Cemetery caretaker Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) has a problem. In
the daytime, his job is pretty peaceful: burying dead people, tending to the
grounds, talking to his intellectually disabled assistant Gnaghi, but at night
things get kinda hairy thanks to the bizarre phenomenon of people coming back to
life one week after their death. Dellamorte isn't too thrilled with the
situation, but it's the only job he can get (plus he lives on the grounds), so
he just deals with it. His peaceful (minus the zombie killing) life is
turned upside-down one day when a beautiful woman comes to bury her elderly
husband. Dellamorte instantly notices that she is extremely beautiful and
has one of the greatest bodies on the planet so he sets out to woo her.
Things don't go too well and they get even worse when there's a sudden influx of
corpses getting buried...also, there's the business of the Angel of Death
himself visiting Dellamorte.
When I first saw this in the theater back in the mid-90's, I was quite taken
with it, but revisiting it now it didn't hold up as well as I had remembered.
The story drags on a little bit, there's not enough zombie action, the special
effects are only so-so and that vague ending is disappointing That
said, I did enjoy the slight surrealist elements, the scenery, Everett's
performance, the original story, Anna Falchi's boner exploding
nude scenes
and the top-notch photography.
The average horror fan will probably be disappointed that it's not a complete
zombie bloodbath, but those that like something a little different will get a
kick out of it. Worth watching at least once.
