Dellamorte, Dellamore (aka Cemetery Man)

If early Peter Jackson or Evil Dead II is your jam, and / or you appreciate the overly stylized visuals of Italian filmmakers like Fellini and Dario Argento, then there’s really no argument: Michele Soavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore is mandatory viewing. With a ridiculous- I mean, completely bonkers- storyline that conveniently weaves in gorgeous women and zombies, this film could have easily been a gratuitous, generic mess. But Soavi is such an inventive filmmaker in his choice of camera angles and editing, he makes the entire process a complete creative delight.

Rupert Everett is Dellamorte in this Italian horror classic, an undertaker stuck in a cemetery where the dead seem to resurrect themselves seven days later. Ever the responsible undertaker, Dellamorte considers it his civic duty to make sure they go back to being dead again. His handsome looks seem to attract every gorgeous mourner that enters his place of work, leading to multiple steamy scenes between Dallamorte and his various romantic interests- all interrupted by, you guessed it- zombies.

While horror-comedies are pretty common these days, most of them just copy each other and add nothing worthy of note to the genre. This early 90’s gem, on the other hand, really set the stage in terms of how to do it right. When Tarantino and Rodriguez tried their hand at it some years later with From Dusk till Dawn, they failed miserably, handing in a story with too much pointless dialogue and too few inventive ways to massacre zombies.

Such is not a problem for Soavi, who is aided by a storyline so bizarre and nonsensical, it frees him to go in almost any wacky direction his imagination chooses- to great effect. As the film blares on, Dallamorte’s grip on reality starts to slip more and more, and he- along with you, the viewer- starts to have trouble distinguishing what is real and what is just in his mind. By the end of the film, no one really knows… and it doesn’t really matter. The joy of Dellamorte, Dellamore is in the process, and not the end result, so just sit back and enjoy the gore.