Dellamorte Dellamore (Cemetery Man) (Demons '95) (Of Death, of Love) (1996)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Greg S

  
  Groundskeeper Francesco Dellamorte works at an Italian cemetery where the major part of his duties is to shoot zombies in the head as they rise from the grave; the normalcy of his daily routine is wrecked when he falls in love with a beautiful widow, sees a vision of death, and has to… More
  Groundskeeper Francesco Dellamorte works at an Italian cemetery where the major part of his duties is to shoot zombies in the head as they rise from the grave; the normalcy of his daily routine is wrecked when he falls in love with a beautiful widow, sees a vision of death, and has to cope with his mute assistant's romance with an underage severed head. It's a lazy cliche to describe a surreal movie as "it's [insert name of familiar movie] on acid," but I'll do it anyway: DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE is DAWN OF THE DEAD on acid.

• Lewis C

  
  "I'd give my life to be dead." Cemetery Man is definitely the weirdest "zombie movie" I've ever seen. Whether that's a good thing or not depends solely on the individual viewer. A cemetery caretaker and his big, mono-syllabic assistant watch over… More
  "I'd give my life to be dead." Cemetery Man is definitely the weirdest "zombie movie" I've ever seen. Whether that's a good thing or not depends solely on the individual viewer. A cemetery caretaker and his big, mono-syllabic assistant watch over a graveyard where some of the dead have a habit of crawling out of their caskets seven days after they die and attempting to munch on the living. A beautiful widow (seriously, Anna Falchi is stunning in this and fortunately you get to see a lot of her) interrupts the duo's nightly routine of headshots and re-burial, and things quickly get even weirder. Cemetery Man is campy at times, there's lots of old school gore, black humor, murder sprees, a supernatural reoccurring love story, odd characters and shifts in tone (the first half is VERY different from the latter half). Imagine an Italian Army of Darkness meets David Lynch and penis injections (you'll have to see it to understand). Actually, "you'll have to see it to understand" is the best review I can give this movie.

• Robert C

  
  Interesting (if not fully unique) premise, wonderful sets and location shots and a very dashing young Rupert Everett as our "hero". This film knows exactly what it is (slightly creepy, often ammusing and totally cheesey) and just has fun being THAT. No delusions of… More
  Interesting (if not fully unique) premise, wonderful sets and location shots and a very dashing young Rupert Everett as our "hero". This film knows exactly what it is (slightly creepy, often ammusing and totally cheesey) and just has fun being THAT. No delusions of grandure here.

• Cassandra M

  
  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… More
  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!

• Randy T

  
  Cult-ish zombie bizarreness that never takes itself too seriously. <i>Dellamorte Dellamore</i> runs the entire gamut, from 'absurd' to 'fantastic' and just about everything in between.

• Drew S

  
  Wow, I have no idea WHAT this movie was going for. I guess the easiest read is as a giallo throwback, but then what's with the bizarre existentialist twist toward the end? I guess it's a pretty good philosophical theme for a zombie movie to explore, but frankly, the movie is… More
  Wow, I have no idea WHAT this movie was going for. I guess the easiest read is as a giallo throwback, but then what's with the bizarre existentialist twist toward the end? I guess it's a pretty good philosophical theme for a zombie movie to explore, but frankly, the movie is too fucking stupid to make any good of it. The date on the back may read 1996, but the continuity is straight out of 70s Italy, and some parts of Cemetery Man benefit more than others from this. The movie is a success when it gives way to Rupert Everett capping zombies with ridiculous poise, or sweet virginal young girls getting decapitated by buses, not so much during a "deep" and life-affirming ending lifted more or less from Citizen Kane (!!). I enjoyed this more or less, but it's attempting way too much as a tongue-in-cheek homage, or it's a general failure if it's actually attempting to be a legitimate horror comedy. It's no classic, but it may be fun to throw on every once in a while, if only to show your friends some of the bizarre carnage that ensues.

• Jason S

  
  This is a weird little movie that I thought was interesting enough to buy and give it another half star. The story is strange and all but it stays with you.

• Tim S

  
  I've never seen a horror film that was so sexy and had so much heart. A true work of art.

• Curtis L

  
  This movie rules. Zombies, a hot chick, and it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. At all.

• Steve B

  
  The first (and only, as far as I know) existentialist Zombie movie.

• Ryan M

  
  9.3/10 "Cemetery Man" is another one of those horror flicks where you either love it or you hate it. I've heard some critics call it "vile" and "witless", while others "appreciate the satirical undertones" and praised the writing as… More
  9.3/10 "Cemetery Man" is another one of those horror flicks where you either love it or you hate it. I've heard some critics call it "vile" and "witless", while others "appreciate the satirical undertones" and praised the writing as well as the directing. Only a select few are truly in the middle. But you know what...I don't really care what others think. I love a lot of movies because I should rightfully be able to embrace and remember however many of them I want; and this is, by my definition, certainly one of the greats for its genre. Often cited as the last great Italian horror film, this adaptation of a 1991 novel written by Tiziano Schlavi - author of the popular "Dylan Dog" comics - is a bloody hoot. If that's what you expect out of director Michele Soavi, who is a noted assistant director for a good number of Italian-Horror legend Dario Argento's feature films, then you'll surely have a good time with this one. It's no surprise that Schlavi's book covered the material that is at the center of "Cemetery Man"; the film itself resembles "Dylan Dog" in a variety of ways. Take, for instance, the premise: lonely cemetery caretaker Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) and his child-like assistant Gnaghi (Francois Hadji-Lazaro) work by night to defend their seldom-mentioned town from the returning undead that rise from the graves; zombies. Dellamorte has been doing his job for years now, and the townsfolk appreciate the skill and craft that he exercises in his work. But...what's a man working the graveyard shift to do? Dellamorte practically has less of a life than his dunce of a business partner. He lacks all love and basically all communication aside from those who respect and appreciate his choice of lifestyle and work. This is why it becomes a problem when Dellamorte finds himself mysteriously in love with a beautiful woman (Anna Falchi); who seduces him and pulls him deeper into an entirely new nightmare of psychological confusion, lust, and human desires. Dellamorte is not much unlike me. He accepts his fate - and the rest of his life - but does not hesitate to challenge it. There are plenty of people who fear that they will never be able to understand or even "access" love; myself included. Francesco Dellamorte, that ever-so-relatable man, is a perfect portrait of the love-fearing internet dweller, the love-fearing gentleman living forever in isolation, or the love-fearing man who chooses where he stands on the romantic food chain. So there is some resonance to be found here. We do indeed care about the two main characters; Dellamorte especially is a worrisome fellow, but his partner is a sympathetic, shy, lonely creature who has desires of his own. There's a sub-plot in the film where he finds love in the decapitated head of a girl who was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident. It's this sort of dark comedy that carries the film from goodness to greatness; it will no doubt turn off some people with its violent, off-kilter style; however, if I can recommend it to anyone, it would be those who don't mind a film that tries to be something different, quirky, and unforgettable. "Cemetery Man" is all of those things, and gladly, not because it tries too hard to be each; but because it simply is. I laughed plenty of times; or at least enough times to say that I felt the humor here was effective. Dellamorte's daily (or nightly) routine consists of a shower, a phone-call, a not-too-random zombie walk-in, and finally, a burial or two. It is funny because Dellamorte does not see any of these things as abnormal; and indeed, some of them are, and some of them are not. We all take showers, we all make phone calls, but do we all shoot zombies in the head with a pistol? Most of us haven't come close. Not every horror film - even the truest among them - is intent on horrifying. While it often drifts further away from fright and edges more towards comedy, Soavi's film is still a "real" horror film. It has characters that we care about, a well-told story with philosophies and thoughts of its own, and spectacular imagery to boot. Those who think about horror movies more than the average genre fan will definitely find something of value here; "Cemetery Man" is thought-provoking and crafted with visionary intentions; and this is precisely why I think it classifies as great cinema. A bizarre, uncomfortable sex scene atop the grave of a lost lover; the widely-known "surprise visit" from the Grim Reaper (Death) himself; and plenty of scenes involving the planting of bullets can all be found here. There's even an ultra-surreal ending - which I shall not spoil - that most certainly takes the cake for one of the most complicated and philosophical endings for a horror movie...ever. Some might find it pretentious, some might find it meaningless, but when you look into it, the finale isn't really either of those things. The film, seen through the eyes of simplistic analysis, is a story that highlights the boredoms of reality (love amongst the living) and our hidden yearnings. I find it relevant and creative; atmospheric, beautiful (on both the narrative and production sides), and wickedly entertaining. Not for all tastes, I will admit yet again, but few horror movies are; so for those who might want to check out "Cemetery Man", you know who you are...or at least you should.

• Lesley N

  
  It's difficult to know how to rate this Italian yet English speaking, zombie-full film set in a cemetery with gun-toting grave diggers except to say that Rupert Everett plays it magnificently straight throughout, even when he's snogging the newly dead or asking the local… More
  It's difficult to know how to rate this Italian yet English speaking, zombie-full film set in a cemetery with gun-toting grave diggers except to say that Rupert Everett plays it magnificently straight throughout, even when he's snogging the newly dead or asking the local doctor for an anaestic-free castration. Strange but charming. <img src="http://wildinthestreetsblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/101dellamorte.jpg">

• John M

  
  "Cemetery Man" isn't a classic, but it is funny and entertaining. It is a refreshingly original take on the zombie genre.

• Sean L

  
  This movie came out of nowhere and fucked my mind in a way I would never have expected. And I liked it. It starts in the vein of some classic horror comedies like Braindead and Re-Animator, but it quickly moves on to become more out there and crazy than, well, almost anything I can… More
  This movie came out of nowhere and fucked my mind in a way I would never have expected. And I liked it. It starts in the vein of some classic horror comedies like Braindead and Re-Animator, but it quickly moves on to become more out there and crazy than, well, almost anything I can think of. There are zombies, but they kind of stop being important half way through. I'll go ahead and admit that this movie made no sense to me whatsoever. But it was consistently enjoyable, and not in an ironic so bad its good way. Rupert Everett is fantastic, and he plays his role just right considering the insanity he deals with. I love the cinematography, which is very creative and interesting. I love the music. I love the blatant disregard for anything tasteful or normal. The movie kind of ends up feeling like some weird existential arthouse movie, but it never really takes itself all that seriously. I could just go ahead and list all the wonderful scenes and moments that were a joy for me to behold, but that would just be a waste of time. All I will say is that by the time we started to near the completely confounding ending, I was genuinely upset that the movie was about to end. I wanted it to keep going. I'm not really sure what its about, but I know it was about something, and it was massively enjoyable the whole way through. Did I mention it was really weird?

• Marion R

  
  During the film I was trying to figure out where the hell this film was going. And I didn't get the ending.

• Wu C

  
  One of the most wildly original zombie movies ever made. The set looks great and the photography is top-notch.

• Nicky M

  
  This is a weird, cool movie about a watchman protecting against the undead while finding love.

• Christopher B

  
  One of the best horror comedies of all time. As if Tim Burton, George Romero and Takashi Miike collaborated on one film. Rupert Evert is amazing and really pulls off the character well. I've read Dylan Dog and this seems to be a really loose adaption of that comic book.… More
  One of the best horror comedies of all time. As if Tim Burton, George Romero and Takashi Miike collaborated on one film. Rupert Evert is amazing and really pulls off the character well. I've read Dylan Dog and this seems to be a really loose adaption of that comic book. Can't say enough good things about this one.

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