4. Cemetery Man/Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) has a hard time of it. The keeper of the town's cemetery, he has to save the population by shooting the dead who arise from their graves approximately seven days after their burial. For company, he has only his henchman Gnaghi who is mentally retarded and whose communication skills are severely limited. The film follows the romantic tribulations of the pair - Gnaghi falling in love with a severed head and Francesco falling in love with a frigid woman who is subsequently cured after being raped by her boss with whom she runs away! Francesco is deeply depressed after this turn of events and goes on a bit of a murder spree - killing a man who had mocked him for bing impotent and killing an attractive prostitute. The eventual ending is so bizarre I cannot describe it here as It would be a terrible injustice to the film. Director Michele Soavi follows through on the promise he showed in Stagefright. The film is a straight forward gory horror film on one level, but on another level, it is a European art film which posits philosophical questions about the nature of reality and fantasy. Dellamorte Dellamore is a witty and darkly humorous film - helped by Everett's deadpan performance - in fact, the acting in the film is uniformly excellent (a rare state of affairs in Italian horror!). The characters are compelling and you really grow to care about them. The screenplay is interesting and innovative for a zombie movie. It is one of those rare occasions where everything seems to come together in a movie and produces a fantastic whole. Highly recommended.