DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE

DELLAMORTE DELLAMORE

It was 1994 and I was attending one of Midnite Media’s regular film fairs at the Watford Leisure centre. In an age before Ebay, imported Laserdiscs (and illicit VHS tapes containing laserdisc prints!) were openly sold and traded. It was a fantastic little horror community. Among the regular dealers were Annie (nicknamed due to his anorexic looking physique); Chelsea John (A thick set gentleman with many tattoos and a sales patter that consisted of "Buy this mate… its facking gory as fack") and a Brummie merchant who we dubbed as "Thumper" due to him looking like a sad rabbit if you didn’t purchase a £10 pirate tape (or 3 for £25) from his dubious stall. Well it was Thumper who first made me aware of Michele Soavi’s Dellamorte Dellamore aka The Cemetery Man. "I went to the premiere..." he claimed "... it was so bad people were walking out of the auditorium." Not the best sales pitch given he went on to try and flog a pirate copy of the movie! I declined but was nevertheless intrigued into how a movie could be ‘so bad’ it would cause the audience to leave before the credits roll. Was it overtly offensive, poorly acted or just downright boring? I can honestly say it is none of those things…

The movie stars Rupert Everett as Francesco Dellamorte, a gravedigger and warden of the enigmatic Buffalora Cemetery in a small Italian village. We are almost immediately made aware that the graveyard has mysterious powers. After 7 days, corpses burrow their way up through the dirt looking for human flesh to devour. It is Dellamorte’s endeavour to slay these ‘returners’ (a sharp piercing blow to the cranium usually does it!) before they can consume the local villagers.

Assisted by his seemingly mute sidekick Gnaghi, (who himself has a penchant for news footage of war on loop on his humble portable TV), the pair do a very competent job of burying the dead - before slaughtering the undead corpses and re-burying them.

Dellamorte’s existence is a morose one, yet he is comfortable dwelling in the cemetery away from society, with his steady income. But then, one day, a beautiful widow (Anna Falchi) enters his graveyard. Generously voluptuous and with a pair of lips that would put Ms Jolie to shame, Dellamorte instantly becomes infatuated with the mourning widow.

Although a relationship of sorts starts to develop, the convoluted situation spirals out of control when he inadvertently kills his new love while trying to save her from a ravenous cadaver who craves her flesh. His new predicament sees Dellamorte paradoxically immersed in a melting pot of love, life, sex and death…

DD was developed from a book by Italian comic book author Tiziano Sclavi. As such, it does tend to retain some of the animated humour. It was this element, I understand, that was harshly criticised by the horror fraternity of the mid-nineties. But in fairness to simply label this a horror comedy is to do the movie a huge injustice.

The film, simply put, is an absolute treat for anyone who has an appreciation of gothic art. Not only is it viscerally loyal to the gothic aesthetic, but the storyline (albeit it an illogical one!) is faithful that unwavering gothic folklore of love and death.

The cinematography oscillates from moody colour deficient night scenes draped in cemetery fog, to opulent sunlit vistas featuring a diverse array of peripheral characters. Some eccentric camera angles alternate by one minute hovering above the action spying downward to the next being seemingly submerged in the earth and gazing upward. I couldn’t help feel this aspect helped convey the contradiction of being caught in the void of the ‘living dead’.

While on the subject of the movies look, I found the print to be distinctly sharp. The zombies blackened fingernails contrasting with their ashen skin conspicuously differed from the natural flesh tones of the living humans. It meant the obvious budgetary constraints were off set with the intricate attention to detail that was employed in the movies creation.

Made at a time when CGI hadn’t fully sunk its claws the movie making process, the gore effects come courtesy of some traditional Italian home grown methods. Even some enchanting ‘will-0-the-wisp’ type creatures were achieved by using some innovative methods as oppose to a software program. Although not quite in the class of Fulci’s The Beyond or Savini’s mastery in Dawn of the Dead, the gore nevertheless peppers the movie with some frequent delightful carnage throughout. I cannot comment of previous releases of the movie but you will no doubt be pleased to hear that this Shameless DVD features a fully uncut version of the movie.

Special mention must go to Everett himself who avoids ‘hamming it up’. Instead he portrays the tragic spirited protagonist with a real air of misanthropy. He is helped by some truly paradoxical predicaments such as the declaration by his fascinating new lover that she can only fall in love with a man who is impotent! The fun script affords Everett a few slick one-liners which offer some genuine moments of humour without being overly cheesy. Whether these jokes work with the original Italian soundtrack and English subtitles which is also included, is up for debate!

The extras section of the disc most notably contains a commentary track with Michele Soavi and writer Gianni Romoli. Be aware though that this is all in Italian with English subtitles. It took me a bit of getting used to at first to be honest but was definitely a worthwhile read!

I am a sucker for collectable editions and if the disc’s contents are not enough, the package is completed with an ‘exclusive booklet with Alan Jones on-set memoirs’.

Overall then, Dellamorte Dellamore is a fantastic release by Shameless of a great looking movie with an absurd plot and some deliriously hideous set pieces. And as for those aforementioned folk who allegedly walked out on the movie: given the plethora of remakes diluting the horror scene today, I truly hope they revisit Soavi’s highly original picture with a more appreciative attitude and sense of enjoyment in 2012.

Review by Marc Lissenburg


 
Released by Shameless Screen Entertainment
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
see main review
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