Editorial Review:Description:Rupert Everett (MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING) stars as Francesco Dellamorte, a cemetery watchman whose job is to slaughter the living dead when they rise hungry from their graves. But following a tragic tryst with a lusty young widow (stunning Anna Falchi in one of three sexy roles), Francisco begins to ponder the mysteries of existence. Is there long-term satisfaction in blasting the skulls of ‘returners’? Will his imbecile assistant find happiness with the partial girl-corpse of his dreams? And if death is the ultimate act of love, can a psychotic killing spree send Dellamorte to the brink of enlightenment? Italian horror master Michele Soavi (STAGE FRIGHT) directed this brilliantly bloody black comedy — also known as DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE — that Gore Score calls 'a deliciously demented, delightfully surreal stew of sex, death, splatter, male-bonding, barfing, zombies and nothing less than the Ultimate Meaning of Life!'
Amazon.com:If you think you hate your job, think again. Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett), the titular Cemetery Man, lives a lonely life with a dead-end career. He works and resides in a cemetery that holds a dark, hidden secret. You see, those who are buried in Dellamorte's cemetery have the tendency to rise from the dead. Francesco's job is to make sure the dead remain dead. When they rise, he must hunt them down and ensure they get their eternal rest. Since his strange career takes up most of his time, there is no room in his life for romance or friendship. His sole companion is his mute, Igor-like assistant Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro). Not surprisingly, Francesco has grown weary of the dull drum and repetitive routine his job and life have become. It is not until he meets the girl of his dreams (Anna Falchi), who happens to be a widow attending her husband's funeral, that Francesco realizes that there may be more to life than this. Sound a bit odd? Well, it is. But fans of the zombie and the 'twentysomething disgruntled worker' genres will feel right at home with this Michele Soavi cult favorite. At its center,
Cemetery Man is a black comedy/existential mediation on loneliness and career disappointment. But where
Fight Club is entrenched in an action/buddy-flick setting and
Office Space is a strict black comedy,
Cemetery Man is staged deep in the Italian zombie genre, giving it extra points for originality.
--Rob Bracco
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Dellamorte Dellamore.
The film's Italian title translates to "of death of love" and once you've seen the film then you'll understand why, the title pretty much tells you what to expect from this excellent and bizarre zombie film. Dellamorte Dellamore or as the English title is called Cemetery Man was Michel Soavi's fourth film and he managed to make an incredible zombie film that seems different than the others, especially the ones coming from Italy. Italian zombie films were being made by the dozen and these films ranged in quality from Excellent (Zombie 2) to extremely dull (Hell Of The Living Dead), however Cemetery Man has risen above nearly all the rest. It was made during the 90's which at the time the Italian horror scene was pretty much dead so it was probably the only one at the time that seemed to matter. Rupert Everett plays a cemetery caretaker named Francesco Dellamorte. He and his mute sidekick Gnaghi spend most of their evenings shooting zombies in the head, or splitting their skulls in half with the shovel only having to dispatch them once again when they start to rise from the grave after seven days. It's obvious that Francesco is a lonely and miserable person searching for something in his life, he soon falls for a mysterious and beautiful young widow (the breathtaking beauty Anna Falchi). After the two of them have sex on her husband's grave her jealous husband then wakes up and takes a bite out of her sending her to the grave.
Francesco is obviously not pleased by this so out of grief (and madness) he soon starts to 'accidentally' kill the living. This one act of accidental cruelty when he meant to be kind sent the caretaker on a wild ride of self discovery slightly reminiscent of Groundhog Day mixed with the slapstick gore of Dead Alive and a bit of European art house flick, it also has some dark humor as Francesco has a sarcastic and cynical point of view and he was brilliantly portrayed by Rupert. His halfwit assistant also falls in love with a severed head in a truly twisted and hilarious scene, the decapitated head starts flying and biting a large chunk of flesh from her disapproving father's neck who's also the mayor of the town. We also get a glimpse of what's to come - a fascinating meditation on the difference (if any) between life and death, it's all about symbolism and metaphorical stuff that was very clever and original. The atmosphere presented in this film was truly brilliant and one of Dellamorte Dellamore's main assets, I can honestly say that Michel Soavi did an excellent job with the film and hes given his own style throughout, he started out working under the great Dario Argento as an assistant director but the few films he has directed himself show that he is a bigger talent than his resume lets on. Cemetery Man is one of the best Italian horror movies ever made and it's wonderfully stylish. There was plenty of gore to satisfy fans of Italian horror and it also stars the gorgeous and stunning playboy model Anna Falchi (that's enough reason for you to watch this ;-)) with some nice acting and great comic moments, all this make it into a worthwhile viewing experience, I highly recommend this and two thumbs up!.
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Outstanding! A must-see for undead/zombie movie fans!!
Right up there with ROTLD I & II, Land of the Dead, and 28 days Later. Funny, sad and equally horrifying: I refuse to ruin the plot for you. Don't read all the reviews and spoilers - instead I recommend you suspend all disbelief and just sit back and enjoy one of the greatest undead/zombie flicks ever made. You won't be sorry.
Rating: 
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Probably The Last Decent 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)
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Best movie ever!
This is by far the best movie I have ever seen. The creators were fully devoted even with a small budget. I hope these guys got plenty of awards.
Rating: 
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When Your Destiny Revolves Around Zombies, Love Can Bite.
Yea, I'm reviewing another Italian horror film. My first review of such a film (Demons) has been a wild suck-sess. Even though I actually enjoyed it, people didn't like me pointing out the proverbial toilet paper stuck to its proverbial shoes. So, I got hammered with "No" votes. As always; that's cool (by no coincidence, most of those votes piled on after I wrote a review of "Pan's Labyrinth"; my crowning achievement!). Well, here we go again. I saw some toilet paper coming out of the pants this time. The good news is this film was trying to be comical to a certain degree. The bad news; it took itself a little too seriously to be funny. However, this movie isn't that simple (or as complex as it tried to be). Let me explain...
- RACCONTO (story)(mild spoilers)
This film is not so deliberate that its purpose is obvious. The plot revolves around "The Cemetery Man" and his mundane, day to day existence blowing the heads off of zombies and the fact that this is his sole purpose in life. Whenever he decides to divide himself from his work (i.e.; have steamy sex and fall in love) the inevitable result is death of some sort. We and he eventually have to resolve ourselves to the fact that, no matter how many chances he gets, it's just not going to work out. As you could imagine, this is a bleak and numbing existence that takes its toll on our "Hero". This point is made in not so subtle ways, even when we get to the bizarre impressionistic ending. On the other side is his buddy, Gnaghi, who finds love despite destiny due to less than discriminating tastes. Of course, he's not the boss and tragically must succumb to destiny's pecking order. I liked the way this started, but about two thirds through it took directions that started to suck the fun out of it for me. The story fulfilled its destiny, but I didn't enjoy its uneven changes in pacing and style.
-IMPRESSIONISTIC HORROR COMEDY?
By the end of this film, I asked myself that question. Before the end, it would have never occurred to me this was the goal. This film starts out with a bang (you know; like the ones in all the Clint Eastwood Spaghetti-westerns?) and muddles its quirky way along as a somewhat sublime soft-core, zombie comedy (though it's not really that funny even by dark-humor standards). Later, "Cemetery Man" becomes a film about a sociopath fulfilling his destiny. In the end it falls off the impressionistic deep end, quite literally (is that possible?). Of course it all has a point and it all makes sense, but it could not avoid appearing disjointed. It was very entertaining in early stages with lots of bizarre zombie mayhem. Unfortunately the pace of the film slows down, then gets slower and then takes some strange turns. It's all pretty dark and ludicrous but not particularly funny, unless you find the emotional suffering of others funny.
-DELIBERANDO MAGNIFICO! (Magnificent acting!)
Well, not really "Magnificent" (I just wanted to use "MAGNIFICO") but it was usually pretty darn good. Rupert Everett was an excellent choice for the lead; tall, handsome, brooding and edgy with a quirkiness that fit the role. Anna Falchi and her "chesticles" were, um, IS his main squeeze. Her characters (Yea, she plays more than one) are pivotal and shallow all at the same time. This actually works when you consider how this movie plays out. François Hadji-Lazaro is Gnaghi; Rupert's simpleton assistant and beloved friend. Like most mute characters, he is a very sympathetic figure (Fairly disgusting as well). The rest of the cast serves it purpose without negative effect.
-MORE ZOMBIES, PLEASE?
I'm way behind on my Italian zombie films (this being the first I've seen). However, they clearly have a talent for this genre. These might have been some of the more creative and interesting zombies I've seen in a film. Not overdone (like in "Resident Evil 3) and well acted, these zombies keep you asking for more. The head carnage in this film is also top notch, believable and very entertaining. Unfortunately, the cool zombies and the ensuing carnage fade into the background of the story. Perhaps this is where my less than excited mood comes from. If some way could have been found to keep the zombie's more integral to the story, I might have maintained my enthusiasm.
- IL FILM IL DESTINO. ("The film's destiny" according to "Google")
"Cemetery Man" has nice production values and some nice creepy atmosphere. The actors did a good job and the Zombie carnage was first rate. As cool and interesting as this film started out, no amount of sex, grossness or murder could keep my enthusiasm going as the story moved away from the great "zombie pest control" theme. I understood where the story was going; I was just disappointed in how we got there. There is nothing of note good or bad for the DVD release as I didn't pay much for it and had no problems with it. The film appeared to be shot in English with post production dubbing. There is plenty to like in this film, just don't be surprised if you lose interest or become disappointed as it progresses.
Concept........4.5 stars
Acting..........4 stars
Zombies..........5 stars
Zombie fade...2 stars
Total............3.88 stars