The best word to describe “Dellamorte Dellamore” is bizarre.
This Italian horror movie is most defiantly Italian and is directed by Michele
Soavi, but this film has a very comical undertone that is not present in any of
his other movies that I’ve seen. The main character, Francesco Dellamorte, is the
thankless cemetery caretaker who defends the small village he lives in from the
rising dead; this character and the comic book character Dylan Dog were both
created in the image of British actor Rupert Everett, so he was cast as the
lead. The events in this film start off as a fairly normal zombie film but
steadily head in more outlandish direction over the second half of the movie. It’s
an interesting film to watch but it does take a certain taste to really
appreciate it; this film is not for everyone. The only aspect of this film I
didn’t care for were some of the choices of background music in the first half
of the film; it seemed more distracting and contradictory to the action that
was taking place at the time.
Francesco Dellamorte is the cemetery caretaker whose prime responsibility
is to kill the zombies that rise upon the 7th day after they’ve died.
He has an assistant named Gnaghi who lives in the basement and is only able to
say the word Gna. Together they kill the dead and keep the village in the dark
about what happens in the cemetery. Because of this lifestyle and the rumor
that he is impotent, Dellamorte is seen as an outcast and avoids the village as
much as he can.
The movie begins moving forward when a young widow shows up
at her elderly husband’s funeral. Dellamorte falls instantly in love with her
and follows her around each time she visits the grave. He is able to get her
attention when he shows her an ossuary but as they’re making-out, she has a
moment of regret and runs out. Later, they begin having sex in the graveyard
near her husband’s grave; while in the act, the husband rises and bites his
wife. She appears to die from the wound and Dellamorte waits for her to rise,
and when she does he shoots her in the head.
While Dellamorte is distracted by his lovelorn loss, Gnaghi
has his own crush to pine over, the daughter of the mayor. She ends up getting
killed in a motorcycle accident but Gnaghi digs her up after she’s been buried
and retrieves her decapitated head. They begin to have a tender romance in the
basement, a situation that Dellamorte is unaware of. It is also at this point
that the dead begin to have more and more traits that resemble the living, such
as the mayor’s daughter’s ability to talk and her old boyfriend’s ability to
ride a motorcycle around the cemetery.
Things begin getting really strange when Dellamorte meets
another woman who looks just like his previous love. He falls for her as well
but she won’t have anything to do with him because she’s terrified by penetration.
He decides to have his “junk” removed but the doctor talks him out of that and
offers a solution that will make him appear impotent instead.
The film only becomes more outrageous from this point and is
best to watch it for yourself.
Gnaghi and Dellamorte
Dellamorte and his love in the ossuary
Valentina, the mayor's daughter, and Gnaghi
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