Synopsis
Zombies, guns and sex, OH MY!!!
Cemetery watchman, Francesco Dellamorte, is tasked with dispatching the recently deceased when they rise from their graves.
Cemetery watchman, Francesco Dellamorte, is tasked with dispatching the recently deceased when they rise from their graves.
Rupert Everett François Hadji-Lazaro Anna Falchi Mickey Knox Fabiana Formica Clive Riche Katja Anton Barbara Cupisti Anton Alexander Pietro Genuardi Patrizia Punzo Stefano Masciarelli Vito Passeri Alessandro Zamattio Marijn Koopman Renato Donis Claudia Lawrence Francesca Gamba Elio Cesari Maurizio Romoli Maddalena Ischiale Elena Fresco Michele Soavi Andrea De Sica Bruno Romagnoli
Nazzareno Zamperla Valerio Colombaioni Fabio Romanielo Mauro Romanielo Pamela Vitali David Zamperla Mirko Zamperla Rinaldo Zamperla
Gino Zamprioli Daniel Auber Enrico Iacoponi Marijn Koopman Barbara Morosetti Francesco Motolese Sergio Stivaletti
Demons '95, Of Death And Love, Mi novia es un zombie, О смерти, о любви, Zombie Graveyard, Pelo Amor e pela Morte, O Homem do Cemitério, Della Morte Dell'Amore, Cemetery Man - DellaMorte DellAmore, 魔诫坟场, デモンズ'95, Of Death, of Love, 魔誡墳場, Mi novia es un zombie o míos para siempre, O smrti ljubavi, O miłości i śmierci, Гробарят, Любов, смърт, The Gravedigger, My Girlfriend is a Zombie, My Fiancée is a Zombie, Dellamorte Dellamore - The Cemetery Man, A temetőőr, Dellamorte Dellamore, 델라모테 델라모레, Kapinių Žmogus, デモンズ '95, Người Gác Nghĩa Trang
Dellamorte Dellamore sounds better than cemetery man, but I digress, this cinematic artform is a masterwork in vibes and the last true gasp of Italian horror—a weirdo banger that feels like the culmination of years of lurid linguini and it’s a damn masterpiece.
For years now, since I was a teenager in the late 90’s, I’ve had trouble sleeping. Whether due to anxiety, existential dread, teenage angst, or annoying neighbors just being too loud, the slightest sleep disturbance has always woken me up, and kept me that way. Luckily, I’d always have films to fall back on that would help take me away to dreamland, and In those particular moments of insomnia, Dellamorte Dellamore has been there for me. Like heroin, I’d…
It’s a work of art, a swath of style and contradiction. It’s a zombie movie with its own canon. It’s equal parts Lynch and Raimi. It’s foreign to an American like me, yet it’s in English. It’s a love story in a unique triangle. Its ugliest images are some of the most beautiful I’ve seen in a horror film. It’s a buddy film with a parallel universe Curly Howard as the buddy. It’s The Walking Dead-creative-killing 20 years before Dead was born. It’s gothic and simultaneously hip.
“I’d give my life to be dead” - Dellamorte
It is absurd. And it makes perfect sense.
Poor sad Francesco.
Trapped in a world that doesn't love him but can't do without him. Not liked by anyone but accepted as a useful mean. He lives outside of society because his only company is death.
He desires what we all desire. He wants love. He desires it so much that it becomes an obsession. An obsession that will destroy his beloved and his only friend.
He tries everything to avoid his fate. Wants to escape and live a normal happy life. Start over somewhere else.
But death doesn't just let his best and dearest companion go and so in the end our hero has to realize that he can't escape his calling.
He is Francesco Dellamorte. Saint Francis…
A beautiful, fucked up, pitch black hilarious, heartfelt Romantic Splatter masterpiece. So lo-fi it seems intentional and it’s practically “spaghetti western gunshot SFX” porn. INFERNO, DEAD ALIVE meets TAXI DRIVER...if you can picture that.
I love this film and more people need to discover it.
How would you describe this film?
a) A phantasmagorical gothic romance.
b) A necrophile's wet dream.
c) One of the most batshit crazy zombie films since RotLD.
d) A spiralling descent into madness.
e) All of the above and more.
Answer: e
🇮🇹 Italy 🧟♂️ Undead. 🎬 Soavi 💎 Gem #126 (1994)
"You look for Death in the clear night; you tell her you still love her. That you are her slave, that she's still your queen. Death, death, death the whore."
DellaMorte DellAmore is so stupidly good that I have been sitting here staring at lists for half an hour waiting to be able to write again. It is steeped in gothic beauty, and watching it feels oddly like home—at least, if you love horror and foggy cemeteries and the fine line between uncanny beauty and dread.
The cemetery where the film takes place bustles with life amongst decay, and not simply the inexplicable return of the newly departed. Will o’the…
Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana
A film -intentionally or not- influenced by Raimi's wackiness, with Rupert looking like a young Bruce Campbell and nailing the role as this antihero with a detached and cynical outlook on life, probably as a result of his job as a man who has to kill all the people that come back from the dead as zombies after they meet their demise. His deadpan humor and world-weary attitude are well-balanced, while never forgetting to deliver on the camp. François Hadji-Lazaro's portrayal of Gnaghi lends an endearing touch to the plot, infusing moments of "genuine emotion" amidst all the macabre.
Continuing with the Raimi connections, there are a couple scenes that brings back memories from the director's…
Cemetery Man is a Lynchian think piece on man's place in a mortal world, that is deceivingly wrapped up in a twisted zombie saga. It may not be the best zombie movie ever made, yet coupled with its resounding message, it's bound to be one of the most refreshing and ambitious horror movies.
It stands strongly enough as a arthouse character study, where a cemetery duo is forced to deal with dead people coming back to life, including the loved ones. It strikes powerfully with full display of gloriously gothic visuals and well thought-out shots to remind you that it's not one of those cheese-fests you would expect from its genre. On top of the beautiful shots, you have a…
Imagine having sex in a cemetery
on your husband’s grave
during a full moon
ignis fatuus floating around
and your undead husband arises and bites you
romance 🖤
One of the strangest Italian horror films I’ve ever seen. Equal parts Gialli, supernatural zombie horror, romance, slapstick comedy and existential thriller with a mind-bender of an ending, it’s truly unique.
And if someone asks “what’s the tone?” You say “ALL THE TONES.”
Rupert is a powerhouse in this.
Hard to find but worth the search if you want something different in your Italian horror.
2nd Michele Soavi (after Stagefright)
There is much I admire about Cemetery Man. It is stunningly beautiful, first and foremost. Soavi's eye for a strange, baroque image is perfection, and he fills the screen with dense compositions where the living and the dead co-exist. Rot and voluptuous flesh intermingle and cause anxieties of classification, especially around moments of the erotic. The actress who plays She is stunningly beautiful, and so to see her move from luscious humanity to unsettling zombification is a stomach-churning move, brilliantly rendered by Soavi and his team. The performances are also pretty damned good, even in the English dub. Credit to Gnagi's performer, because he has to convey so much with a single word and a…