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Jim's Real Detroit Column 11/4/99

For its extremely limited 1996 U.S. theatrical release, Dellamorte, Dellamore (Of Death, of Love) was re-titled Cemetery Man. The American distributor of the movie, October Films, may have felt that using the original Italian title might have misled mainstream audiences into thinking that they would have to read subtitles and avoid the film completely. But this effort from Italian director Michele Soavi is completely in English and everyone can enjoy its sex, gore, humor, and overall weirdness.

British actor Rupert Everett plays Francesco Dellamorte, the nihilistic groundskeeper at the Buffalora cemetery. In addition to the everyday tasks of most so employed, Francesco must also make sure that the corpses stay put in their graves. Seems that in this particular cemetery, the dead return to life after one week, and must be permanently dispatched by the zombie-traditional bullet/shovel/whatever to the brain. Francesco is so accustomed to his job that he refuses to let his gore-filled duties disrupt even his dinner. He uses his licence to re-kill with such matter-of-fact coolness that even James Bond would be proud.

Things really liven up when Francesco takes a liking to a well-endowed widow (Anna Falchi) who makes daily visits to her diseased husband. When they indulge themselves on the dead guy’s grave, the insanely jealous zombie-husband bites the grieving (and nekkid) widow before Francesco can grab his other “gun” and send hubby back where he belongs. Naturally, Francesco assumes that the bite has killed his lover and he does what he must. Unfortunately, she wasn’t really dead, and when he realizes that he has killed her, Francesco loses his grip and begins to blow away the living.

The film’s most interesting character is Gnaghi, Francesco’s childlike mute sidekick who first pukes from excitement on the mayor’s daughter and then, after her demise, worships her disembodied head. Even with its necrophilic overtones, their relationship is filled with an innocence found only in a first love. Francois Hadgi-Lazaro (a cyclops in City of Lost Children) plays him much like Curly of the Three Stooges and supplies the cap to the movie’s most surrealistic moment.

Despite the violence, Dellamorte, Dellamore is more than just a gratuitous horror movie. Its set design and cinematography give it a style far above most zombie flicks, and you’d have to go all the way back to George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) to find one with this much heart. Director Soavi knows just when to shift from horror to humor to even politics (take a look at the fascist troop of zombie Boy Scouts), and the result is a film that is both thoughtful and playful while still managing to go over the top with its horror.

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