Welcome to a world where life, love and death mean nothing.
Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) lives a solitary life as a watchman for a cemetery where some of the dead come back to life. It is his job to maintain the grounds and kill any of the "returners". Despite a tough job, he is mostly ignored or ridiculed by others, has a tough time fitting into social situations/society, and dreams of finding true love. After a doomed love affair with a beautiful widow (Anna Falchi), he ruminates on his lot in life as his loss begins to affect his mental health.
Rupert Everett is great as our lead, and looks pretty darn cool most of the time. Francois Hadji-Lazaro is great as well as Francesco's simpleton assistant. The film itself borders on an Army of Darkness-esque tone and style most of the time, while trying to juggle some serious themes about love, life, death, and nihilism. Michele Soavi directs, and does a fantastic job (as always. He manages to fit in some striking and gorgeous visuals here.). The film looks like it's made-for-tv, and some of the effects are cheap, but the setting of the cemetery and some of the areas within it are superb (There's also an awesome Death puppet that actually made me do a spit take). The script by Gianni Romali is great and filled with memorable lines ("I would give my life to be dead.").
Cemetery Man is certainly an acquired taste due to it's goofy tone mixed with some serious, contemplative themes. It's elements don't always mix well, but it is undeniably a highly entertaining but downbeat film. The best way I could describe it is as a nihilistic comic book.
4 STARS
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