Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Francesco Dellamorte is the groundskeeper at a cemetery where the dead just won’t stay dead—and it’s up to him to deal with those who come back to life with a hunger for human flesh. But Dellamorte’s job soon becomes much more complicated when he falls for an enigmatic young woman whose husband has recently died.
Cemetery Man is a genuinely singular piece of European horror-comedy, steeped in Italian gothic surrealism and drawing from Tiziano Sclavi's Dylan Dog universe. Michele Soavi's direction elevates the material with lush, painterly cinematography — deep shadows, dreamlike compositions, and bold color work that feel unmistakably crafted. Rupert Everett delivers a memorably deadpan, existentially weary performance that suits the film's absurdist tone. The novelty is high: the film blurs zombie horror with philosophical meditation on death, desire, and identity in a way few films have attempted, let alone pulled off with such style. The plot meanders somewhat deliberately, which serves the surrealist mood but frustrates narrative cohesion. The ending is provocative and thematically resonant but ambiguous to the point of slight opacity, leaving some viewers cold rather than haunted.