Working at a local cemetery, a disenfranchised caretaker and his assistant are confronted with a strange epidemic that allows a victim to come back to life, and as more and more friends of theirs die and become inhabitants of the cemetery the two begin losing their grip on reality.There are only a few areas in here where it really shines. Almost all of the positives are dependant on the horror aspects of the story as when they're on, the zombie scenes are simply incredible. The creatures themselves look great, as the rotting, already-decomposing skin is starting to fall off, giving them an eerie quality. That they're covered with debris from the tomb as some have tons of sticks and sand on them make them look even creepier. The resurrections of each one are stand-out scenes, and are quite masterfully done. The one nearby the two lovers is the greatest one, being a really beautifully-done resurrection that stands as a great high-point. The other big piece in this, and one of the brightest spots in the film, is that there's a wonderfully poetic, Gothic look to it which is great to look at. The graveyard hallucinations, especially the figure emerging from the burning leaves, is one of the greatest moments in the film full of great images while the resurrection of the bikers is even more impressive with the emergence from underground while riding around on bikes. The look of the cemetery, the interior of the house and much more here are brilliantly composed and designed. It's also got some beautiful scenes of dresses flowing in the wind that look wonderful in the best sense. These are the film's best factors as there are some pretty big flaws in this one. The biggest one is that the film's message of love and death in here leads to great drama but seriously detracts from the horror. This is advertised as a zombie movie, yet there's only fleeting moments that actually contain them as the majority of the film consists of running around trying to find a romantic figure for their lives leads to tons of long, boring scenes that are missing moments from what could've been zombie scenes. The ending twenty minutes of this is just simply agonizing as it draws up conclusions to the relationship subplots and where it's going to end, but the film simply has nothing interesting to do with the zombies and seem like the background filler in a film that's advertised as such. Another big problem is that the film's incredibly convoluted and doesn't make any real sense. It concerns matters that are extremely vague and them attempts symbolic explanations to weave them into the storyline, making the end result in a general headache. The incoherent, third-rate brooding babbling done in conjunction is another factor of that. By adding these with long, lifeless scenes, this one's pacing really suffers as well. It starts off nicely, but then it deteriorates until it's almost dead. The last big one is that there's really no explanation given for why the creatures are coming back. It's a fact of life that only a few know about, but how they came upon this would've helped. These are all reasons why this one seems really overrated.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Nudity, some Language and a sex scene.

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.

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.

It's not often that the Italians come up with a clever, funny, imaginative horror movie. Suspiria was the best straightforward slasher/horror movie they produced, but by far, maybe one of the most underrated horror movies of all time, "Cemetery Man" is the best film I've seen in the genre out of Italy.It stars Rupert Everett as the lead character, Francesco Dellamorte, who works for a town called Buffalora. His job is to keep the dead people who rise from their graves in the cemetery. He's not sure exactly why, or why they come back, but it doesn't really bother him. He's got other concerns, like his constant philosophical musings on life. His best sentence in the film is, "The living dead and the dying living. Cut from the same cloth."His cohort in this is Gnaghi, a fat, bumbling, Three Stooges type who answers in one word grunts and lives in the basement watching old war footage all day long. That may sound weird, but Dellamorte spends his time reading phone books.Anna Falchi shows up at her husband's funeral, and later as a hooker, and also as the mayor's assistant. The whole time Dellamorte is in love with her, but isn't sure if she's real, or imaginary, dead or alive.The Grim Reaper also makes an appearance, telling Dellamorte to stop killing the dead, and kill the living before they become dead. Makes sense, in a mortifyingly simple way.In the end, Dellamorte and Gnaghi decide it's time to escape the town. How that goes is up to you to find out, because I seriously don't want to ruin this movie for you. It's funny, touching, thought provoking, disgusting and clever, all rolled into one. If you can find this movie, absolutely watch it. It's well worth every minute. _____________For all the Horror Banana reviews, visit http://morozov924.hubpages.com/