Pulpmovies Reviews

Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) works in a cemetery. With the aid of his assistant, Gnaghi (François Hadji-Lazaro), he digs graves, buries the dead, and shoots them in the head when they come back as zombies.

Well, it’s a job.

At this point I would normally try to provide a quick synopsis of the film, but it isn’t really possible with a film such as this where a more traditional narrative has been eschewed in favour of a series of episodes revolving around Dellamorte’s circumstances and how he deals with them.

The opening scene sets the tone of the film perfectly. While chatting on the phone there is a knock at Dellamorte’s door. He answers it to find a briefcase wielding zombie standing before him, which he calmly dispatches before returning to his phone conversation. And from here on in, we’re treated to a script that starts off by looking like an above average horror spoof but slowly becomes something much more interesting.

Much of this centres on Dellamorte’s idea woman (Anna Falchi) who comes into his life, briefly, before dying. And she keeps coming into his life in incarnations, only to disappoint him and leave him even more embittered than he already was.

Even Gnaghi manages to enjoy a (necessarily brief) romantic interlude which is both funny and fully in keeping with the situation in which he and Dellamorte have found themselves.

There are, of course, many other vignettes and scenes, all of which build upon each other to create a growing sense of understanding of Dellamorte’s situation, his moods and his frustrations. And, as the film progresses, it’s the absurdity of Dellamorte’s situation as well as his increasing bitterness that shifts the tone from the initial gory slapstick towards something that is both much darker and much more satisfying.

That said, the film never loses its sense of humour and there is a wonderfully macabre streak of dark comedy apparent throughout.

Visually, the film is gorgeous. Not only is it stunning to look at, but Soavi also successfully manages to work his themes and ideas into the – often surreal – look of the film without feeling the need to batter the audience over the head with what he’s trying to say. It’s an approach that both looks great and makes for a film that is well worth coming back to.

Rupert Everett does a great job of carrying the film along with a very dry and slightly sardonic wit. Kudos should also go to François Hadji-Lazaro who manages to invest what is essentially a comedy sidekick with some real emotional pathos.

That said, the film does drag in places and could probably have done with being about 15 minutes shorter – especially as it approaches the (admittedly excellent) ending.

Now released on DVD (as Cemetery Man), Dellamorte Dellamore really does stand the test of time as an intelligent. Surreal and often funny view of the Human condition (and I don’t believe that I just used that phrase) that happens to have zombies in it.

There is gore aplenty, but this really is a film for people that like a bit of brains with their splatter.

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