Severin Films
“We Can’t. I’m alive, and you’re dead.”
“I’m not prejudiced, my love.”
– Francesco and Lei
Cemetery Man (1994).
To say that Dellamorte Dellamore a.k.a. Cemetery Man is one of the best Italian horror films ever made is probably blasphemy, but I don’t care. I love this damn film.
Sure, of course Argento, Fulci, Brava, Lenzi, et al are incredible filmmakers and have made some of the greatest horror films of all time but man, Michele Sloavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore is such a brilliantly sublime piece of phantasmagoria that it’s crazy that it came out in 1994 and not in the 70’s or early 80’s at the height of the Italian horror boom.
Taking pages out of the playbooks of Raimi and the early Coen Bros., this movie is also one part, Lucio Fulci’s Zombie, a hefty heaping of Terry Gilliam, and a smattering of Argento’s greatest hits all wrapped up in a surreal, extremely unhinged visual smorgasbord of visual candy. It makes for one hell of a love letter/reinvention of the classic Italo Horror gore fest we are so used to watching.
I would say, however, that this film definitely makes Argento seem like a straightforward storyteller and that’s saying something.
Written by Gianni Romoli and based off of Tiziano Scavi’s bizarre novel Dellamorte Dellamore this film is considered by many to be the last great Italian horror film and I think I really have to agree. What director Sloavi has created here is akin to Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator. With its dark to almost black humor that is as intentional as the gore and boobs Sloavi and screenwriter Romoli have crafted a wonderfully bizarre film that subverts the genre as much as it honors it and I am here for it.
The film follows a lonely cemetery caretaker, Francesco, and his assistant, the sweet, monosyllabic, Gnighi, (who’s only spoken line comes at the end of the film, asking Francesco Dellamorte, “Could you take me home? Please?”)
Francesco and Gnighi tirelessly work as they go about their lives burying the recently deceased, then killing them again and re-burying them when they return seven days after they are put in the ground. In a sort of homage to Romero’s Night of the Living Dead’s ambiguous nature of the zombie event, no real explanation is given as to why the dead are returning.
Is its a worldwide phenomenon? An isolated event in this small Italian village?
You know what? We don’t need to know.
Francesco’s life is turned on its head when a beautiful young widow arrives at his cemetery to bury her husband. He instantly falls in love with her. Their relationship is short lived but eventually he runs into an identical girl again, and then again. Is this doppelganger just different versions of the same girl or the same girl reincarnated over and over?
The story that unfolds is more surreal than straightforward with an almost non-narrative narrative style that often borders on the avant garde.
This film is visually stunning with truly creative camerawork by cinematographer Mauro Marchetti, whose credits include assistant cameraman for celebrated cinematographer Vittorio Storaro on films like Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now, and The Last Emperor. Working with Sloavi they devised so many striking visuals. I was completely taken aback by how dynamic the camerawork is and how they kept finding interesting compositions and angles throughout the runtime. One shot in particular is so incredible I actually backed up the film to watch it again. It was something straight out of Brazil or Baron Munchausen.
Acclaimed English actor, Rupert Everett is Francesco, the titular character and he is 100% committed to this role. In fact, to his credit, he was a champion for keeping this film more experimental and philosophical and as unconventional as possible. I think he really sells the film and elevates it above the usual horror fare.
I hadn’t seen this film since college and I don’t know why. I remember liking it a lot. Rewatching it again after almost 30 years this film is now up with some of the great horror films that preceded it and most likely influenced it.
I want to talk more about this film but to say any more would be to ruin all the insanity in store for you when you watch it for yourself and I would never want to intentionally take that experience away from you.
This 4K UHD release is part of an exclusive release from Severin Films and is packed with some amazing content.
- 4K UHD Blu-ray includes the film and features audio commentary from Sloavi and Romoli and English and Italian trailers.
- Blu-ray includes the film and features audio commentary, interviews, and archival “Making Of” documentary.
- Blu-ray features cast and crew interviews, and trailers.
- Bonus CD: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Also includes promotional material, and a 50 page booklet featuring Claire Donner’s essay The Last Great Italian Horror Film: Michele Sloavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore.
This 4K restoration is gorgeous, and that is saying something as I am extremely critical of restored films as that is what I do for a living at my “day job”. Having restored many films in my time for various companies and filmmakers I am always looking at the restoration of the film and how it looks. This release looks phenomenal. The blacks are rich and deep and retains the detail in the shadows.
It has definitely never looked this good. The remastered Dolby Atmos 5.1 audio sounds incredible as well.
Martin Scorsese has called this film one of the finest of the 90’s. I would absolutely agree with him.
I am so happy that I had a chance to revisit this film because what a treat it was to rewatch again for the first time. I hope you are able to check it out and agree with me that this film stands tall among the great Italian Horror films of all time.
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