The lines separating life and death are blurry and only a thin line separates them. What happens if this line vanishes? ‘The Cemetery Man’ is an enthralling journey into a world where the dead come back to life as bizarre events take place in a cemetery. It is the perfect zombie horror film, directed by Michele Soavi and starring Rupert Everett.
In an unsettling graveyard location, the film plays up to its slogan, with lots of zombies, action, and love. ‘Cemetery Man’ is an unappreciated gem and an exhilarating fall into the world of the undead, with plenty of gothic imagery and an action-packed storyline that includes slaying both the dead and the undead.
Zombie Graveyard – Cemetery Man (1994)
The movie opens with a young man, Francesco Dellamorte, inside a shabby little house. As he goes about his routine, he is interrupted by a knock on the door. He shoots the intruder in the head without any restraint, opening the door. The screen flashes “DellaMorte DellAmore” as the opening credits roll. This wordplay on Francesco’s surname, DellaMorte, meaning ‘of death’ while Dellamore means ‘of love,’ only reflects the duality of his life while he tries to balance the two forces.
As Dellamorte carries the dead body, he calls out for Gnaghi. Gnaghi is his helper and is intellectually challenged. He does not speak much and only utters the word ‘Gna.’ As they make their way to a grave, we learn that Dellamorte is the watchman of the Buffalora cemetery. Burying the body amidst eerie noises in the background, they turn around to find a zombie-like creature jumping at them out of the dark.
Acting on impulse, Dellamorte bashes the spade into the creature’s head as it falls to the ground. It appears that the cemetery is home to strange ‘Returners,’ dead bodies that return to life after being buried. This is also foreshadowed in the carvings on the cemetery gate with the word ‘Resurrecturis,’ meaning “For those who will rise again,” carved on it.
It’s just another day, another funeral at the cemetery for Dellamorte. However, things take quite a turn when a young lady catches his eye. She does show up the next day to put fresh flowers on what seems to be her ex-husband’s grave.
The unnamed woman appears to be very attached to the dead, and Dellamorte ends up offending her feelings. As she leaves, Dellamorte visits his friend Franco and talks about the undead situation. He wants to approach the mayor, but that would require filling out a lot of paperwork, so he settles on just shooting the Returners instead.
He returns to the cemetery to find that the girl has returned yet another day. He approaches her and apologizes for the other day. Trying to make conversation, he invites her to his place or the cemetery ossuary.
The ossuary piques her interest, and they make their way to it. She explores the site and eagerly asks him if she can return. He replies that he would if only he could kiss her once. However, she seems to be mourning her husband’s death and cannot lift her veil. Throwing another veil over Francesco, she finally kisses him. Art imitates art as this scene imitates a painting by René Magritte, titled “The Lovers.”
As the unnamed widow pulls away, she gets overwhelmed with a sense of guilt. She blames the place, claiming that it forces her to do things she doesn’t want. As she hysterically tries to leave, strange things happen, and creatures try to stop her from running. However, she manages to run away, and Dellamorte follows her out of the ossuary. As it turns out, the movie was shot in a natural cemetery in Italy. The ossuary is an actual crypt of bones too, and most of the skeletal structures in the scenes are real.
Dellamorte looks around for her and finds her standing with her back facing him. As she turns to look at him, she kisses him again and wishes to sleep with him. As the two make love on her ex-husband’s grave, strange blue flames float around them. It appears that the blue flames or ‘ignis fatuu’ are a natural phenomenon that occurs in twilight zones.
The dead husband awakens in the grave in a strange turn of events. He seems to have ‘returned’ and bites his wife. A frantic Dellamorte rushes her to safety and tries to revive her while Gnaghi gets a doctor. Sadly, she seems to have passed away due to the injuries from her ex-husband’s bite.
The next day, the local doctor shows up, and they try to investigate the cause of her death. Meanwhile, Dellamorte leans against her dead body and talks to her in the ossuary. He turns around and expresses that he doesn’t wish to see her again as a Returner. At the same time, she wakes up. He assumes that she has quickly ‘turned’ and shoots her dead. The movie was alternatively also renamed “Mi novia es un Zombie” [‘My fiancee is a zombie] for its Spanish release.
They join the mayor for lunch the next day, where his teen daughter Valentina catches Gnaigh’s eye. He ends up embarrassing himself and throws up on her. Valentina ends up leaving with a boy on his motorcycle. Meanwhile, an ashamed Gnaghi walks back to the cemetery. Dellamorte chases behind the cemetery with a car and tries to console him. Gnaghi seems to have taken the incident to heart and spends the day wallowing in his misery.
In a gruesome turn of events, Valentina and the boy end up in a mass road accident, and she dies. Even at the funeral, the mayor seems to be worried more about the election than this accident. Claudio, the boy who dies with her, seems to have a girlfriend who is determined to find closure. She lingers around his grave, and it appears that she is aware of the dead coming back.
At night, Dellamorte comes across yet another group of Returners. The dead seem to be returning sooner than expected, and he rushes to Gnaghi. They wonder what more is in store if this goes on when Claudio’s undead body reaches out from the grave. He rises with his bike, and the young girl begs to accompany him.
Taking her with him, Claudio rides away. Dellamorte and Gnaghi look for him and find him eating her body as she begs for help. They meet their ends as Dellamorte shoots at Claudio and stops the madness. The movie lingers at the edge of life and death and intertwines in various instances as lovers are reborn as monsters.
The following day, a heartbroken Gnaghi visits Valentina’s grave. He digs in the mud and then tries to kiss her casket. In a jarring sequence, the dead girl opens her eyes. It appears that she has become an undead too. Gnaghi smashes her head off her body and places it on the ground.
The undead Valentina seems to remember everything and even talks to Gnaghi. He takes care of Valentina’s head and even makes meals for her. Although gruesome, Gnaghi and Valentina create a bubble of reality that makes sense to them.
Meanwhile, Dellamorte walks around the graveyard and looks for more undead. He comes across the young widow and finds that her lover has returned from the dead. As she attacks him, he realizes that she was not truly dead when he shot her earlier. Ridden with guilt, he beats himself up over it as he wonders about his fate now that an undead has bitten him.
As he continues his daily activities, a deathly figure looms out of a fire and warms him to stop killing the dead. The vision claims that the deceased belong to him and that he can kill the living instead. As the day progresses, we see the dead rise in huge numbers. Dellamorte casually shoots them off while sitting in his work chair and chatting away on the phone.
He goes out for a drive and ends up shooting seven of his bullies. Enraged, he goes on a killing spree and finally gets his revenge. Returning home, he gets some rest before an officer comes to investigate last night’s incidents. Despite his car being spotted at the crime scene, Dellamorte pretends to know nothing of the murders. It would seem that he has finally decided to pay heed to the deathly figure and is now killing the living instead of the dead.
Meanwhile, the mayor shows up at the cemetery. He wishes to use pictures of Valentina’s grave to gain sympathy votes for the upcoming election. Upon digging the grave open, they discover the headless corpse. The mayor starts hearing Valentina’s voice and rushes around in her direction. He finds her head in Gnaghi’s room and blames her for Valentina’s fate.
Valentina wishes to marry Gnaghi, and her father’s refusal angers her. She ends up attacking him and almost kills him. Dellamorte appears at the last minute and shoots them both. Yet, the mayor returns to life again at night, and he shoots him again.
The following day, the new mayor comes around and introduces himself. He brings along his secretary, who appears to have the same face as the young widow Dellamorte fell in love with. The secretary visits him at night and faints at the door. As she comes to her senses, she confesses that she feels like she has known Dellamorte forever, and they sleep together.
The woman expresses that she has a phobia and only wishes to be with an impotent man. Mad in love, Dellamorte willingly visits a doctor and asks him to perform surgery on him. The doctor refuses and only gives him an injection that will cause temporary impotence.
In the meantime, it so happens that the new mayor sexually assaulted the secretary. Having gotten over her phobia, the girl agrees to marry the mayor. She visits Dellamorte and tells him that she still wants to keep seeing him. The lady’s mysterious appearances are left unexplained, and even her reincarnation seems to have no name.
Meanwhile, mad with rage over his lover’s marriage, Dellamorte once drives around and finally stops at a bar. Yet again, he sees his lover’s face in a college girl. He agrees to go away with her and accompany her to her apartment.
After sleeping with her, he learns that she is a prostitute. When she asks him to pay her, Dellamorte loses his temper and kills her and her friends by setting the apartment on fire. Even though Dellamorte kills people in many instances, they all take place in various ways. The film doesn’t lose its grip on the plotline, and the killings are far from being repetitive.
The next day, the police officer visits him yet again. This time, he informs Dellamorte that Franco has been convicted of the girls’ murders after admittingly killing his family and attempting suicide himself. He learns that his friend has been put in a psychiatric ward and visits him. He accuses Franco of being a thief and ‘stealing his crimes.’
In the ward, he also shoots Franco’s doctor and two other nurses. As Dellamorte tries to leave, the police officer interrupts him and warns him of a murderer in the building. He confesses it was him, but the officer does not listen. As the movie progresses, he grows more and more reckless with the shootings. He wants credit for the crimes, and he almost wishes to get caught in action.
Returning to the graveyard, he decides to leave the place. The deathly figure reappears and warns him that there is no escape. Finally, Dellamorte and Gnaghi get in a car and drive away. They seem relieved and are happy about escaping when the road tapers off. They linger on the edges of a chasm, and Dellamorte overlooks the water. As Gnaghi gets injured, he loads his gun to shoot his friend in the head and relieve him of his suffering. However, Dellamorte can’t bring himself to shoot him and sits down next to him.
Gnaghi regains his life in a final sequence and throws away the gun. In a dramatic sequence, Gnaghi finally speaks and asks Dellamorte to take him home. Snow begins to fall, and the two men are shown standing inside a snow globe. The screen turns black as the movie ends on a literal ‘cliff-hanger.’
Why should you watch Cemetery Man?
Along with some fantastic performances and plenty of gore, ‘Cemetery Man’ is the perfect zombie horror flick. The chilling atmosphere set in a graveyard, terrifying visuals, gothic themes, and an outstanding background score altogether make it an impressive watch.
The visual effects are tuned, and the movie does not shy away from graphic and gore scenes. With a runtime of 104 minutes, the movie is perfectly paced and keeps the audience interested until the end. Along with horror, the protagonist’s love life, killing rage, and graveyard misadventures all make up for a total package of a movie. If you enjoy classic horror movies, “Cemetery Man” or “DellaMorte Dellamore” is perfect for your next movie night!