they have sex on her husband's grave and he comes back to life and she dies of shock. The rest of the movie includes other very unusual things including Francesco meeting other women who look exactly the same as the woman from the cemetery and his partner Gnaghi, falling in love with the decapitated head of a local town girl. Winner of The Silver Scream Award for director Michele Soavi at The Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, The David Award for Best Production Design at The David di Donatello Awards, The International Fantasy Film Award for Best Actor (Rupert Everett, who plays Francesco) at The Fantasporto Awards, The Audience Award for Michele Soavi at The Gerardmer Film Festival and The Best Actor Award at The Malaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema. Cemetery Man, has good direction, a good script, good performances from everybody involved, good original music, good production design and good makeup and special effects. The film is low budget and is amaturely done but I enjoyed it. The film is a little slow moving and it is filled with dry and dark humour which for the most part works and the film is a well made film and is quite smart and original. I also liked the way the film looked and film dreamlike and like we are watching someone's dream or a nightmare. The film comes up with clever twists and never gets boring and the last half hour is a real mind twister which I didn't totally understand but I liked it all the same. A very original and interesting horror film that also works as a dark comedy and works well.

One Of The Coolest, Most Original Zombie Films Ever !

[EVOL666 · 9/10 · 14 October 2005]

From the land that spawned probably the most zombie films to this date, ranging in quality from excellent to exremely dull, comes one film that rises above nearly all the rest. DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE (aka CEMETERY MAN) is that film, and if you haven't seen it yet, you are seriously missing out. The story is about lonely cemetery attendant Francesco (Rupert Everett (!?) in one of his very early roles)and his mute, Igor-like assistant Gnaghi. Every seven days, the dead rise from their graves (for no real apparent reason...) and it is Francesco and Gnaghi's job to dispatch them. The 2 live a pretty solitary existence until a mysterious woman comes along and into Francesco's life. Cut to the chase- Francesco and the woman have sex on her newly buried husband's grave, and when he returns from the dead, everything goes haywire from there...

DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE is several films rolled into one...zombie gore film, dark comedy, romance story - similar in some ways to perhaps DEADALIVE (not nearly as silly or gory), but this is a hard film to make a comparison on. It really is it's own unique experience and should definitely be viewed by anyone into horror/zombie films. Again, one of my all-time zombie favorites...Highly Recommended 9/10

The artiest zombie film ever made - and also one of the best

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 15 June 2016]

Michele Soavi began his directing career with THE CHURCH, a muddled religious chiller, in 1988. In that film he showed some ability in creating some visually interesting and inventive images (particularly that of the writhing mound of bodies) while possessing a certain artistic style all of his own, inspired by Argento himself. In DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE, Soavi reaches the peak of his achievements in what is most probably his best movie: although it works as a conventional horror film too, this film is primarily a study of the boundaries between life and death, and all that they entitle. It also explores the human mind in its longing for love and the effect that despair and isolation can have on it. While DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE may not always be a straightforward or easy-to-follow movie, its sheer uniqueness and visual scope makes for engrossing viewing.

This offbeat film opens with star Everett nonchalantly shooting a zombie in the head which has climbed in through his door. We learn that this is all in a typical evening's activity for him, as he is cursed with looking after a graveyard which repeatedly spawns the living dead from its graves. Expect no Romeroesque zombie movie here, though, as the zombies themselves - although regularly appearing - are just visual filler, a backbone on to which the rest of the human drama and plot lies. Sergio Stivaletti's special effects are as good as ever, and as the film has a noticeably higher budget than Italian productions have had previously, the SFX of the zombies are quite remarkable; this time they really do look like complex, rotted creatures, treading a thin line between looking funny and looking scary.

There are a few "invasion" scenes in the film in which the zombies attack in hordes and come this close to dispatching Everett once and for all, only for Everett to escape or kill them just in the nick of time. These are nice touches and had me jumping in my seat once or twice. Everett himself is the capable hero of the movie, a pessimist who narrates the various bizarre events occurring in his life; of course, now that he's gone mainstream, his work will never be as interesting or profound. Everett is supported well by a talented cast, especially Francois Hadji-Lazaro who threatens to steal the show with his comic support as Everett's mute but faithful companion. The "charms" of actress Anna Falchi are also thrown into the mix, with the undeniably beautiful woman recurring in a number of roles. Am I the only one who thinks that Stanley Kubrick himself stole some of the couple's chemistry/bizarre relationship for EYES WIDE SHUT?

Watch out for the many bizarre and unexpected moments in this film, from the midnight tryst between Everett and Falchi being interrupted by a hungry zombie to the terrible bus crash in which a load of schoolchildren are massacred. DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE is definitely not for the weak of heart, and its pretty strong stuff with hints of necrophilia and the like, while mixing in sex with gore in a way to most likely offend the censors. Although not explicitly gory, we see many people getting shot in the head, brains being blown out and skulls cloven in two. One of my favourite scenes in the film has Everett visiting a sick friend in hospital; as each doctor and nurse comes in to interrupt him, he offhandedly shoots them in the head until the bodies are piling up on the floor! By the end of the movie, the film has come a long way. It began as a straightforward zombie horror film, turned into a bleak love story and actually moves into serial killer mode in the last half an hour. The final shot has to be one of the most courageous, bizarre and frankly fantastic that I've ever seen in a movie and really tops off what already has been a great film. Surreal, macabre and definitely absurd, DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE is definitely a contender for the best horror film of the '90s.

100% style over substance

[trustyourforce · 1/10 · 7 July 2022]

This movie prioritizes being stylish over having an actual plot. People seem to be pretentious about this movie being "art". I guess the plot revolves around this guy killing zombies in an Italian cemetery while chasing this woman who keeps getting reincarnated or has a bunch of identical siblings or something. He has this Quasimodo like assistant who falls in love with the zombified head of a girl. There's a lot of just weird moments and dialogue. The movie ends with the plot twist from St. Elsewhere.

One of the most incredible and overlooked films ever made.

[HarryWarden · 10/10 · 4 August 1998]

Dellamorte Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man) is one of those ingenious, creative movies that appear once in a blue moon and is virtually unrecognized. It tells the story of a cemetery caretaker's troubled life and descent into madness, while at the same time, trying to rid himself of the zombies that rise from the ground after burial. Featuring Rupert Everett giving one of the best performances in cinematic history, Dellamorte Dellamore is a unique blend of humor, horror, and romance into a gothic art-house flick. This movie is proof that American film-makers have a lot to learn.

Gravely Unconventional

[bushtony · 6/10 · 10 November 2012]

This plays as if Argento, Kafka, Dali, Leone and Romero went to the pub one night, got hammered on absinthe and collectively said: "You know what would be a good idea for a film...?"

CEMETERY MAN is an Italian black comedy zombie flick that effortlessly succeeds at being weird, bizarre, unconventional, erotic and generally unnerving throughout. It is at times crass and gross, arty and visually sensual, confusing and uneven. But it remains consistently quite compelling and utterly impossible to pigeonhole.

Rupert Everett plays the caretaker of a provincial cemetery where the dead come to life and it's his job to put them back in the ground by delivering extreme head trauma with bullet, blade and blunt instrument. Add three women in his life, played by the same actress but apparently different characters, a semi-mute and mentally deficient assistant who is in love with a talking severed head in a bridal veil, a dumb and clueless cop, a gang of biker delinquents, serial murder and the grim reaper himself. Then chuck in some metaphysical philosophy on the nature of existence and what constitutes the world, life and death, along with a dash of surrealism, a pinch of necrophilia and a large dose of graphic violence and gore and there you have it. Or there you don't exactly, because these elements only scratch the surface without touching upon the multiple undercurrents, plot threads and shrouded meanings running beneath.

It was a financial failure and critically ill-received on release. Prime cult fodder, then, and that status gave it a reputation and saved it from obscurity. Whether you enjoy it or not is in the lap of the gods. I can imagine a lot of people had their expectations subverted because without some foreknowledge it isn't going to be what most would expect. The wide-open-to-interpretation ending will please some and confound others. If you are on the lookout for something twisted, off key and original, give it a shot. Just don't expect a conventional zombie-fest.

The Death Of Two Hours

[flowscape · 3/10 · 24 October 2001]

Dreadful. I hope I can save two hours of your life by warning you away from this. I just finished watching the film, BTW.

I love good cross genre films. This isn't one of them. Show me a sci-fi musical, a dramatic farce, or a religious action flick, I'll watch them all. But you cannot just throw epigrammatic quips at a rambling, camp, schlock-horror fest and draw my applause.

I love philosophical films. This isn't one of them. Anyone who is amazed at the depths of intellect plumbed in this film hasn't read a good book lately. Or ever. The "thought-provoking" dialogue is trite, at best. Perhaps it lost something in the translation.

I love a good horror-comedy. This isn't one of them. Laugh! I thought I'd never start! Squirm? Only when trying to think of a polite way to phrase my feedback of the film to the friend who recommended it.

Rupert is incongruously good in the setting of this film, but even he cannot resurrect it. I only wish he had shot the director instead if the zombies.

For shame, that the land that gave rise to The Inferno should also give rise to this. Dante would be spinning in his grave.

Finally, a QUALITY horror film

[Eric-1226 · 14 April 2002]

I scoured the shelves of my local video store, looking and looking for something in the horror section that might actually fall under the category of "quality horror movie." Well, this movie - out of an offering of what seemed like hundreds - is the only one that seemed to stick out and grab me, so I rented it. And I'm glad I did, I was NOT disappointed.

This movie possesses all those "pluses" that I like in those movies that I give high marks to. Namely, it is absorbing, thick with atmosphere, adroitly filmed, has great location scenery and expertly designed sets, and has compelling, believable characters who actually make you care about their individual fates as the movie unfolds. Yes, this movie has all that, and it is hard to believe that I found all this in a (gasp!) Italian zombie flick.

But it's true, and as you can see from previous comments herein, most other people commenting on this film were also quite impressed with the film.

I also like the ending... I will be the first to admit that the ending is as enigmatic and puzzling as many other segments of the film. Perhaps that's why I like the ending: it's not a slick, hokey happy-ending sort of finish. And by the way, has anybody else noticed that the ending is a clever variation of the proverbial "cliff hanger" ending??

Anyway, I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who is a horror-zombie-gore-fantasy film lover who wants some quality goods. There is gore aplenty, though I never found it to be disgusting or disturbing. Plus, there are some beguiling and wonderfully sexy scenes featuring that most beautiful model/actress from Finland, Anna Falchi. Rupert Everett is captivating as the title character, and the guy who plays his half-wit assistant Gnaghi is wonderfully expressive - it's hard to believe he barely utters a complete sentence the entire film.

Oh, and one more thing... after seeing this film, should the need ever arise, you should be utterly inspired to go out and plug rampaging zombies squarely in the head with dum-dum bullets.

Surprisingly American -- up to a point

[jrdepriest · 7/10 · 10 November 2006]

Francesco Dellamorte doesn't deal with 'Zombies'; don't be so crass.

To him they are merely "returners" to be dealt with in a very logical manner.

Bodies go in graves, when they come out, put them back in.

His working stiff ethic, unwillingness to rock the boat, and his plodding, mechanical execution speak directly to the experience of any blue collar worker.

Francesco was determined to "do his job" and to keep it.

The first 2/3 of the movie were standard fare for B-grade horror movies, which as a person used to American movies, was expected.

It delved into foreign film absurdity though and lost a few points for this sheltered movie watcher.

--- SPOILERS BY THE BOAT LOAD FROM HERE DOWN ---

When Claudio's motorcycle came out of the grave with him on it, I have to say, I was scratching my head.

Who gets buried with their motorcycle anyway? Escpecially when it is just some greaser. Was his family wealthy and this was just implied in ways that I was not able to comprehend (due to my limited cultural exposure)? Cutting off the head of the mayor's daughter and putting it in his TV was a great idea. However, I have yet to figure out how it ~walked~ from the grave to Gnaghi's room.

And what the heck was going on when Franco took credit for Franscesco's murders. What was the motivation? Once Franscesco started blowing folks away in Franco's room, I was completely lost.

When Marshall Straniero is running up the stairs to find the mad shooter and sees Franscesco's gun, his reaction defies all logic.

Is all of this merely to point out how impotent (in the medical sense as well as his ambition and drive) everyone saw him? He yells out, "It was me!" but nobody cares? Not even the policeman? Not even for a second? Obviously we are traveling in strange places not populated by normal human beings.

The feeling was of course completely confirmed by the suitably un-American and bizarre ending in which Francesco discovers that their little town is the entire world as far as they are concerned and Gnaghi and Franscesco seemingly switch abilities with Gnaghi regaining his senses (thanks, blow to the head!) and Franscesco losing his.

The defining moment for me was when Francesco realized that his dream woman was ~alive~ when he shot her in the side of the head in the ossuary. Thus began his slide into madness. It was an extremely poignant and moving moment; the viewer is able to feel the conflicting emotions for Francesco: anger over Gnaghi sticking a sharpened shovel in her head, anger over himself for realizing that she wouldn't return twice and that she was, in fact, still alive after her dead husband's bite, anger at himself for almost surrendering himself to her as a returner.

The movie was very entertaining and I might even watch it again to see if I missed anything.

Is that the true mark of a movie's worth? The fact that people want to watch it over and over to try and understand it

When the credits rolled and the movie was over, I felt sadness; not at the fact that it was over, but at how Francesco's life was turning out.

To destroy the woman you love and then lose her two more times (although, he probably had a chance with the last incarnation if he had tried instead of incinerating her -- to him, the point was it wasn't the first one; it wasn't the widow). Gah! To have loved and lost is the greatest pain a man can carry with him. Wounds that never heal but burst out again and again when you least expect it.

That is what the movie means to me.

A dream within a dream

[Phroggy · 10/10 · 10 March 1999]

For those who don't know Soavi, this guy has directed 25% of Gilliam's "Munchausen". So if you loved the final "Death" sequence, this film features the same imagery - laced with poetry, wit, humor, romance, sheer cinematic beauty, satire, onirism. This is the best Italian fantasy since "Suspiria"by a genius of a director. And if you want something completely different, it's all in here. Michele, where are you ? We need you.

Stylish gothic horror meets hilarious insanity

[SkullScreamerReturns · 7/10 · 17 August 2020]

Sometimes you just like a movie instantly. I could describe Cemetery Man a movie you can't take your eyes off. That's how I felt. The visual style and the cemetery as the location are perfect for a horror movie, and the music adds to the atmosphere. I got drawn in instantly.

Then there's the humorous aspect. I don't know how to describe it. I've never really seen a movie with this kind of tone. It's not overblown comedic but often quite hilarious. Comedy is a difficult thing to pull off, especially when combining with something different, but I think this movie nails it.

The plot is so weird that it's hard to describe. The first half made at least some kind of sense but towards the end I fell off the wagon. But I still loved all the weirdness and randomness of it. There's also some philosophical and poetic talk about life, death, and love, but I didn't really grasp yet is it actually something deep or just empty babbling.

I'm definitely going to watch it again at some point, and recommend for fans of cemeteries, comedy-horror, and weirdness.

Love, like death, is never simple

[LanceBrave · 9/10 · 3 November 2013]

Italian zombie movies come with their own set of rules and clichés. By 1994, the extreme gore and apocalyptic visions the genre is famous for were well-established. Michelle Soavi's "Cemetery Man" shows its disinterest in the tradition of the genre in its opening minutes. After a long pan out of the inside of a skull, Francesco Dellamorte causally, without care, shoots a zombie in the head, paying it little mind. "Cememtery Man" has zombies in it but is not a zombie movie. Instead, it's a surreal, absurdist voyage into the Freuadian psycho-sexual subconscious of its lead character.

Adapted from a novel by Tiziano Sclavi, itself a spin-off of Sclavi's immensely popular "Dylan Dog" comic, the movie takes a semi-episodic look at the life of Francesco Dellamorte, the caretaker of a cemetery in the small Italian town of Buffalora. The dead buried in the cemetery have a nasty habit of returning to life. However, Francesco's concerns are elsewhere. He worries about loosing his job, keeping the zombie infestation a secret. He wonders if his life has meaning and if he'll ever get out of his dead-end corner of the universe. A plot line slowly forms, revolving around Francesco meeting the woman of his dream, only for her to die, and reappear again. The troubles in Francesco's life pile up, culminating in visions of Death itself, prompting him to murder the dead while they're still living.

Soavi loads his film with symbols, layers, and deeper meanings. A first time viewer just has to let the dreamy "Cemetery Man" wash over them. Repeat viewers are allowed to examine the picture, discerning the purpose behind its images and stories. Francesco has no concern for the dead, apathetically slaying zombies. He has little regard for life either, even before his murder sprees start. He struggles to find meaning in his life, has few friends, and no future. The cemetery becomes his prison, the job and the town around inescapable. The events of the film are representative of his inner turmoil. The ending and snow globe imagery reflect this, showing Francesco as trapped in his own cycle of self-defeat. The script acknowledges that this is the protagonist own fault. Dim-witted Gnagi has no problem assembling the skull puzzle Francesco struggles with.

The original Italian title is "Dellamorte Dellamore," translating as "Of Death, Of Love." The love of Francesco's life is a nameless woman that keeps returning to his life. Credited only as She, the woman sets up her own purpose earlier on, asking the man if she "can return." She is represented by billowing scarfs. The title is visually illustrated when her bright red scarf, representing of love, blows onto a pile of skulls. The nameless woman is less a character then another symbol of Francesco's self-inflicted torture. During their graveyard set sex scene, the woman stand behind a statue of a headless angel, the wings behind her. Later, the wings fall off the statue, beside Francesco's feet, marking them both as fallen. The first time She dies in Francesco's arms, he is unable to save her. The second time he lets her rotting zombie chew on him. The third encounter shows his suffering over a woman he barely knows isn't worth the trouble it brings. By her fourth appearance, Francesco has come to actively resent his love, another symbol of his endless frustrations. Love, like death, is never as simple as it's supposes to be.

Don't think "Cemetery Man" is a pretentious study in symbolism. The movie has a darkly comic absurdist streak running through it. This is most evident in Gnagi, Dellamorte's sole friend and companion. The rotund Gnagi resembles Uncle Fester and speaks only one word, a grunting "Gna!" He grotesquely scarfs spaghetti and mindlessly watches television. He hordes dried up leaves in the same way Francesco hordes old telephone books. Like Stan, he shows his romantic interest in the mayor's daughter by vomiting on her. Despite perishing immediately afterwards in a motorcycle crash, Gnagi still gets to have a relationship with the girl. He removes her zombified head from her glass coffin, serenading her with his violin. The girl('s head) is charmed by the bizarre Gnagi and happily takes up resident in his blasted-out TV. Humor is all over the place in this film, from the oddball motorcycle riding zombie, the girl willing to have her undead boyfriend chew on her, the mid-film absurdist take on Tod Browning's "The Unknown," the mayor's morbid political grubbling, to Rupert Everett's sarcastic line readings. For all its melancholy and existential wandering, "Cemetery Man" is a very funny movie.

It's also, visually, quite a beautiful one. Soavi has always been a fantastic visualist but he tops himself here. The cemetery is another world. Torquise balls of swamp fire dance through the air. Fog billows among the grave stones. The gates and walls of the graveyard seem to close in on the characters as the story goes on. The tombs are painted in blues and violets. Soavi places his camera in creative locations. It slides between floorboards, under coffin lids and even peers out of a floating head's mouth. Inside of showing the aftermath of a violent shooting in a simple A-to-B fashion, the camera spins upside down. "Cemetery Man" is equally moody and creative in story and visual presentation.

The ending is inscrutable at first. However, I finally gleamed its meaning on this rewatch. Francesco realizes his greatest treasure had been beside him the whole time and, still unable to escape his own world, devotes himself to his stalwart companion. Rupert Everett is perfectly cast in the lead, Francois Hadji-Lazaro makes one word mean so much, and Anna Falci is achingly desirable. "Cemetery Man" is a unique, beautiful film, Michele Soavi's masterpiece, a one-of-a-kind treat for adventurous horror fans.

stylish, bizarre Italian horror film with romantic and political elements is a bit too ambitious for its own good

[OldAle1 · 7/10 · 22 April 2008]

A rare case in which I watched something on the recommendation of a coworker; a coworker who loves gory horror movies and has a special attachment to zombie films. I should know better...but actually this combination exploitation/art film is pretty compelling at times, and if I were more a fan of the genre I might have really been blown away by it.

Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the caretaker of a small city cemetery in Buffalora who with his trusted sidekick/assistant Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro) fights to keep the dead dead, as they seem to have the unfortunate habit of (sometimes) coming back to life. This is a delirious mixture of horror and farce in many ways reminiscent of the early films of Sam Raimi (Evil Dead 2 in particular) and Peter Jackson{Braindead) but with added elements of a romance gone bad (dead) and a satirical attitude about local Italian politics. In the end it's a bit too much, the building surrealism taking the film literally to the edge of a cliff and then just not having the energy to come to a conclusion worthy of its at time astonishing inventiveness. Still, well worth a watch and more proof -- if any was needed -- that there was much more vitality left in Italian horror than in the American slasher pics of the same period.

What the hell was all that about?

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 25 September 2006]

In Michele Soavi's confusing art-house zombie film, Dellamorte Dellamore, Rupert Everett plays Francesco, a caretaker in a cemetery where the dead don't stay buried for long. Aided by his simple assistant, Gnaghi, Francesco deals with the cemetery's zombie problem by either shooting the undead in the head or splitting their skulls with a spade.

However, soon after falling for the mysterious beautiful widow of one of his recently interred, Francesco finds himself busier than ever before…

Having garnered some particularly favourable comments from some of IMDb's more respected horror officianados, I decided to see what the fuss was all about. I've just finished watching the film, and I can honestly say that I haven't been this disappointed by a horror film for quite some time.

With its dreary, muddled pseudo-philosophical plot, and an extremely bland performance from leading man Everett, Dellamorte Dellamore is an irritating and plodding mess that not even some splattery gore (courtesy of Sergio Stivaletti) and welcome gratuitous nudity (from busty Anna Fialchi) can save. I am at a loss to understand the amount of in-depth analysis and discussion that this pretentious bilge has received from its misguided fans.

A wickedly wonderful black comedy with a surprising amount of depth!

[Nightman85 · 10/10 · 6 July 2009]

It's been called one of the best horror films you've never seen, and I would have to whole-heartedly agree! Italian director Michele Soavi (who gave us such great horror films as Stage Fright and The Church) makes perhaps his biggest genre landmark with this unique masterpiece.

Cemetery caretaker Francesco, along with his dim-witted assistant, spends his days re-laying the dead to rest when they rise from their graves. But, is there something more to life than keeping zombies down?

Dellamorte Dellamore is an excellent black comedy/zombie film, yet it is very unlike any other film of its genre. Gianni Romoli delivers a weird and frequently off-beat story, based upon characters from the graphic novel by Tiziano Sclavi. This film has a kind of oddly philosophical depth to it, as well as a genuinely heart-felt hero. Of course it also packs plenty of exciting action with loads gore, sex, and dark humor. Dellamorte Dellamore is a truly wild and often fun ride from its humorous opening sequence to its mystifying conclusion. Michele Soavi's direction is terrifically colorful, flaring with beautiful imagery and dark atmosphere. The settings are very nicely detailed and give the movie a great comic book feel. The special FX makeup is outstanding and the music score is perfect.

The greatest highlight however comes from the cast. Franois Hadji-Lazaro is very animal-like as Francesco's faithful assistant. Lovely Anna Falchi shines as not only one, but three different characters that become love interest to Francesco. And of course the best of all is our hero Rupert Everett. Everett builds a character that's deep, bizarre, funny, dark, and very sexy. Frankly, he's the force behind this film.

Dellamorte Dellamore is a delightful oddity in the zombie genre, it's a film that invites you to figure life out, while you fight off some murderous zombies in the process. A must-see!!

**** out of ****

bring on the zombies !

[al_phillips2000 · 7/10 · 20 December 2001]

This bizarre film starts out as Romero-esque zombie comedy flick, then transforms into a hallucinatory-insanity film, then ends like an existential artistic film. I liked the zombie stuff, and cringed at the insanity stuff, and I detested the last 10 minutes.

WAY overrated

[preppy-3 · 1/10 · 15 August 2005]

Rupert Everett plays a man in charge of a cemetery in Italy. The problem is that the dead keep coming back to life and Everett must kill them (again) by stopping their brains. Then he meets and falls in love with a beautiful woman. They make love in the graveyard, on top of a grave and things go all wrong...

I saw this thing (I can barely call it a movie) when it slithered on to some art house screens here in America. On one hand I was very pleased to see a film with such incredibly graphic gore get an R rating. But that's about all I liked it about it. Like most Italian horror movies the plot is secondary to gore and imagery but I need a story or at least a character to anchor down a horror movie...this has neither. It's full of people with no personality whatsoever (Everett plays the whole role with a blank face) and the "plot" just comes and goes and makes precious little sense. Also this movie wavers VERY uncomfortably between black humor and gory horror and achieves neither.

If all you care about is a pointless movie with gory violence (and the expected female nudity) this is for you. I was frustrated and actually very bored by the end. The movie does deserve credit--it somehow made blood and gore LOOK boring!!!! A complete waste of time--I can't say talent because there isn't any in front or behind the camera. A 1.