Cemetery Man (1994) with James Babbo

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Drop some kind of substance and just go with the flow. I'm not saying one ripped off the other but I'm saying they're pretty close

(00:05):
Only on copious amounts of some drug to allow you to truly enjoy what you're going to ride
I know you're obsessed but we'll get there. Well, if they do that, they'll take it over and then I'll lose my job
Hello and welcome to movies
Oh

(00:29):
Hello and welcome to movie smash the show where we dive headfirst in the concrete movies outside the MCU if you're new to the show
Thanks for joining us. If you've been here before, you know the drill each episode
We're gonna smash the movie whose source materials from a graphic novel or a comic is it worth revisiting? Should it be forgotten?
Let's find out this is movie smash
I'm one of your hosts Chris Roberts on the founder of off panel creations with me today. I have Fergal Amayo

(00:54):
I am Fergal Amayo founder and owner of Gotham Night Comics where nerds
Unite and get together and do all that fun stuff also resident cemetery man. Well, I am NOT talking to death
I feel like we might have a dialogue if we did have a conversation
Yeah, you sound like you have the voice for it and our guest host today is James Babow

(01:14):
It's great to be here. Thanks for asking me to come on. I am a comic book writer in New York and
Colorist I have a bunch of books that I've been independently publishing
One called it's a World War two series called the Moses militia about a group of Jewish partisans fighting the Nazi menace

(01:35):
That's cool
I have a superhero book called Golden Girl the party about a group of sidekicks
Who started a security service to handle the dangers that no one else can but more appropriately for this podcast?
I have a book called Stan Douglas the punchliner, which is a horror comedy book
It's my homage to one of my favorite TV shows

(01:56):
1970s Coleshack the Night Stalker where the premise is what if Coleshack were a stand-up comedian who kept running into the
Supernatural when he went on the road
Yeah, and you and I had the opportunity to meet each other at the Baltimore the Baltimore Comic-Con. Yeah
I think I saw one of your comics was a was it the baby that fell from outer space
Yeah, that's my old ages book and was it falls around our space an alien that falls around space has to fight HP

(02:21):
Lovecraft style demons and monsters. Yes
I saw that cover that was a pretty cool cover. No, thank you. So this is our second Halloween episode
So for our movie this evening is 1994 cemetery man starring Rupert Everett France Francesco
I am NOT gonna be able to ask that last name and Anna Falchie

(02:43):
Directed by Mikhail Savio who my Italian is terrible. I made my Japanese is fantastic. My Italian names are horrendous
You claim they come to life within seven days of burial. No, he came back sooner than we thought
He's only eating me. Move aside. Mind your business. This is my business. They pay me for it

(03:13):
Come three times already twice so much faked
Get down or I'll shoot you can't I'm the mayor
X
Cemetery man
Were you guys familiar with the comic strip that this is based off? I think it's called Dylan dog

(03:34):
Not at all. Not I mean there's there's you know
I pride myself and knowing a lot about a lot of books even so much as you know grew and other characters
but this one's sort of I
When I went back and dug into it, there are a lot of books because there are so many comics
There's so many indie creators. This is just and while this wasn't really an indie creator. This was more of a European comic
I don't know. Yeah, I didn't see it in any of my bookstores when I was growing up

(03:56):
I went to some very large comic stores and it just wasn't in shelf but whoa
That's all I could say I read about it. It's an interesting storyline
Yeah, this is one of those books that is apparently very famous in Europe in Italy
They they call their comics Fumetti. It took me a while to piece together the connection of

(04:17):
Cemetery man to Dylan dog and I finally got it that the creator at Tietiano
Sclavie
He wrote this novel before
he did Dylan dog and it just sat on the shelf and
Micaeli Slavey the the director contacted him about doing a Dylan dog movie and

(04:44):
Apparently the rights were tied up somewhere else, but he says hey, I have this novel which features a prototype of the character called
Francesco de la morte
So there's a lot of things from that character that went into Dylan dog
So that's what they that's what they did. They incorporated a lot of things from Dylan dog into

(05:04):
De la morte de la mori like for example the kind of gun that he uses and the fact that he looks like Rupert Everett
Yeah, the actual main character of the comic strip was designed to look like Rupert completely unrelated
He didn't know the guy he just liked him from various movies. He had done yet Brandon Routh played him in the Dylan dog movie
Yeah, well, that's the reason why he requested with this movie is being made that Rupert would play the part

(05:27):
I had never heard this book either. I looked for it. You're right. It's huge in Europe. It's been there
It's been it's was it like their longest-running comic strip in Italy for that at the time
apparently from 1986 I
Actually downloaded
You can't see on the screen behind me, but I downloaded the first 50 issues and but it's all in Italian

(05:48):
So I have no idea what's going on
But it's got a lot of nudity as the movie does a lot of zombies a lot of shooting
It's pretty much what the movie is and the other thing was because I couldn't get it in time to get a collection of it
I pick up the only thing that my local comic store had apparently there was a Batman Dylan dog

(06:09):
Team up now look at that now that's that that just tells you so what that tells you is that DC's gone international because again
To James's point, this is actually one of the most famous books in Italy
And this is this guy has created over 300 issues very long time running. Well, he's almost a beloved character
He's a beloved creator in Italy. Yeah from what my research showed me was that in Italy it actually felt more like

(06:34):
The Archie comics are for us like they're in grocery stores. This is what the Dylan dog was like. It was everywhere
It's so prevalent. You'll see you'll be a checkout line. There'd be a small copy of it
But so yeah for me, obviously I'd never have the book but was this your first viewing of this movie?
Yes
Stop right there. Oh

(06:55):
Let's just leave it at that. Yes. It was my first I saw this when it was released. I remember reading a
Review summers probably in fangoria or one of those magazines anything that was
European related horror me and my friends would go and see it and I remember it wasn't well attended

(07:16):
It only had a very brief
Run in theaters as I was saying earlier this I got this confused with
Braindead the the Dead Alive the Peter Jackson film because they both came out in the same year
So I had meld with these two in my head and it wasn't until I recently picked up the severin

(07:37):
Release of the blu-ray which was sitting on my shelf coincidentally when you guys contacted me about doing this film
That I opened it up this weekend and sort of watching it and all the extra features
I don't know if you guys have the blu-ray. I'm the guy that only buys the collector's editions
I was looking at buying it, but it's like a $50 DVD right now. Oh
I must get a really good deal on it. Well, I think now because out of print again

(07:59):
Okay, so I had not seen this movie when I came to theaters
This thing completely went under my radar and I was trying to figure out why like I had never even heard this movie and even movies
I've never seen at least I've heard of at some point. It was released in less than 10 theaters nationwide in the United States
So unless you happen to be in one of those markets they happen to release this which obviously it sounds like you were James

(08:20):
You would have never have heard this movie. James is in New York and New York is the cultural center of the world
So all amazing things happen in New York. I have to I doubt that I think I'm sorry rest in Virginia
We're the pinnacle of culture and
Well, I'm gonna bust y'all out and say Detroit's having a comeback here
So I think we're gonna we might not be culture, but we got Coney

(08:41):
So Fergal do you want to give us a little sort of background a little bit history on this comic Dylan dog?
As I mentioned and again, I'm probably gonna slaughter his name
I'm gonna take the time to write this to say this guy's name Tiziano Scalavi again
You know not a comic that I was familiar with but he is a treasure in Italy
He is a tree 300 issues of Dylan dog. He's been involved in other books

(09:04):
He's written this this as as was so eloquently said by James. He's also a novel this guy's work with major Italian artists
Claudia Villa
Corrado Rio Gustavo Trio again
I'm gonna just get my Italian going on starts in spaghetti marinara all kinds of stuff. This guy's got a thing that he's well-known
He's like a legend. So I leave it there and let the story sit for itself

(09:25):
See I'm enjoying you butchering the names this time instead of myself. I don't butcher because I'm named Fergal
So if this is your first time joining it's just a quick heads up
We're gonna be discussed this plot of this 30 year old movie and with that discuss some elements
So the story might be considered spoilers. So consider yourself warned
So James you have a quick synopsis of us like what actually happens in this movie
Yes

(09:46):
Dilla morte Dilla Mori aka Cemetery Man, which is in my opinion very awful US title
It's a 1994 horror farce based on the novel by Tiziano Scalavi featuring a character Frenchman
Delamorte who became the prototype for his comic book creation Dylan dog in the film
He's a cemetery caretaker whose duties include killing the dead who for reasons unknown

(10:11):
Return after seven days of death, but Francesco finds himself in an existential bubble where events make him question
Whether the world really exists outside the gates of his occupation
Either you wrote that James or that was directly pulled from the exact site of where it came from
I've watched this four times. I listened to the commentary. I listened to the interviews

(10:32):
I was waking up in the middle of night with ideas for this podcast
And I I was keeping a notebook next to my bed
I've been right you started to excite people. We have excited people James excited. I'm loving this
Let's take it to it because I was I was all effed up in this well
I was this the first time I saw today I've been again just as I can say on the podcast

(10:52):
This is it's been a very busy time in my life lots of things going on
So I decided to take this during my Monday because it's admin day at my work
I was like I could have this going on the TV. I'm good at multitasking
This was not a movie to multitask on no, it's that's really something the back of the box kind of
Discussion what happens movie? That's really good. I like I enjoy that. So one thing about this movie. It is Italian and

(11:15):
Italian films just in general films that are not us-based have a different sort of feel to them
And I think this focuses more upon the characters and it actually does the plot of the movie
In fact, the plot will get into a little bit is very disjointed
So let's talk a little about the characters and who these people are Francesco's our lead
I think Rupert Everett took a lot of acid and played this character

(11:35):
It was like I'm gonna if I'm gonna do this, I think he was the first Heath Ledger
That's all I could say I think he went in as I'm gonna just because he worked with knocking
So at the end of the day, you gotta take some acid to work with knocking and then he was dealing with
She which was all throughout the whole scenario. So I think he took a lot of acid this way
I'm gonna enjoy this and that's exactly what he did because I'm kind of like it was a lot of scenes and he really got

(11:57):
into it a lot and wow, yeah, I was just I saw I can say James I'll turn the mic over to you, sir
I think you hit it on the head because there's an interview with him on this blu-ray where he raves about this
He loves this is he says this is one of the most fun things he's ever done and he's recognized it
He's recognized for it when he's ever he's in Europe

(12:18):
I really didn't know anything about this guy. I know he's a well-known actor, but in looking at his film
filmography like he's been nominated for the BAFTA the
UK version of the Oscars the same year that he did this he did the Madness of King George
so he was this well-known respected guy and

(12:40):
He said the reason he did the film was
He just loved the script. He was a great actor
He thought he could really stretch himself as an actor
But apparently the director says in the commentary
He didn't let him know that the character of Dylan Dogg is based on him until after he signed the contract

(13:01):
Because he thought he would ask for more money
If you look at any pages from Dylan Dogg from the European comic the Italian comic it looks like Rupert Everett
Straight up. That's who he designed it after he that's literally the face he wanted
You're right Rupert before this was a drama actor mainly did drama romance
This was outside his wheelhouse. In fact, I don't think he's ever done horror after this like this is the only time

(13:25):
I think I saw the same interview saw as well and he yeah
He talks about he loves it talks highly about this movie and all the players in it
But it's interesting that they pulled this dramatic actor into it and he plays a deadpan
I mean he takes this role seriously there and what's funny is the humor he uses is very
It's a combination of dark humor and dad humor

(13:47):
Like there's a scene where he's driving the car and he drove he goes
I know every every bump in this road and he literally drives over a rock and he goes that was a bump
Okay, I'm like I have made that joke to my kids. I
Don't know about you guys
But it kind of reminded me of the way that Jeff Bridges played the dude in the big Lebowski like so laid-back
Like nothing really faced him in this film. Well, no

(14:09):
No, not when he was committing murder. I actually have I have written down
Dave Lebowski plus American Psycho
Good combination because that's what it feels like like you're not sure if it's all real or not
He doesn't know if it's all real or not, but he is super laid-back about this world falling apart around him. Exactly. Yeah
For you look like you're you're speechless

(14:34):
Reabsorbing what I saw earlier today
So so I'm just trying to go on some of the premises the Dead Rising the folks coming up shooting them
Knocking who only says nah, you know and the guy who just doesn't seem to have appetite control
And just the whole thing and I'm trying to go back to I'm looking at the ceiling like what again?
I just got to say out loud. What the hell was I seeing?

(14:54):
So he plays the part of the guardian
His job is that he works in the cemetery and the dead come back to life after seven days due to actually the monk is at
The if there's a plant the mongrove or something like that that brings them back to life
It's not actually said in the movie, but the director says that in a later interview
That's why you see the plant zooming in with a thing crawling through
so this plant brings everyone back to life after seven days and the only way to kill the person is a shot to the head or a

(15:19):
Shovel to the head depending what they might have. In fact, there's a scene where they're sharpening the edge of a shovel
To make a spade to make sure it can cut through somebody. That's our good friend. Knocky. Yeah, knocky. We'll get more than a knock in a bit
He he plays it starts off with a scene where the he's on the phone with his friend and he's the dead comes to his door
He relies the person is dead just shoots him and goes back to his phone call and that really sums up the tone of the entire movie

(15:44):
Like this is just another day of his life
This is my job. Like I don't care. Yes, the widget comes the widget comes down the assembly line
I assemble it it goes down the assembly line the dead wake up after seven days
I shoot them in the head they go back to being dead like that is what I do
For living I would not say guardian as much as engineer because every single person who came to that cemetery

(16:05):
Called him an engineer. Well, he was called a guard. He calls himself a guardian
Yes, but everyone calls him the engineer and actually have a question
You guys do you is there any reason why people are focused on calling it or that just a bad translation?
I mean, I I delved a lot into this and try and make sense tried to make sense of it
But the engineer part I just didn't get it all it reminds me of like people

(16:27):
You know people who are janitors call themselves sanitation engineers. That's the only connection I can possibly make with it
If you think about it, Donnie Darko these movies that we were kind of you know, cuz this movie falls into
There's a movie about a talking typewriter. There's a couple of the movies that are like this this movie deconstructs
So it's the whole purpose of this movie and I think James and Chris you guys were great. It's a deconstruction

(16:49):
That's why we say farce, but it is much more than that
And I think that's where they call him and he's deconstructing the dead people. He's thinking they're dead and he's deconstructing them again
So he's rebuilding and making sure they stay that and so that's why I think they they view that engineer
This that's how I thought they did it. I don't know how far you want to get into this, but our jump ahead
There's the conversations he has with death. I think he's in some kind of

(17:14):
Inner monologue with himself. I don't think he really understands what's happening around him if he
Thinks reality is real or if it's all in his head because it talking with death seems to make him go down certain paths
Where the first half of the film is this ridiculous zombie film and then the second half of the film

(17:36):
Like you said, it becomes American Psycho. I think to me it becomes even more frightening
Because he starts killing people and burning them alive and nobody seems to think it's him. Yeah
Or it's more that everyone's covering up for him when they still realize what he's doing because there are certain scenes where it feels like the police are covering up for him
Another scenes where they just don't realize it could possibly like you're not sure

(17:57):
Is it a major cover-up and they know he is this hidden guardian of the undead or they just don't care because it's so corrupt
That chicks tits were absolutely phenomenal. You're jumping ahead. We haven't got that character yet. I know you're obsessed but we'll get there
Or he's so well known in that town with all the rumors that either people think about him or that he spreads himself

(18:21):
That they can't possibly conceive that he would do this the things that he's responsible for. Oh, he's impotent and that of course means he can't do anything wrong
But he didn't seem to be impotent by the second scene of the movie. I mean, that's what he took the big shot
But I mean, that's that's why I think this whole thing is in his head. I think the entire movie is in his head because I mean there's there's this

(18:42):
It's just crazy. Well, I think the last shot of the movie really gives away that it's not reality and we'll get that a bit
So it was for instance, I know you're you're waiting to get this get this let's talk about the character. She perfected
Can I just say that I'm allowed to say that I'm hot guys. Perfected. Well, you say that every episode
So she plays actually it's funny how the character is called she she has no name. She does not and she actually plays three different roles

(19:09):
Yes, because she keeps coming back from the dead effectively. Well, is that what she's coming back up?
Because what I read into it was that she was playing different facets of his inability to connect with a female
And I think that in that may have done something to do with this because you guys talked about his reputation of the town
Maybe that was someone that, you know, he lost in his own mind and that he's re-representing to represent three sides of his personality

(19:35):
I think it's more about it's supposed to be the story. It's love because the original title is of love and of death, right?
So I think this is the love portion of that love knows no bounds and he has loved fall of his
Okay, let's let's back up. So the listeners know what we're talking about because they're probably not gonna go watch this movie
I have a feeling based on our review many well backing up again

(19:57):
So at first she plays the widow of one of the people who are being buried and the person is being buried is this elderly man
Who is in his 70s if I did the math properly?
So he then seduces her over the course of basically two weeks since his husband's death
From there he falls in love with this creature who she is then she dies and then she comes back as another character as the secretary of the mayor

(20:20):
The new mayor after the first mayor is now dead falls in love with her again, but then she dumps him
We'll get into that scene in a little bit. That's a little problematic about why she dumps him
And then she comes back again as a prostitute that he falls in love for again
And but every time she even she herself says she loves him like she's something within her within her her history is pulling back saying that I love you as well

(20:44):
And and fertile just so you know, and I had this little fact just for you in 2009
It's the website shot in the head show the top ten boobs and horror movies and she got number and she got number one
So I mean there's just no doubt. I mean when we're you know in today's fake age those were the I mean
I just I stopped on that one left that one on my team meeting with my boss

(21:06):
I let that still image be the thing in my background as I was doing a team here because my boss makes me irritable and that doesn't so I just kind of who that was nice
She was the thing that I remembered most about this film like in the way that I got this confused with with Peter Jackson's film
She is what stuck in my brain when I thought about this film and I bought the blu-ray she's unforgettable absolutely unforgettable

(21:30):
Well her portrayal is very sort of like eerie the way she you know carries herself sort of ethereal
So yes for sure she gets naked but on top of that she has a really good job portraying this this strange being like I was wondering like is she a
Which should she's like a supernatural being that just keeps coming back and tormenting him
Is this like a hell for this guy that somehow she is his tormentor I don't know but because she's in back and she

(21:52):
This was a tie in Jacob's ladder that's what this was this was a tie in Jacob's ladder if you just break everything down and you look at it because the scenes were so disjointed
And everything was so out of place and it didn't sort of sink in until the last scene and I'll say that's maybe that's the boy into the director because everything was out of place
It was not and then it just sinks in I think that's where I think this was complete Jacob's ladder I think this was all and I think she just wasn't none of this stuff was happening in reality it just feels like none of it was

(22:22):
There's these little clues that that are dropped from here to there which are never really explored all the way through like for example as the secretary the second character that she plays the secretary to the mayor
She does tell him I feel like I've been here before I feel like I've been living this through this before that I know you so it seems to me that it's a missed opportunity that they should explain why the same woman keeps reappearing in his life like maybe he had a connection to her prior to the events of this film like something in his past

(22:57):
Somebody that he met that he had some kind of interaction with that he did wrong and now she keeps coming back to torment them. I don't know. You just get more later on about our theories on what this movie is about but it really deals feel like it does feel like his personal hell and about hell the way you think of hell in the sense of like demons fire brimstone but more like he is bored with everything except for this one obsession of his which he can't have.

(23:25):
Do you think it's boredom as much as it's just a slow descent into a bit of madness.
It starts going madness after he gets bitten I think early on it's really about like it's day to day I mean there's a scene with him where we're talking to scenes in a bit too but there's a scene where he's sitting there on the phone hanging out with Nagi just shooting guys to the window as if there's nothing else going on.
That's the Italian Boy Scout Massacre.

(23:46):
They gave the dinner.
Let's let's before we get sort of the plot into sort of sort of scenes and those lists we use one of the character you mentioned for goal Nagi says not Nagi.
Except for the very last very end of the movie.
Can we go home.
Go home now.
I ruined it all for everyone. Yes, that's what it says at the end of the movie. What do you think of the character Nagi. He's probably the most interested dude in there. I did not yet a whole backstory I could create a comic on Nagi alone.

(24:14):
I believe there's a backstory to Nagi I think he's got to get into Nagi's head and figure out where he came from with this motivation. The guy who plays Nagi is supposedly a huge French actor who's also an opera singer.
He's a writer. Yeah. So he's like this. So the fact that he's this huge star in France, and he has one line, this whole movie, but he does portray a lot of emotion through that one line of nah, which reminds me of Game of Thrones Hodor type of character.

(24:41):
I didn't I didn't say Game of Thrones. Well, Game of Thrones is a character called Hodor and that's all he says. He's this giant of a guy, huge bulking dude that eats a lot. And he just says Hodor and he kind of protects the youngest Stark son.
And the reason he says it is because he gets hit in the head by a door and he's told to hold the door. And that's why he keeps saying Hodor Nagi who is relieved of his pain is his ability to speak. He gets it back, but he gets hit in the head.

(25:07):
And now he can speak again. I'm not saying one ripped off the other, but I'm saying they're pretty close.
Nagi is just he's a great mime. He's one of these guys that he steals every scene that he's in just by his facial expressions and things that he does his movements.
I don't want to jump ahead for his big scene, but let's jump ahead the scenes. Let's jump to we got this. I normally I sit there and I'm taking my notes during the movie and I'm saying like this scene might be interesting to talk about.

(25:39):
I was basically writing out the script like essentially every scene. I was like there is something either really neat or really wrong about this scene. Let's put it on the sheet.
That's because it was disturbing. It was one of the again. I just want to reiterate for the crowd. If you if you attempt to do something else while watching this movie, you do so at your own peril.
There are many movies we have reviewed and discussed. You can put on the background. You will not miss a thing. This you will miss it because most things are sight gags or just you have to be paying attention or you're going to miss that little thing that's happening behind it.

(26:11):
So this movie is full of disturbing scenes. What scene stuck out to you the most? I would say you know there are a couple scenes that the scene with death. I thought that was interesting. I just thought that was I thought that was interesting.
But I think kind of that that whole I don't know that just that scene with the old man and and she did coming back to bite the really you know I'm I'm getting into this thing. I'm looking at boobs.

(26:35):
I'm like okay. We're going okay Rupert. We're making magic happen and then the zombie and then I'm just like what the and I'm kind of in line. You know why I'm just that literally just and then just the reaction afterwards that I will save you a little bit for
So the scene you're talking about was very army of darkness to me because there was a lot of humor in it though is played very straight for that part of it.
Like she is she's been seduced by Francesco and she's decided to make love to Francesco on the grave of her deceased husband and her rationale why it's a good idea is because they share everything and I love how the little faceplate of the guy changes from like the stern look to like.

(27:12):
And I want to talk about for the listeners is there's every grave has on a faceplate of the deceased person and his picture changes based upon what's happening around him which should have been a clue. Yeah something is not right.
The scene that stands out to me is when Nagi throws up on the girl. Yep. And it's a straight out of South Park but but that wouldn't happen for like another 15 years but he then goes he's so in raptured by this 14 year old girl and digs up her grave and instead of taking her whole body because he knows she's coming back to life.

(27:51):
He just takes the head and he keeps the head in a TV set and he apparently they're having a love affair and he kisses her and feeds her food and for some reason the head can move on its own.
It follows him around like a puppy the graveyard was evil dead so that was evil that I mean that when we went after daddy that was evil that I was like what that evil day was biting off them or they were biting off evil that because that was funny though that the scene that you kind of

(28:20):
mentioned where they're at the cafe and he's with Nagi and Nagi throws up on the mayor's daughter. That's that's like the tip of the iceberg because all of a sudden then she's freaking out and a guy randomly shows about a motorcycle she jumps on the back of the motorcycle and she says you knew what I wanted
and then drives off on the motorcycle and Francesco is telling the mayor we need to talk about the cemetery they sort of like calmly walk away like this crazy scene is just unplayed and this open door is open air cafe and nobody is no one cares nobody cares.

(28:51):
And then she then they go get and then it's like blood on the highway then it's literally a blood on the highway episode it's literally a PSA about don't ride a motorcycle on a mountain.
I thought her head got smashed up I don't even know where she's still around because I was like she's gone. I saw blood and then head got squashed. They say in the film that they had to sew her head back together.
Honestly looking at that that car accident occur so for listeners, the motorcycle eventually she goes and joins a bunch of motorcycle teenagers there's like what six or eight of them or something like that, traveling down the highway and they take a turn too sharp and there's a bus full of

(29:25):
nuns and Boy Scouts who crash into them and like somehow they hit him and they drive over them twice and their head split open and then the bus like goes off the cliff like the accident makes no sense but nonetheless like that all of a sudden they got a this big rush of dead people come to the cemetery and as we all know seven days later they're all coming back.

(29:48):
And that was so many dead people so I mean I would be you know first off I was as soon as I started seeing all those things happen like Maggie let's get more bullet. I think he did say that Maggie we're gonna need more dum dums and I understand that that because that's what they call bullets dum dums so I think they just need to have because there were a lot of people coming down that pipeline.
That was the busiest place in that entire town.
And if you don't pay attention to you don't realize that the Boy Scouts were on that bus because later on when the Boy Scouts break into his place at the cemetery and he starts shooting off killing off the Boy Scouts like oh yeah that's right they're on the bus that went off the cliff.

(30:21):
Yes, this movie does not hold your hand on anything.
It's the little things that just I just become obsessed with like for all the craziness of the fact that Nagi is keeping this little girl's head in a TV set. To me the craziest part of that whole scene is that the mayor wants to dig up the body, because he thinks it'd be a good idea for a campaign ad to take a photo of his dead tortoise body to put up posters to say look I suffered too.

(30:53):
Well now here's my question. Here's my question. When the mayor so this is what through the idea of the Jacobs ladder scene off because up until that point, everything was told through the point of view of Francisco de la Morta so it was all through him and Nagi's point of view how they were viewing the world.
When that mayor heard his daughter's voice and was like is that a gene of it and he walks in and we see her. I thought for a second is this shit really happening. Are they really is his daughter's head really about to do business.

(31:20):
Because I mean at that point I was like this isn't great. Yeah, that was a little lies out of the TV. I don't know how she propels herself.
So when she crawls across the floor flings herself across the room kills the mayor, and now and also the police officers there the the chief of police and others got this crime scenes that of course there's a cameraman so the standing around takes the picture, and yet somehow they're all still okay.

(31:42):
And nobody, nobody knows the undead has come back to life. Yeah, it still hasn't dawned on people when the corpus head of a person is eating on some flesh of, and why are they eating flesh any curiosity because that's a return to the dead thing.
Are they needing brains or just have a desire to eat. That's why the daughter's head just wants food.
Could you ever, well he gave her spaghetti with like a, like a hawk of ham on it. A lot of spaghetti. Another reality is when the police commissioner walks in and sees the dead mayor on the floor with his neck bitten off.

(32:16):
He doesn't even dawn upon them that maybe Francesco or Nagi have anything to do with it. Just assumes they're innocent. Francesco says, well if you take a mold of our teeth, they're not going to match the teeth marks of those bite marks so I guess it's unsolved.
Like everything else. I don't think that detective was quite bright enough. I don't think that detective was bright enough. I think the only time he might include in was when the car was in the down he was like nobody could drive that car but that was the only I think that was the only time he actually showed any police skill.

(32:43):
One of the scenes that got me was when he's first trying to seduce she, the widow, he's leaving with her and he's trying to say like oh I'm amazing, I'm a biologist, I just go to school, I own a house, do you want to see it?
And as she's walking in he goes, oh we have an ossuary and for whatever reason that's where she's like oh I love to see an ossuary. Now I know what an ossuary is, not everyone knows what that word means so when they all of a sudden come in there like they open it up there's like a room full of just bones and she's just really excited.

(33:11):
And it turned out she was really happy about it but then somehow another, that's where my brain flipped out maybe it's because it was tuning out to allow itself back into reality but what freaked her out in the ossuary because she got back to the box she was like, and then she left a frustrated Rupert.
The ossuary that they filmed in is a real ossuary and the film crew did not know it was real, they thought they had been set up by another crew to film in so they actually reserved this place as some cemetery inside of Italy. So those bones are real human bones on those walls.

(33:44):
And so when they're filming actually what ended up happening was one of the film crew took some of the bones that evening because he thought they were just props. When he found out they were actually real bones he thought he was going to get cursed and brought them back the next day.
Yeah, apparently, in one of the two cemeteries that they filmed in they had to clear away an area to film to make these makeshift graves that were part of the scenes. So they had to empty out those bodies and bones for the for the one locale that they set up in, like for example the the love making

(34:13):
scene on top of the tombstone. Oh yeah, it was an old abandoned cemetery for the entire, for the shoot. It was a deconsecrated cemetery. And that's why they were able to move all the bones and everything.
I think it was a true pervert because that would, there would be nothing that would allow, I mean, again, I think I'm a pretty happening guy but that would not happen at that moment. I would have to, you have to give me a ho-jo, because that would not be happening.

(34:35):
One character we sort of, we didn't really touch or even bring up at all, but there's a major scene with him is his friend. We talked about him, he talks on the phone all the time, but he eventually sees his friend in the hospital, and his friend's been accused of all the murders that Francesco does.
Was that his friend? Again, the theory of this whole thing kept losing me in and out. That was his friend in the hospital. That was his friend in the hospital, which is why it was so powerful when he says, I don't know you.

(34:57):
Wow. Okay. That's the guy when he goes, because Francesco is a public servant and works for the town, he goes to this government office to pick up his wages. He has a sign for them. And the guy that he meets that gives him the wages, that's Franco, the guy that's in the hospital.
I did not know that. Now I learned something new today. This is awesome. Now this movie should be coming together for you. That was the piece you were missing.

(35:21):
No, that was the piece. No, but it certainly explains something that the dialogue didn't explain.
Yeah, which is why it's supposedly, and Francesco kept saying, I'm his only friend, I'm his only friend. And that's why it's supposed to be very powerful that when he's in that surgeon's room and he says, I don't know you, when he's under, it's supposed to tell you that there is something seriously wrong here.

(35:42):
At the point where the dead keep coming in and you see that scene where Francesco is just looking out the window, and he's talking to Franco on the phone actually, when that happens. So you see the dead are like swarming to his place.
On the commentary, the director and the writer are saying that the book that this is based on was a series of single story chapters. So there was no arching narrative in the novel.

(36:13):
They had to create one to try and tie it all together. It's there that he's saying, there is no, the writer says on the commentary, there's no plot. It's all about routine, the boredom of his routine of his boredom, the routine of his life.
And he's telling Franco on the phone, you know, eventually your wife is going to get tired of you and your daughter is going to hate you. So if you get rid of them, you'll be free.

(36:39):
So I wonder if he's saying that to Franco or if he's really saying it to himself, because that's when, and after talking to death, he goes and starts killing people randomly.
That's right. So we don't really talk about that death scene because death tells him to save yourself the effort of killing the dead and just go kill the living.
Exactly. So I think he's trying to pass that same message on to Franco, and then Franco's not accepting it, which is why he then, of course Franco does accept it. Franco kills his family.

(37:07):
Yeah. What? So wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, oh, Frank. Okay. Yep. That's that's now see it's all starting to come together. All these pieces are planning a place for you.
The brain is working on prior data. You're going to be like, this is the movie of the year when we're all said and done.
This will haunt my dreams tonight. This, some scene will come into my dream tonight, whether I ask for it or not. Something will pop its way in there.

(37:30):
Yeah. And so at that point where, like I said, this is the second half of the film where it turns them into American Psycho.
Apparently the producers thought it was way too realistic and serious. So they wanted it to become more ambiguous.
And that's why he starts when he shoots, he's like going pow pow, like he's acting like a little kid.

(37:53):
And the whole scene turns upside down. And before he goes in in his car to start shooting them, you'll notice he falls asleep.
So you don't know if it's a dream sequence or not until the next day when the commissioner or the cop inspector contacts him and says, you know, we had this mass killing, but you're off the hook because we got the guy in custody. He's in a hospital.

(38:17):
That's right. That is right. And so that was after he had went on the complete spree down through the hooker and burned that whole house.
There's two sprees. There's a spree of the cafe and then there's he burns down the hooker, the brothel. Those are two different scenes.
He shoots up the cafe with all those people and the guy that the inspector says he could have done, they believe Nagi had done it and stolen his car.

(38:39):
And of course he's like, he can't drive. And the guy's like, well, I guess we don't know who it is. And they just, no, go away.
The second one, the other one is where he's he meets the third she and she's a she's a hooker, which he doesn't know and has to pay her a quarter million lira.
I don't know if that's how expensive that is. Well, that translates to that's a lot of dollars.
I was like a lot of dollars for us. Excuse me. I'm sorry if I was going to say that. I don't know how much I don't know what the going rate was back then. Now we're all in euros.

(39:06):
So then he gets mad at her and he burns it all down, which you see as reflection in his Volkswagen bug. And that's when he says, yeah, the other guy is our culprit.
Yeah, that was interesting. I think another thing that is probably lost in American audiences, but would have really made a lot of an impact with Italian audiences is the whole idea of his impotency.

(39:32):
He's able to hook up with she constantly throughout the film. And then the idea that he was going to get himself castrated. Oh, yes.
Because the second she character said she could only be with a man who's impotent. And all this is in that whole Italian machismo thing where the hero has to be this Biro guy to win the girl over.

(39:53):
But the fact that he spreads a rumor that he's impotent. So people will leave him alone. That probably had more impact on Italian audience than it would be on us. Like, why would you do this, dude?
Well, I'm still wondering why the doctor was so close to nip and tuck in and then came out with this big ass needle.
It's the same thing. Like you don't do that to another guy. You don't cut off the little junior, right? Instead, I'm going to stab you with this giant syringe that will make you impotent for 30 days.

(40:22):
And then, of course, he meets up with she again. She goes, I've changed my mind. That was an interesting one right there. That was definitely.
I would be like, look, lady thinks he's back. We're doing this thing. But apparently the chemical didn't work because he was able to hook up with the prostitute like three times. Yeah, she said two. He said three.

(40:43):
No, the other way around. She says it was three times. He goes, oh, no, I faked the third time. That's right. So I told you this movie left some interesting and double marks.
Also, one other thing that's interesting, they don't call them zombies. They call them returners. Returners. Yeah. So do you have any theories as to why they do that? Or do you think that's just a language thing?
I think every zombie film needs to differentiate themselves from others. You know, like The Walking Dead calls them walkers, don't they? Yes, they do.

(41:10):
I think in The Walking Dead, we're universe like zombie movies weren't, you know, never existed. But I guess there's gotta be, you know, everyone's got their own take on things.
I like the returners, though. I do think that name is a pretty I mean, so of all the things that was interesting because it did foreshadow. It did foreshadow some things. I think using that name kind of foreshadowed some things in the whole.
I mean, it's just an interesting way of describing coming back. But they sort of dropped the ball when people stopped coming back after seven days or come back like the next day or day after next.

(41:40):
Well, it's also another thing about the fact that it only seems to be this one cemetery. You know, it tells you that this is an isolated incident.
It's an isolated bubble of Francesco's life where it's only there because he told Franco says, why don't you just tell the mayor that the dead are coming back to life? He goes, well, if they do that, they'll take it over and then I'll lose my job.

(42:03):
Which is the most important thing to him. And also, he doesn't want to fill out the form MI-72 or something, whatever the number was. He knew the form number.
Like there's a form number for saying the dead are coming back to life and he didn't want to spend the time to fill it out.
But as far as the zombies go, I like the fact that, you know, like you were mentioning that, you know, he was trying to incorporate the director, the myth of the Mandrake roots to what was bringing these things back to life.

(42:27):
Because they all seem to have roots and vines coming out of them, which reminded me of the way the zombies looked in The Girl with All the Gifts or The Last of Us, where it was fungus based.
Yeah, that was cool. But I was trying to, you know, again, so many parts of this movie were lost on me. But that part to the root, I don't remember, when was that mentioned that the root was the cause of that?

(42:53):
They never mention it for words, but they show scenes. They show scenes where the roots cutting down. Like when the deceased husband, one of the first undead we see, we see the camera follows the root through the ground into his coffin.
And then like he's breaking at the root that's in there. And then also her, when she comes back, she looks like a tree person. Now she's got leaves coming out of her. She's got vines coming out of her.

(43:18):
So they're trying to imply that it is this plant, which obviously only grows in this one cemetery, or it just doesn't grow in cemeteries other places.
Yeah, on the commentary, the director said he wanted to further explain that, but they just didn't have the time or the space to throw it in.
That makes sense.
And I think some of the disjointed things we're seeing about this was, as you mentioned, the book was not a plot driven book. It was like, here's a strip, here's a few panels, here's a quick story that happens.

(43:46):
And I think that's why it's so disjointed. Like I was mentioning the Archie comics, not the Archie comics, but more like a family circus where every week it's something different.
Or Archie comics where it didn't matter what book you read, it all resets to zero the next time you pick up another book.
I think that's what we were, that this happens with this story as well, is that it feels very disjointed and they try to create a plot that works within it.

(44:07):
Because there's no adversary, there's no foe that he's up against. It's just him.
The moment that the whole thing fell into place, because like I said, I watched this four times in a row, listening to the commentary, the director, he mentions that the creation of death, the way it was put together and the way it looks,
was his homage to Terry Gilliam because he works as a second year director on Baron Munchausen.

(44:33):
So then it all fell into place to me like, oh, we should be looking at this as like a fantasy Gilliam film.
This is Brazil. This is Baron Munchausen. This is Time Bandits. You can't expect reality in this film because I could see how people would get very frustrated watching this, as I can see with Fergal here.
But once you look at it as like, it's just reality doesn't play into this. It's whatever, it just goes with the flow. It's a Terry Gilliam type film. Then it all fell into place for me.

(45:05):
I was just surprised they got some interesting actors for this movie. They do, you know, both in Italian and American and British cinema, they got some pretty big name actors on this movie.
I mean, the guy who played in Underworld, he played the kind of the source of the vampire werewolf plague. He played the devil. He was the devil. So Derek Jacobi or whatever his name was.
So I mean, Rupert Everett, you know, they got some pretty decent sized names for a movie that I had never heard of, quite frankly, that's only on Shudder that I was like, and then right after it, I'm watching Retreat from the Sun.

(45:35):
It rolled my algorithm into the next crazy ass movie. And it was vampires trying to retire and live in the sun.
The person that played, I can't think of his name right now, but the person who played the police inspector, like he's a very famous actor. He's been like a hundred films, lots of film, The War.
He was blacklisted in the 50s for a short period. He had to go over to Europe to start doing films, but he apparently had a very huge career in Hollywood in the 40s and then the 50s before he got kicked out for a while.

(46:09):
And for being such an unusual, unusual story that no one has ever heard, really just the author, the story, the illustration, just all of it, really not a big audience in America for something like this.
Because as you said, 10 theaters, there have been two movies adapted from this guy's work. So I mean, at the end of the day, you know, you've got Cemetery Man and you've got Dylan Dogg.
And what you showed us, James, is that it's still crossing over in adaptions with DC. So I mean, there's the interesting influence of things you can't possibly see, right? Like it just, it's amazing because I'll look for that comic.

(46:42):
I'm always, I'm a huge Batman fan, sans Gotham Knight comic. So I will look for that book just now just because I want to see what, how they incorporate Dylan Dogg into that story.
You know, you kind of touched on how this movie doesn't flow like a traditional story. You're right. You can't go into it thinking, I'm looking for the antagonist, I'm looking for the big villain. It's just surreal. So pacing is very important in a movie like that.

(47:04):
I think it was just all over the place. I don't think it was quick. First off, it did go slow, but it went slow because you were constantly going a 10 second back going, what the fuck did I just see?
And you were trying to 10 second that shit back, turn the volume up, make sure you didn't miss some critical exposition. So I was literally breaking the fourth wall every time I was looking at this movie.
This movie is 100 minutes long and Fergal spent 300 watching it.

(47:27):
Oh, sweet Jesus. Again, for everyone, don't watch while you're trying to do something else.
It jumps from scene to scene and it doesn't give you time to catch your breath because you're like, wait a minute, what just happened? Wait a minute, what's happening now? Wait a minute, what's now what's happening? It just keeps going at a fever pace.
You know me so well, James.

(47:48):
James, I think you hit on it. For me too, it was, I don't think it was slow, but I don't think it was fast either. Like I was watching and it just felt like as soon as a scene was done, I'm trying to digest it a little bit, I'm on to the next thing.
And I don't have time to digest what I just saw. But at the same time, I didn't need the time to digest what I just saw because no matter how much I spend on it, there's no interpreting it. It just happened.

(48:09):
Like there's no way to figure out how it connects as a puzzle piece because there is no puzzle to connect together. Just enjoy the pieces landing in front of you is what really what the movie is about. So like I say, pacing wise, I can't say it was too fast or even too slow. It is. It is what it is.
There's a scene, and you mentioned briefly, where when she comes back and looks like the best poison ivy cosplay I've ever seen, and they start making out, she actually bites him.

(48:35):
She does. She does.
So you're not expecting that the protagonist of the film is going to get a bite taken out of him. And then later on in the movie, there's a scene where the wound is missing.
And I thought, okay, they're trying to show that this is all in his head. But no, on the commentary, they say that was continuity error. They forgot to put the wound in. But then the wound comes back when he's with the third version of she as the prostitute and they're in bed together. You see the wound there.

(49:07):
Well, that's because you shouldn't do ASSA when you make Italian movies.
This guy's daily life is to kill zombies or the returners. He already killed her because she got bitten.
Well, he says he killed her and she wasn't a zombie.
So he thought the bite killed her because she did die. In actuality, he killed her when she wakes back up in the ossuary. But that aside, so he's going to that moment thinking, if I get bitten by her, I'm dead.

(49:35):
But he's like, no, F it. I'm just going forward. I like tree lady. We're gonna have some fun.
But he does mention that a bite doesn't kill you. He doesn't know for certain if he will have to die in order to come back as a zombie. But that one bite isn't going to do it. But if anything happens to him in the future and he dies, he doesn't know whether or not he's going to come back.

(49:59):
I thought that bite was what was driving him to madness. This is before I realized that there was nothing to really understand about the movie. So I thought, oh, you got bitten by this or she's a witch because she came back.
And it's like he got bitten by her. Now he has poison in his body, but didn't kill him. So that's why he starts seeing death. That's why he starts being a little crazy.
I was like, that's the story. That's the story we're thinking about here. Like, this is the driving fact. No, I'm completely wrong. He gets bitten. It gets healed. That's it. We don't even mention again later on.

(50:25):
But I really thought in that moment, that's what was driving this movie was it wasn't just like I'm a zombie killer. It's I'm the cursed zombie killer. Like when I die, I'm coming back and someone's got to kill me. That's right. That's where I thought the plot was going to go because I wanted this movie completely blind.
That's a good theory.
And probably burned one of your retinas as you were watching it.
We spoke about the effects a little bit. How do you feel the special effects for? I mean, this movie is 30 years old.

(50:52):
Oh, yeah, that that threw me. That's part of the reason why it was it took me a long time. Movies that are historically done bad, right? Now, there are a few good horror movies that hold up. Well, like you mentioned Evil Dead. That holds up well.
Evil Dead 1, Evil Dead 2, even though the horror is stupid and snarky, it just flows extremely well. And that goes to Sam Raimi's eye. That goes to the vision.

(51:17):
This movie was I think they didn't get the best FX guy, but they did the best they had. And I think that coupled with the 35 millimeter shot frame, I think it just didn't hold up as well in today's like on shutter.
It just didn't look as good. Like it was a little hard. The volume was a little off. Plus, the horror was like it was the boobs that saved the whole thing. It's also on Tubi. Go watch it on Tubi again. You'll be fine.

(51:42):
I got to watch Tubi now. She is the best effect in the whole film. Woo, Jesus Lord have mercy. I might just watch them both again. Like the blood in that movie, those were not real.
No, come on. Was that early plastic surgery? Are you going to give me some DVD commentary on this right now? There was an interview I watched for saying that when she was a kid, she was picked on for being small. So she went that route.

(52:04):
Don't take this from me. You just took this from me. You just took it right from me.
One of the effect scenes that I really enjoyed was when, and they don't explain why they would bury somebody in a motorcycle, but when the motorcycle comes out of the grave and then picks up that girl and then she allows him to eat her and she tells

(52:28):
Francesco, look, I can let anybody eat me that I want. That was a piece of dialogue. That scene is when you realize that they know they're not making Shakespeare. Yeah.
No. He's bursting out of his tomb in a motorcycle with a helmet and because it's all shadows at first, it looks like the devil. But then when the light gets on, it's just his helmet. It's cut in half already.

(52:52):
And yeah, where his head is placed when he's devouring his ex-girlfriend and she says, oh, I'm letting him eat me. You're like, they know they're just messing with us now.
His makeup is an interesting combination of the plant theme that we've been seeing throughout the whole film, but he also has parts of the motorcycle incorporated into him. So it looks like a plant Borg human.

(53:13):
And who buries their kid with their full motorcycle?
When they were running through the coffins, I was like, are you, I was waiting for a new Palumpa to show. Are you fine? I was like, are you serious? Are they seriously, is Nokia going to be putting a motorcycle on the ground?
So what is your guy's theory about what this whole movie is actually about? Because we haven't mentioned it. The last shot is their inside of a snow globe.

(53:39):
Wait, wait, wait. No, that's not actually happening. Are you what? Come on. I, I, I rewind it back twice. They drove through the, they drove to the mountains. They stopped. He hit the bump itself bump. And then he stopped the car and then he threw it.
Then the luggages went over the side of thing and then he banged his head and he's like, and then Nokia said, can we go home? Were they really in that snow globe? Where was the snow?
But yeah, they're in a snow globe. So zooming out and it looks like they're inside of a snow globe. What's, what's your theory on this movie? Are they in a snow globe? Is this some sort of hell that they're in? What is all about?

(54:07):
My theory is that they're in their own pocket universe, Francesco and Nagi, because all throughout the film, Francesco cannot connect with human beings. I mean, the man reads the phone book. That's the only book that he reads.
And he works in a cemetery. He starts rumors about himself. So people believe him alone. His only friend is Nagi and he doesn't understand if the world really exists.

(54:32):
So when he goes through that tunnel, because he says, I wonder what the world is like out there. When he gets through the tunnel, the road, the highway ends, the turnpike ends.
So there's nowhere to go. And so he understands that, well, they're stuck. This is where they are. They have no place to go but home.
So the snow globe is just a metaphor. It's just an interpretation of the fact that they're stuck in their own private purgatory and they're never going to break out of this.

(55:04):
And listening to the commentary kind of confirms this because the ending was just supposed to be a happy ending where they're leaving the town.
They're going forth to whatever the challenge of the future holds for them. But the writer and the director didn't like that. They wanted to add something else, some kind of twist.
And that's where they came up with the idea that the highway ends and there is no future. There is no reality. There's nothing out there. It's just them.

(55:32):
And the snow globe was an homage to Citizen Kane with Orson Welles.
I was actually thinking that too. I was like the only connection I could make with that was Citizen Kane because there's a lot of homages in this movie.
Oh yeah.
But I didn't see the commentary. So all I thought was happening was that this was a type of purgatory and essentially people get raised in the dead. They've got to go through their own hell.

(55:55):
They've got to learn some lesson that lets them leave eventually, which means they die in this purgatory, which lets them go to the next world.
And because he keeps killing them as they keep coming back from the dead, he's ruining Death's plans. And that's why Death steps in and is like, dude, stop doing that. You're not helping me out here.
The snow globe, I'm lost. I can't even provide effective, wonderful commentary except the end of the movie just left me with questions, not answers. But I did not see the snow globe at all.

(56:23):
Well, Fergal, I hope you do. Next time you go watch it, you can see boobs in the reflection of the snow globe. They'll draw you in.
Will there be a next time? That's the question of the day.
If I tell you there are boobs in a snow globe, would that make you watch it again?
No, no. I'll find her boobs and I'll stop at that point, but I'm not sure I could endure this movie for another hour and a half. I just feel like it makes my stomach a little twisty. And I'm like, holy cow, what is going on here?

(56:46):
Oh, I was going to make one comment because there's an interview with her on the Blu-ray. She had a very, I don't know if anybody, if you guys agree with me, but she had a very baby like face in this film. She looked extremely young.
And she's now, I think, 52. I think she looks better now that she's grown into her looks. She looks like a mature woman. But when she first appears, to me, she looks like, if it wasn't for that brick house body, I would think she's a young child.

(57:20):
She does kind of have a teenager's face, which is why I think they probably chose her for that, just because they make it so stark that she was married to this elderly man.
And she admits that she had a cartoon-like body. She says it in an interview. I could see why they chose me because I look like a comic book character.
I really wish I had this commentary. Normally, I spend some time going over production things, production decisions, but obviously I didn't have too much of that. But I do have two things I want to ask you guys. So this movie's original title was De La Muerte de la, was it?

(57:51):
De La Muerte de la More.
Thank you. That was the original title, which means, you know, Of Love, Of Death, changed to Cemetery Man because Americans don't understand that. But the Spanish title was translated to My Fiance is a Zombie. What's the better title of those three?
Oh, Cemetery Man, because then you're left clueless as to what the hell this movie's about. I think anything beyond that, you have to leave it as ambiguous as possible so that you can just stay lost from beginning to end, which is what you'll do.

(58:19):
It reminds me of what the studio wanted called Beetlejuice. The title they wanted was House Ghost, which is just terrible. So because I'm really big into Euro Horror, I had no problems with De La Muerte de la More.
I think it hits better. It really does. Now, My Fiance is a Zombie would be even more confusing since he's never engaged to anybody. Oh, wait, no, he does get engaged to the second one, the second she.

(58:45):
The other one is that when we talked about it was only it was released in less than 10 theaters in the US. And there's a reason why. No distribution company wanted to pick this movie up. So early in the production of this movie, there was an American company saying we will distribute this for you if the main casting of Francesco is Matt Dillon.
Really? He wouldn't have did it. I don't think he would have did it. I think this movie confuses too many people. I think you need a European actor for a European movie. I think that's why you don't see any American actors in this movie.

(59:16):
We do make our own fair share of crazy ass movies, but this movie pushes so many boundaries. I just think it doesn't work without the cash that it has. Yeah, I don't think Matt Dillon could have pulled off the dark humor Rupert Everett did.
And of course, the writer said it was Rupert or nobody. So they passed on that, which is why it wasn't distributed anywhere in the United States effectively.

(59:38):
And broadly, this was shown at a horror festival in Europe. I can't remember the name of the festival, but on the board, the jury was a who's who of horror. They had John Carpenter, Tobe Hubert, a bunch of other people, and they all gave this the best prize, the jury prize award.

(01:00:01):
The audience, they nominated, they gave it the award for the audience prize at this festival. And that I think would have sold it. I think the fact that Martin Scorsese called this the best horror movie of the 90s.
There were a lot of people that were pushing for this film. So I don't know how that didn't play into a distributor's reasoning for not releasing this film.

(01:00:24):
The budget for this movie is $4 million. The gross was $250,000.
Wow. That says, and again, if you look at movies that are like this, and you mentioned, I believe it's buried alive, Peter Jackson's movie and platform and movies that sort of fall into this kind of crazy genre, they may not have the biggest groupings, but they have pretty damn...

(01:00:46):
Because if you go on the Reddit pages, there's a pretty substantial and deeply loyal following to this movie that will defend it till it's day gone by as one of the best pieces of black humor or dark humor, dark horror humor, like written or put out there.
People that are into Euro horror, this fits in very well with that because the guy, the director, Michele Suave, he was an actor who appeared in a ton of horror films. He worked either as an actor or as a second unit director for guys like Dario Argento, Lamberto Bava, Mario Bava's son, Lucio Fulci.

(01:01:27):
He worked with all the big names in horror gore. And it didn't occur to me until after I saw the interview with him that, oh, I know this guy. He was in Demons. If you've seen the Lamberto Bava film Demons from 1985, he's the guy who's wearing this metal mask who's giving out free movie passes to people in the beginning of the movie.

(01:01:50):
And then they go to the movie and then they get attacked by zombies. If you guys haven't seen Demons, that is this to like times 10.
I put on my Halloween evening watching for trick or treaters.
Gosh almighty, that may lessen the amount of folks coming to your door today.
That needs more candy for myself.

(01:02:11):
That was the plan all along.
What do you guys love about this movie? What could they have done better?
Well, I think the absolute absurdity of it is the thing that stands out to me. And I think, again, I, despite really just being like, what the fuck?
I enjoyed several scenes in this movie repeatedly because I was like, what the? And again, the entire movie was breaks of typing emails, looking up, going, what the fuck? And rewinding and just slowing everything down so I could see what I just watched.

(01:02:40):
I was gracefully and demurringly discussing this movie today. But and despite myself, I'm always impressed when you can get multiple what the apps out of my mouth in a movie that that was good.
Other than that, what the F was this movie? I just I'm left with more questions than answers.
That's just I'm just in a position where, as I said, this will seep into my brain somewhere, probably like the village people are only for a few days will bounce around there.

(01:03:06):
Well, it sounds like it made an impact on you.
It's certainly dead.
I could see how people could get easily frustrated with this. And I totally agree with everything you guys have been saying.
I like the ambiguity. I like the fact that it makes you think about what's going on. It makes you come up with your own theories.
Yes, I agree. It could have used maybe a little bit more explanation, a little bit more to tie all the pieces and scenes together.

(01:03:33):
It's crazy. And I love crazy movies.
I actually enjoy this movie in the sense of like, it's it's nuts. It's crazy. Right. It is an experience.
What they could have done better was going into it, knowing what I'm getting into, which is why I think it's a cult film.
Versa did well in the box office because in the box office, if I were to see this and paid the ticket price to go see this, I'd be like, what did I just pay for?

(01:03:57):
Yes, there are many movies, especially my college years, we would watch over and over and over again.
I knew it was absurd. I knew I was getting into, which means I could enjoy it more.
I know, James, you saw this thing four times this weekend. I can only imagine the fourth time was better than the first time because I can tell you for experience the first time I was like, do I like this?
I'm not sure. By the end, I'm like, OK, I do like it. Now that I've been thinking about it, but I think I need to see it more times to really appreciate all the aspects of it.

(01:04:24):
But I don't think I'm ready to do it again anytime soon.
I think you said what the fuck the first time you said I think you sat in the room. Hopefully your kids didn't come in and you were just like, what?
And you were you were hitting the rewind button just like I was. You were like, what? What the fuck?
I just turned the volume up a little bit.
It's funny you say it. So I watched it on Tubi, but I did not log into Tubi because I did my PlayStation.
I didn't log into Tubi when I did it. And Tubi, the moment you pause the movie and leave it to come back in, it forgets where you were.

(01:04:48):
So I rewatched the beginning a couple of times.
That may be even better at that point.
Can we mention the the Brandon Routh film?
Dylan Dogg. Have you seen that?
I have not, but I got to, you know, again, because after you get so my preparation process today, as I've clearly described in this show, was, you know, I'm going to pop this one in today because I feel like, you know, these last movies we've been, you know, and I've taken it for granted.

(01:05:14):
We've been able to go through movies. I've seen 150 times. I don't even have to watch it. I know every scene of this movie in my head.
But this one, I had to stop and a hundred minute movie took a little bit longer for me to get through. And then I was like, well, let me.
And so I know there's a paranormal investigation and others ghosts. I know he's trying to make deals and do things. So I'm going to go probably find that movie at some point.

(01:05:35):
I'm going to take myself a break because I want to get a little bit of, you know, therapy on what I just watched. And then I'm going to make another venture that this guy's work.
I tried watching it. I it's such a comparison if you take the beginning of Cemetery Man and the beginning of the Dylan Dogg film, the beginning of Cemetery Man.

(01:05:57):
He hears a knock at the door, he opens the door and he shoots a zombie in the head in less than the first minute of that film.
The Brandon Routh film takes 10 minutes for anything to happen. And it just I just stopped after 10 minutes because he's dragging.
I felt like it was half an hour, but only 10 minutes had passed and I couldn't get into it.

(01:06:18):
Ralph seems like he's playing a frat boy cosplay of Dylan Dogg. He's not even dressed like the character.
That's interesting. I think that first scene does a lot to set the stage for this movie is about. It's sort of casually kills the zombie.
And then the way he talks on the phone, it really sets the tone. So I can't imagine this movie without a similar scene in it.
And that's a great segue because the next question I have you guys is should they remake this movie? I mean, it's been 30 years, so enough time has passed.

(01:06:45):
I'm not sure they should have made it in the first place, but they did. They're discussing it.
I think the Italian or the European audience would love to see a good Dylan Dogg film.
I read some bad reviews of the Brandon Routh film. It wasn't well received there. They didn't capture the feel of the character.
But as far as remaking Cemetery Man, I love the low budget aspect of it. I don't think you could do it by throwing money at it.

(01:07:13):
I think you're right. I think it would lose some of its charm. A lot of these I find with horror movies of this level, these cheap ones.
In this case, we said how much it was? $8 million? What was the budget on this thing again? $4 million.
Something like that. It was dirt cheap money, essentially. That they have to make hard decisions on how they're going to do certain shots, what kind of effects that work.

(01:07:34):
The fact they leaned into the fact that they did not have the budget for this glossy movie makes it work.
I think you would lose that to go remake it. They come in and want to make it slick, more explosions, an explanation as to why they're inside a schnuggler.
Should we talk about the crow? Should we talk about the crow in that same bro?
I have not seen the new crow yet. For those of our listeners who have not listened to our episode on the crow, I highly recommend it because I say the phrase, hot topic the movie way too many times.

(01:08:02):
Maybe this could be done as some kind of streaming show where they could really expand the fact, they could really expand the separate vignettes into making them their own episodes.
Having a whole episode of just about the zombies, one just about the massacre, one just about the fact that the girl keeps coming back. That could work maybe.

(01:08:25):
Maybe lean into the fact that it was a strip comic. Do just that little vignette, that little vignette would be an episode. Then every episode just effectively resets because there was no continuity between.
There was no meta behind it. From what I understand, I've never read the books, of course.
The only sad part would be if they did remake this, there wouldn't be as much boob.
No, and you could not get those number one rated perfect boobs come back after all. Really, would you want to see those number one rated perfect boobs at 52?

(01:08:54):
And Anna Felchi also has very deep regard for this film. She loves this film. Anna, who plays she?
Oh, wow. Everybody who played in this movie, you can look back at articles they've written about her, articles they've been involved in.
They all love it, right? And again, I want to be very clear and very, very clear.

(01:09:15):
This movie may not have done well in the US, but it had an audience and it continues to have an audience. And all you got to do in case anybody's wondering, is go to your Reddit, go to your Quora, go to any one of your sites and type this movie in.
And you will find even IMDb gives this a seven, which is, you know, considering where Joker came in. I'd consider that to be a win. The new Joker 2, by the way.

(01:09:38):
Yeah, well, anything seven and above on IMDb is simply a good sign. Well, it's a cult movie. The people who love it. It's like people who love watching the army, army darkness. They'll watch it over and over and over and are evil dead, too. They'll watch it over and over again.
I was one of those people. So would you guys recommend people go, our listeners go seek this movie out, go find this movie and go watch it?
Only on copious amounts of some drug to allow you to truly enjoy what you're going to ride.

(01:10:05):
I could only recommend this to people who have already have a gateway into this type of movie. Like you said, if you like Evil Dead 2, you might like this. But I wouldn't say go from this to Evil Dead 2. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, you got to get a foothold in those kind of crazy kind of black comedy films before you jump into something like this.

(01:10:29):
Agreed. Yeah, this is kind of like expert level on the skill tree of crazy.
Tell me what would have been perfect in this particular area.
So I would say if you like horror movies, if you like low budget horror movies from that era, from the 80s and 90s, I'm not talking ones like now, you probably should go find this movie.

(01:10:51):
It probably is right in your wheelhouse. But if you are, I like watching G.I. Joe and Transformers. No, don't go find this movie. It's not, it is not going to be your flavor.
I love G.I. Joe and Transformers and I'm flavorful. I took some flavor from this movie.
We can tell you, you don't want to see it again. So guys, before we're done for the day, how would you rate this movie?

(01:11:13):
I'm going to give it a 10 for tits. I'm going to give it a 10 for having to slow your day down. I'm going to give it a five for what the hell was I watching?
And I'm going to give it a two for special effects, but add an extra six because it does some crazy shit in my mind. That's the movie, folks.
That's the exact film. How does it translate into thumbs? That isn't a thumb. So that's the problem. It's all in your mind. It's a snow globe. It's not even a thumb.

(01:11:37):
This is exactly what I'm talking about. I would say I give this a thumbs up to guys that are into cheap horror.
I give it a thumbs up for women who like to see romance because it does have romance.
You've got this guy pining for this girl and it's an eternal love of his life. And she keeps showing up and they do hook up eventually.

(01:12:01):
I give it a five for coherence, for making sense. But I give it a nine for just drop some kind of substance and just go with the flow.
Just follow it around. Let it take you where it wants to take you and just drink.
That makes sense. I would say if you like the idea of American Psycho, Donnie Darko, Army of Darkness, put in your Ninja Blender and left there for about 30 minutes and you came back to it.

(01:12:34):
If you like the sound of that, go see this movie. It's probably a good thumbs up for you. If on the other hand you say to yourself, I do not like one or two of those movies, it's probably not going to be your speed.
Before we head out though, I do want to go over a quick mailbag for you. I want to get your reaction to it.
This one comes to us after our Atomic Blonde episode. And James, you can chime in on this too if you want to.

(01:12:58):
I enjoyed that episode.
Oh good. So this comes in after our Atomic Blonde episode.
Lori has a lot of personality. Her voice goes right through the truck to the traffic noises. I'm being passed by a loud trailer right now.
I can't hear Jeremy, but I can sure hear what she says. That is our review.
That's just that, you know, I will say Lori is amazingly gifted at ensuring her voice is heard through all levels of traffic. Thank God for that, because it's like my wife.

(01:13:28):
I've never had a, we've never had a review that relates us to the traffic noises of who they're driving around. So I will take that as a win for us.
Except Jeremy, we got to increase the gain on your mic because obviously the truck drowns you out.
If I could give a review of that episode, I found her kind of frightening because she's so enthusiastic about the fighting.
I think she mentioned at one point that she was into martial arts as well.

(01:13:52):
She's a black belt in three forms of martial arts.
Yeah, I would not want to get on her bad side.
She's a very small Ronda Rouse. I'm going to throw this out there for those who are old enough to enjoy this show.
She's a very small Ronda Rouse. She's one of those, she's one of those like ladies that was from the old school.
Ronda Rouse, not the lady that's the kickboxer in the new movies, but the old school, the one who's Ronda Rothnick.

(01:14:14):
I knew I was going to say her name correct. Rothnick.
You know what I'm talking about. Little short lady with the blonde hair who just kicked everybody's ass.
Cynthia Rothrock.
Cynthia Rothrock. Yeah, she's a very small Cynthia Rothrock. I would not want to see her.
Yes, they'll whoop your ass.
So James, I want to thank you for being with us today again. So where can people find you?
You can find me at jamesbabow.com where I usually post about the conventions I've done and the books that I have coming out.

(01:14:40):
You can also follow me on Facebook, James Babow, Instagram, same.
And I usually post news of upcoming releases and Moses Militia and the Punchliner will be continuing.
And I have something new in the works that is horror. But I can't say anything about it yet until I actually find a publisher.

(01:15:02):
And I hope to soon.
Thanks, James. And we will make sure all those links are in the show notes for the episode.
On top of that, if any of our listeners want to find any information on our guests, we now have a tab for that on our website, movie-smash.com.
Where you can find any of the guests that have joined us over the years. And Fergal, where can people find you?
You can always find me at Get Your Nerd On, Gotham Night Comics on Facebook page. You can find us on IG at Get Your Nerd On.

(01:15:26):
And really at this point, you can find me on the dopest movie commentary show that is online called movie-smash.com.
And obviously we're just out here making magic. That's all I can say. It's a magical thing.
So for me, you can always find me at All Panel Creations where I'm always over there building some piece of nerdy furniture.
So we want to thank you, our listeners, for spending some time with us today. And if you have any thoughts on why Cemetery Man is your favorite horror movie and it's better than anything else that's out there right now, just send us a note at movie-smash.com and we'll see you in a couple of weeks.

(01:15:58):
Thank you again for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.
This has been Movie Smash with Chris Roberts, Jeremy Parmentier, and Fergal Amayo, produced by me, Chris Roberts, executive produced by Off Panel Creations, LLC.
Movie clips provided by their respective studios.
You can rate and review the show at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
You might even find your review right on a future episode.
Got a question for us? Visit us at movie-smash.com and send us a note. It too can be read on a future episode.

(01:16:23):
If you haven't already, please subscribe to Movie Smash wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Am I telling the truth or not? We'll never know Fergal. I'm just trying to ruin your day.

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