1994 ‘Dellamorte Dellamore’ Directed by Michele Soavi
A cemetery man has the unusual problem of the dead rising from the grave. Himself and his assistant must end these creatures' lives again after they are reborn. Everything is going well until "She" comes along and stirs things up a bit.
Rupert Everett François Hadji-Lazaro Anna Falchi Fabiana Formica Mickey Knox Barbara Cupisti Michele Soavi Clive Riche Anton Alexander Alessandro Zamattio Katja Anton Patrizia Punzo Pietro Genuardi Stefano Masciarelli Vito Passeri Renato Donis Claudia Lawrence Francesca Gamba Elio Cesari Maurizio Romoli Maddalena Ischiale Elena Fresco Marijn Koopman
Conchita Airoldi Michèle Ray-Gavras Michele Soavi Gianni Romoli Tilde Corsi Dino Di Dionisio Heinz Bibo
Fonds Eurimages du Conseil de l'Europe Urania Film K.G Productions Audifilm Silvio Berlusconi Communications Bibo Productions Canal+
Of Death And Love, Pelo Amor e pela Morte, Zombie Graveyard, Mi novia es un zombie, Della Morte Dell'Amore, O Homem do Cemitério, О смерти, о любви, Demons '95
Dellamorte Dellamore is the last great Italian horror film. Normally I would save something so heavy for the closing but I just want to make sure people read that fact, if it's the only thing they read in this post, I'll be happy. Starting with Mario Bava's gothic horror films of the 1960s and ending with Michele Soavi's Dellamorte Dellamore, the span of Italian horror cinema did not last very long. The success of Italian horror films can almost be considered a phenomenon, they burst onto the scene and then faded away by the mid-1990s. One theory is because they could no longer compete with other countries, the demand for Italian horror died (probably after the many imposters and lousy…
I prefer calling Michele Soavi’s cinematic art-form masterpiece Dellamorte Dellamore but whatevz letterboxd, be that way 😒
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 watch it and sink into the velvety pillow of Francesco Dellamorte’s dark and hazy philosophies, causing me to question what’s really important in life and watch my problems float away on dream clouds like the unimportant metaphors they usually are.
I adore this picture.
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.
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…
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.
Daily Horror Scavenger Hunt 7 – January 2019 Day 27: A film featuring Barbara Cupisti.
So this was the challenge that fell on my Birthday and I'm glad I chose this one to celebrate. Not only because it's one that I've been wanting to watch for such a long time, but also because of how unconventional it is. You can't get bored with this movie (well, I couldn't anyway) because even if something was happening onscreen that I wasn't enjoying, it would usually change pretty quickly and also not always make a lot of sense. It kind of feels like a highlight reel from a TV show more than a complete movie, but it works as a movie for me…
Hooptober 7.0
58/39 - Bonus Watch 19/6 - decades -90s
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Why is this movie so difficult to find? This absolute gem of philosophical black comedy horror should be available to stream and in multiple high quality collectors editions, restored with a 4K transfer and tons of extras. As is I was able to get the shameless Blu Ray after a misadventure with a German blu ray that apparently is only 3D? The Shameless disc is serviceable, but certainly suggests a better version is at least possible. C’mon Arrow, Severin, VinSyn????
Despite the difficulties tracking this down, it fully lived up to the hype. A bonkers awesome classic in the incredibly difficult genre of modern horror comedy. So many…
Jason Recommends 4: the blowing-kitten's-mind edition!
It seems like every Michele Soavi film I see just ramps up the greatness. I started with The Church, which I enjoyed, but then I saw The Sect and that just blew it out of the water. Everything I could want in my Italian horror experience, a cult, a satanic baby, random plot choices. Now though, I've seen the ultimate Soavi film! This feels like a leftover gift from my birthday yesterday.
When I try to straighten out the plot to this film mentally, little bits of my brain leak out my ears. There's zombie shootings galore, plenty of dark humor, zombie kissing, eating spaghetti with your fingers, crime theft and one delightfully weird ending. I wish Soavi made 20 more horror related films, I want to bask in them.
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
A sex farce. A surreal nightmare. An existential probe into the core of humanity. A splatter comedy. A classic gialli. A political satire. A droll slice of life melodrama.
Cemetery Man is all this and a whole hell of a lot more, a film bursting with wit and imagination, tackling anything and everything that comes into its head. It's funny, sad, scary, erotic and mind-bending in equal measure, and above all it's truly, wonderfully perfect.
Gna.
The Road To Halloween - Eliminating The Horror 'Classics'
I really like Michele Soavi.
You know what else I really like? Apart from Winona. The first paragraph on the Wikipedia entry for this film describing the plot:-
"Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the cemetery caretaker in the small Italian town of Buffalora. He lives in a ramshackle house on the premises, constantly surrounded by death, with only his mentally handicapped assistant Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro) for company. Young punks in town spread gossip that Dellamorte is impotent. His hobbies are reading outdated telephone directories, in which he crosses out the names of the deceased, and trying to assemble a puzzle shaped like a human skull. Gnaghi, whose interests include spaghetti and…
Dellamorte Dellamore (or The Cemetery Man) is completely bizarre and ridiculous but it's fairly easy to see why it's considered the "last great Italian horror film" by some in the community. The movie screams cult through and through, employing perverse sex, necrophilic fetishization, experimental cinematography, and plenty of blood and zombie brains to build the gothic world of Francesco Dellamorte, resident cemetery watchman and angel of... re-death?
The premise itself is engaging and slick right from the get-go, encapsulating us in Dellamorte's cold, cruel undead world as he blasts zombies in the head with his trusty revolver and with the help of his equally trusty Gnaghi. The plot structure from there isn't exactly logical and it's hard to say what…
incredibly cheesy and weird, but my biggest problem was really just that i didn't understand it on any level at all
Cemetery Man was a frustrating movie for me. There are certainly aspects of this film that work in spades. The over-the-top gore is entertaining and well-done for the most part, the tone is both comedic and bizarre at points, and much of the cinematography within this film was competent. There were actually some shots within this film that were downright phenomenal. Despite these praises, this film felt largely uneven in ways. The comedy was unsuccessful, with many of the punchlines being poorly delivered and lack in wit. The performances are mostly bad, with a few notably good moments from the lead. It's hard for me to fully express my feelings on this film. It clearly has plenty of things going…
What a mindfuck. Without a doubt the best existentialist necrophiliac horror comedy I'll see in this (or the next) lifetime.
It's trying to do a lot at once: half of it works and the other half doesn’t.
The only consistently enjoyable part was when it goes full gore horror mode, which is surprisingly little all things considered. Cemetery Man is certainly periodically strange but nearly every time I started to get into it, something else pulled me right out.
Not really a fan of the love story angle this took either: as a gay guy, boring straight romances lacking in dynamic, or flair still just bore me to tears and this is no exception. I liked Francesco and it annoyed me whenever the romance storyline came back because all it does is make him less interesting by association.
A few good moments of gore and entertainment are sparsed out throughout, but I'd still recommend StageFright: Aquarius or The Church in a heartbeat before this. I don’t get the appeal guys, sorry.
2/5 stars
“I’d give my life to be dead.”
This dude really lookin’ like Jonathan Richman, I was waiting for him to sing I Was Dancing in the Lesbian Bar the whole damn movie.
Italian Horror had a final gasp of air with "The Wax Mask" but usually is considered to have delivered its last great work with "Cemetery Man". More or less accepted that Argento fell off while his peers faded into obscurity or gave up the genre. "Cemetery Man" is an absolute maddening movie packed to the brim with necrophilia and "Evil Dead" like foolery. MVP is naggy's girlfriend.
I don’t know why this had been in my Netflix DVD queue for so long. I don’t remember what made it end up there. If I had to guess, it was something to do with Dario Argento, but we’ll never know now. There might be an audience out there for a movie that combines both motorcycle zombies and the ending of ‘St Elsewhere’ but it isn’t me.
Quite possibly one of the best weird movies I've ever seen. Cannot believe this one slipped under my radar for so long.
Well, (spoiler alert) just read the tag line - that’s all you need to know:
“ZOMBIES, GUNS, AND SEX, OH MY!!!”
p.s. And the flippin’ Oxford comma! Oh my!?
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