Mini Review Day 25: Cemetery Man (1994) aka Dellamorte Dellamore
Dellamorte Dellamore or Cemetery Man is the final Michele Soavi film for my 31 Days Of Horror, and it is the best of the three I watched of his and possibly one of the best I have seen this month. Soavi has impressed me with his work, and this feels like his masterpiece. It is as his other films are a very visual film, with themes that are most obvious and explored in such an interesting way.
The story is rather odd, so bare with me. A cemetery man Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) must re-kill the dead at his cemetery when they come back to life several days after being buried. He also happens to fall in love with ‘She’ (Anna Falchi), which has some very strange ramifications.
Naturally more is at play, but I am not one to spoil films. This film was based on the novel by Tiziano Sclavi, who later went on to write Dylan Dog. He based that character very much on how Rupert Everett was in this film. I haven’t read the source material, but I’d imagine he was happy with the product, as this is an incredible film. It explores the themes of death and of love, as the title suggests (Dellamorte Dellamore translates to Of Death and Love), and it does so in a matter I haven’t quite seen before.
Amazing once again on the visual scale for Soavi, I absolutely loved the look and atmosphere of the film. This is a horror/dark comedy that works perfectly, it has a strange flow to it but it works well. There are some scenes that will be burned into my mind for life, and it is an achievement when a film can pull that off. Rupert Everett gives perhaps the best performance I have seen in his career, and Anna Falchi proves that she is not only amazing to look at but she has the acting chops. Not to be forgotten is François Hadji-Lazaro as Gnaghi, whose character works as a polar opposite to Francesco’s.
Take my word for it, if you have not seen this film – please check it out! A big thank you to Anthony and also Stephen for the recommendation.
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Mini Review Day 26: Poison For The Fairies (1984) aka Veneno para las hadas
My knowledge of Mexican cinema is sadly rather limited, but Mr. Guillermo del Toro opened my eyes to them in more recent years. I very much wanted to check out a horror film from that country for 31 Days Of Horror, and one title stood out at me and without doing any research I added it to my list. Poison For The Fairies is an incredible film, my decision to go in and chose this film was a great one. It is unlike anything I have ever seen, with the focus being the relationship between two young girls.
This is a kind of horror film, but there is a lot more to it. We have the young Flavia (Elsa María Gutiérrez) who begins a new school, where she meets Verónica (Ana Patricia Rojo). The two become friends, but Verónica is the dominating force and she convinces Flavia that she is a witch (in a rather terrifying scene). At first things are innocent, but Verónica’s games with Flavia get more out of hand and things take a very nasty turn.
This isn’t an easy film to describe; there is so much going on here. It does focus on the two girls; adults are a second thought here. Their faces are never really shown, which I think really immerses the audience into the world of the two girls. The film is a visual delight; everything about it on that level really is perfection. It is very vibrant in colour, and the shots are done in such interesting ways. I haven’t seen any other films of Carlos Enrique Taboada who wrote and directed this, but I really do now. He has done a tremendous job here, and I’ll be thinking about this film for some time.
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You can view my entire list of 31 Days Of Horror 2012 HERE
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