Avis sur le produitCemetery Man (DVD, 2006)

Probably The Last Good Gasp Of Italian Zombi Filmmaking

Originally released as Dellamorte Dellamore, this is from director Michele Soavi, who mostly to this point was known as a right-hand-man to some of the most inventive Italian directors of the 70's and 80's such as Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, and Joe D'Amato. He even worked side by side with Monty Python legend Terry Gilliam. But with this effort known in the states as Cemetery Man, he took those influences to new heights of the surreal and in doing so, sort of alienated the core Italian Horror fanbase in the process.

I first recognized his solo work in his 1988 film The Church. But like that film he takes to Horror, unlike his teachers, by putting the gore and frights second and the dream-like visuals and themes first. But it was the reverse order that made Italian Horror cinema so successful in the 80's, and in my opinion adding more "class" is what killed it as a whole by the mid-90's. Sure, Horror can have broader themes, and at times it can work quite well, but when you deal with things such as language barriers, small budgets, and a world outside of Hollywood, if what you did worked already, you shouldn't try to fix it.

And that's what Soavi tried to do with Cemetery Man. Starring a pre-famous Rupert Everett, is a story of a groundkeeper of a small cemetery where the people buried in it rise from their graves about a week later. The film starts like any other of the Italian Zombi group, and quite well with real-time gore effects that are impressive, but soon the story takes a weird romantic turn as Francesco falls for a young bride of a new burial and the whole film get very surreal. Along the way, with his faithful mute sidekick Gnaghi, who's a dead ringer for Curly Howard's Italian cousin, things go quite strange. The local goverment has an idea that the dead are rising here, but doesn't seem to care. Francesco's love eventually meets a grizzly fate only to return in his life in not one but three different incarnations. And when Francesco himself questions existence here, his over-the-top actions are not only passed by, but not seeming to even be ever happening in the first place. And in the end, we get a glimpse of closure of what we saw, but leaving many questions unanswered and sorta empty inside.

The disc itself is quite nice, with a long documentary on the background of Soavi, a 5.1 audio mix, trailers of other classic 80's/90's underground horror (strangely all American releases this time), and a beautifully remastered picture. Sure, I would have loved to have a commentary track explaining why the plot was what it was, or any involvement from Everett after the fact, but Anchor Bay has yet again presented a movie with great detail, if it deserves it or not.

Concluding, I'm sorta torn on Cemetery Man. Visually it's stunning with it's images and themes of love and the afterlife with Zombi tones, but honestly that's not what we wanted or was accustomed to from Italy's Horror Zombi crowd. Sure, greats like Bava or Argento provided similar themes in their 80's works, but with Soavi it somewhat falls flat in the 90's. Probably the last decent Italian Horror film to come out from there, Cemetery Man shows just why that unfortunately came to pass and their Zombiworld's days were numbered.
(RedSabbath Rating:7.0/10)Lire l'avis complet...

Black Humor/Horror Masterpiece

Cemetary Man (or Dellamorte Dellamore--of Death and Love -- in the original Italian title)provides the rare wonderful combination of humor and horror.
The handsome Rupert Everett stars as the caretaker (Cemetary Man) of a strange graveyard where the dead come back to life after seven days. In one of his best roles, Everett plays the sexy sloucher with sardonic black humor. His sidekick, played by Francois Hadji-Lazaro, should be repellent, but plays the role with such lovable charm -- you want to hug him! Everett's beautiful co-star, Anna Falchi, proves to be not only a great beauty, but a very adept actress.
The screenplay by Gianni Romoli was based on the 1991 graphic novel by Tiziano Sclavi. Sclavi had modeled the character (both physical appearance and personality) on the actor Rupert Everett. This film thus provides an interesting twist on art imitating life imitating art.
This thoroughly enjoyable romp has a surprise ending that makes the viewer realize the film is a philosophical treatise, much more than the average horror genre piece. It also satirizes Italian politics.
Sadly, Michele Soavi, the director, hasn't made a film since Cemetery Man (his fourth film). He is devoting all his time and effort caring for one of his children who is terminally ill. It's cinema's loss.
Renowned director Martin Scorsese called Dellamorte Dellamore one of the best films of the 1990s. What more can I say?Lire l'avis complet...

Great film! The ending wasn't the best, however

Pros: Cinematography is outstanding! The shots, the makeup, the sets, etc are genuinely creepy.
Cons: The story gets weird towards the end. If they would've stayed on the same path as the beginning and continued with the basic story instead of making things complex, this would've been a perfect horror/comedy. Based on this, and the fact that the ending was awful, I'd give it 8 out of 10 stars.Lire l'avis complet...

Achat vérifié :  Oui | État : occasion | Vendu par : moonrise-media-...

Of Death, Of Love

Really good, but not great, this flick's ideas are ultimately better than the movie itself- which is not to say the movie is bad. Far from it. Lots of gore, lots of laughs, and arguably one of the best English dubbing jobs of any Italian horror film. The highlight for me is the hero's sidekick having a love affair with a "living" severed head!Lire l'avis complet...

Achat vérifié :  Oui | État : occasion | Vendu par : trilon-xyfbtwyr6

Another great title from Anchor Bay

I have already given this a review last week.. Please see last week's review

Achat vérifié :  Oui | État : occasion | Vendu par : decluttr_store

Classic horror/ comedy from my past

Campy Evil Dead style fun. Saw this in the early 90s..So glad I can now add it to my movie collection.

Achat vérifié :  Oui | État : occasion | Vendu par : nomenclat

A true gem of horror comedy with an art style

This movie was a lost gem for me for many years!
A seemingly focused grave digger who’s bad with love his hapless sidekick who’s oddly not...they truly are full time employees handling the day to day work of a cemetery, the real job is at night, fighting to keep the dead in their graves Lire l'avis complet...

Achat vérifié :  Oui | État : occasion | Vendu par : stoneygravy7

Holds up well

I love this movie. I hadn't seen it in years and was curious as to whether it would seem dated or hold up. I don't know if it's that Italians are so damn stylish or that good gore is just eternally satisfying, but in the 15+ years this movie hasn't aged a bit. I think that it is set in a high style but fairly generic time period helps, as well is that it is such a clearly fantastical story. In any case if you've never seen it, definitely go for it if you love gorgeous cinematography, black humor, and a lot of blood and guts, with the occasional cheesy synthesizer score to back it all up:)Lire l'avis complet...

Cemetary Man

Cemetary Man is a one of a kind, type of movie. You'll never see another quite like it. It's full of gore,zombies,murder,and morbid situations, but it's all off hand and aside from the main focus of the movie, giving it a surreal and dark humor. The focus is on the lives of the keeper of the cemetary, Francesco Dellamorte(Rupert Everette)and his assitant Noggy, as they try to discover the meaning of life and death and find love (consistantly horrific results). With an almost Edgar Allen Poe type feel and never boring, this movie is highly recomended to those who enjoy the unique and grim.Lire l'avis complet...

Dellamorte, Dellamore

One of the last great Italian horror films.

Achat vérifié :  Oui | État : neuf | Vendu par : sl10moviesandsp...