This Italian horror offering is seriously odd, even by Italian horror standards it's odd. It is certainly not what it appears to be at any rate, especially with the U.S cover art and change of title (the original title is Dellamore Dellamorte which translates as Lover of the Dead). It looks like your typical zombie no-brainer flick and even the above plot summary could easily lead you into thinking this. This film is not about zombies however, it is about the title character, Francesco Dellamorte -the Cemetery Man (Rupert Everett). The zombies do not even play that large a part in the film, they are integral to the plot but they are not the focus of it. They are treated in a very matter of fact way by both Dellamorte and by director, Michele Soavi. No explanation is offered as to why the dead are returning and no information is offered as to whether this is happening in more places than just this one cemetery. Dellamorte tells us in one of his many voice-overs that when it comes down to it it really doesn't matter anyway and this is clearly Soavi's attitude too.

The distinctly unconvincing make-up effects on the living dead highlight this attitude and vary considerably throughout the film. Some zombies adhere to the basic actor-covered-in-grey-make-up approach while others have a distinctly Evil Dead look about them while still others are much more fantastical and stylised. The biker zombie complete with motorcycle and twisted remnants of the helmet he was wearing in the accident that killed him (which he was also apparently buried in) is just one example of this. This stylised look is also present in the cemetery itself which at times looks like a traditional mist-shrouded gothic graveyard while at other times appearing to be more of a magical wonderland where playful willo-the-wisps dance among the wrought iron crosses, marble headstones and ornate statues by candle light.

It seems that this inconsistency in appearance is indicative of the way Dellamorte sees his cemetery, sometimes threatening, sometimes magical but always possessed of a strange morbid beauty. Dellamorte truly loves the dead, at one point when he is seduced by the reanimated corpse of his former lover he even almost expresses this love physically. It seems that his affinity with the dead stems from his inability to understand the living. This isn't surprising as the majority of the living characters are portrayed as being deceitful, self-serving and malicious. The townsfolk who mock him, the mayor who wants to display photographs of his daughter's decaying corpse in a bid to gain sympathy votes or the woman who tells him that she loves him only to turn out to be a prostitute are all major causes for Dellamorte's attitude of having by his own admission, "no time for the living". His only real contact with the living is through his assistant Gnaghi, a lumbering Igor-like simpleton whose only method of communication is through unintelligible (to everyone but Dellamorte) grunting and who has the rather antisocial habit of vomiting on women he finds attractive. There are other people in Dellamorte's life such as his friend Franco who is rarely seen or the various women he falls in love with all of whom are played by the same actress (the beautiful and rather impressively chested Anna Falchi) but Gnaghi is his only real companion.

As the film progresses through its rather episodic story line it grows progressively stranger and Dellamorte grows progressively more detached from reality. It isn't long before he is putting bullets in the craniums of the living as well as the living dead though the police seem to have no interest in pinning the crimes on him. The 'reality' of the film begins to come under question at this point, is this all in Dellamorte's increasingly disturbed mind or is it actually happening? Is this the 'real world' at all? The film doesn't really supply answers to these questions and it is all left intentionally ambiguous. This is the source of both a weakness and strength of the film, it certainly leaves the viewer with food for thought but it is so open-ended and open to interpretation that it will leave many viewers unsatisfied.

There is much to like in Cemetery Man, it has a distinct and strong visual style, a bizarre and darkly comic story and most importantly a hugely compelling and intriguing protagonist. Everett's performance in the title role is superb and he carries the film with ease even when it is running dangerously close to descending into a baffling insane mess. Whether Cemetery Man crosses this line or not will depend on the individual viewer and many will no doubt be turned off by this film's sheer strangeness, many more however will surely be entranced by Francesco Dellamorte and his strange and morbid world.

Rating: 7/10

Review By Matt Compton