Cemetery Man (aka Dellamorte Dellamore, Demons '95, Of death and love) was released in Italy in '94 and hit the U.S. in 96' becoming an instant cult classic. Directed by Italian Dario Argento protege Michele Soavi ( savior of Italian horror ), a creative, stylish and extremely imaginative director who went on to create only a few films, those later being Tv projects for Italian television. Soavi did infact work with the Italian master himself Dario Argento collaborating on a few projects including 1989's The Church and Dario Argento's world of horror. The producer Gianni Romoli also worked with Argento. Argento and Soavi are in no question the greatest Italian directors in horror cinema, they both had such unique styles, creative direction and are just brilliant film makers, their films have a very rich texture to them that really separated their work from other directors at the time and even today.Rupert Everett (My best friends wedding) plays Francesco Dellamorte, a cemetery grounds keeper who's day to day duties include the up keep of the graves and the grounds, digging graves with his lovable, dim witted rotund co-worker Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro) and fighting off the hoards of the recently deceased (returners)who have been returning to life every night getting their energy from the Mandragola roots in the cemetery ( filmed at an actual abandoned cemetery in Italy). Francesco eventually meets a young beautiful widow played by the beautiful Anna Falchi and instantly falls in love. The two hit it off well and in a great scene decide to make love on her newly deceased husbands grave, waking him from his not so eternal slumber and is not too happy to say the least. Anna goes on to play three different roles throughout the film as Fransesco looses grip with reality and his own sanity.Gnaghi falls in love with a young girl shortly before her death, and later has a strange relationship with her decapitated head. Things just get stranger from here on out for the two graveyard workers in a story that twists and turns endlessly keeping it fresh and exciting until it's dramatic ending.
Cemetery Man is not just another zombie movie, it is also a love and loss story, a black comedy and a morality tale ultimately questioning the meaning of life, which is more than you can say for many other horror films. Over the years this film has won several awards.
The zombies are very well done. There is a scene involving a zombie boy scout troupe who rapidly chomp their teeth as they approach. Another amazing scene involves a girl returning to her dead boyfriends grave who was killed in a motorcycle accident and buried with his bike. As she is grieving over the grave she hears what sounds like a motor starting as the zombie biker bursts out of the ground riding his bike.
The story was written by comic book writer Tiziano Sclave, who after creating the character of Dellamorte Dellamoe (which means "of dead love") for the popular comic Dylan Dog, liked him so much he decided to write a full novel about him becoming the story of Cemetery Man.
Anchor Bat released a must own DVD of Cemetery Man in 2006. Thanks to the hard working and true fan of the genre Michael Felsher, the disc contains some truly great extras including an in depth featurette on the film called "Death is beautiful", interviews with Anna Falchi, Michele Soavi and more, an eight page booklet and an extensive bio on Soavi.
The 1990's was an extremely dry time for horror movies making Cemetery Man is the last true example of great Italian horror films, one of the greatest horror films to come out around this time, and in my opinion, of all time. The film is beautifully shot, every scene is almost like a painting making it a timeless masterpiece in cinema. Cemetery Man is an absolute recommend of the highest degree for those who want something more out of their horror movie.
Rating: A-
Review by Jason
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