FRIGHTFULLY FUNNY `CEMETERY MAN' A CLASSIC.Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Staff Writer Poor, overworked Dellamorte - he's the watchman WATCHMAN. An officer in many cities and towns, whose duty it is to watch during the night and take care of the property of the inhabitants. 2. He possesses generally the common law authority of a constable (q.v. at a cemetery where the dead just won't stay dead. If he tells anyone, he might lose his job, so he just keeps on ``performing a public service'' by splitting their heads open with a spade and burying them again. He's a handsome buck, but the rumor going around town that he lacks the standard male appendage appendage /ap·pen·dage/ (ah-pen´dij) a subordinate portion of a structure, or an outgrowth, such as a tail. epiploic appendages see under appendix . has seriously hampered his love life. And it's not even true. But when the girl of his dreams appears and says she wants to marry him precisely because of his lack, he decides to make the ultimate sacrifice, and visits a surgeon. Imagine his feelings afterward, when she changes her mind. Italian filmmaker Michele Soavi has created a wacky, wickedly funny horror film that recaptures the infectious spirit of low-budget camp, from its retro 1950s-style movie poster to its inspired casting. Freakishly freak·ish adj. 1. Markedly unusual or abnormal; strange: freakish weather; a freakish combination of styles. 2. Relating to or being a freak: a freakish extra toe. tall, angle-jawed Rupert Everett (``Dance With a Stranger'') plays Dellamorte, who's touchingly loyal to his drooling drooling the discharge of saliva from the mouth. A normal feature in some breeds of dogs such as St. Bernard, Newfoundland and English bulldog, presumably because of their loose, pendulous lips. pal Gnaghi, the tubby, monosyllabic gravedigger (Francois Hadji-Lazaro). Sultry blond Italian model Anna Falchi plays the ripely exotic head-turner who arrives at the cemetery one day to mourn her late husband, severely upsetting Dellamorte's hormonal balance. No sooner has he managed to seduce her on a gravesite grave·site n. A place used for graves or a grave. than her former husband erupts from his coffin, causing her to die of fright. Can Dellamorte bear to kill her again when she ``returns''? And in how many guises will she keep reappearing? A protege of Italian horror filmmaker Dario Argento, director Soavi creates his own indelible, gleefully glee·ful adj. Full of jubilant delight; joyful. glee  ful·ly adv.glee inventive visual style in this, his fourth fantasy-horror feature, which was filmed in English, albeit shot in Italy. The story is based on ``Dellamorte, Dellamore,'' a title in Tiziano Sclavi's popular Italian adult comic-book series ``Dylan Dog,'' which mixes abundant sexuality with mostly good-natured gore. The visual effects are a hoot, with camera angles from inside underground coffins, and a severed head For the Australian electronic music group, see . A Severed Head is a satirical, sometimes farcical 1961 novel by Iris Murdoch. Primary themes include marriage, adultery, and incest within a group of civilized and educated people. that follows Gnagy adoringly around the graveyard. Soavi offers a skewed skewed curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean. skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data comic world where a dead lover is as good as a live one - maybe better, since the dead always return. With Hollywood grinding out a raft of coming big-budget, heavy-artillery, live-action versions of comic books such as ``Barb Wire,'' ``X-Men,'' ``Men in Black'' and ``Wonder Woman,'' this sweet-spirited Italian import recalls another era with its naughtiness, creative verve and endearing lack of pretension Pretension See also Hypocrisy. Prey (See QUARRY.) Pride (See BOASTFULNESS, EGOTISM, VANITY.) Absolon vain, officious parish clerk. [Br. Lit. . Though not likely to take off in prime-time screenings, ``Cemetery Man'' has the makings of a midnight cult fave. It's the kind of on-the-edge imported fare that U.S. filmmakers tend to mine for stealable ideas. THE FACTS The film: ``Cemetery Man'' (R; gore, sexuality). The stars: Rupert Everett, Anna Falchi, Francois Hadji-Lazaro. Behind the scenes: Directed by Michele Soavi. Written by Gianni Romoli, based on the comic-book series ``Dylan Dog'' by Tiziani Sclavi. Produced by Tilde A symbol used in Windows, starting with Windows 95, that maintains a short version of a long file or directory name for compatibility with Windows 3.1 and DOS. For example, the short version of a file named "Letter to Joe" would be LETTER~1. Then "Letter to Pat" becomes LETTER~2. Corsi, Gianni Romoli and Michele Soavi. Released by October Films. Running time: One hour, 40 minutes. Playing: Laemmle's Sunset 5 and selected theaters. Our rating: Three stars CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: No sooner does Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) seduce an attractive widow (Anna Falchi) than her former husband erupts from his coffin, causing her to die of fright in ``Cemetery Man.'' |
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