Welcome back, Boils & Ghouls...
... to the fourth instalment of "Wicked Watch Wednesday" in which I aim to recommend something wonderfully wicked for you to watch EVERY WEDNESDAY between now and October 31st !!
Having begun this series of posts with a look at George A. Romero's original "Trilogy of the Dead", comprised of "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), followed by "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) and then "Day of the Dead" (1985), for the first few episodes of "Wicked Watch Wednesday", I'm sure that some of you (at least) will have expected me to feature "Land of the Dead" (2005) this time around. However, those of you who read those earlier posts might also recall my mentioning that, without the original "Night of the Living Dead" (NoTLD) and it's sequel "Dawn of the Dead", there may never even have been a "Shaun of the Dead"... and there is one movie (in particular) which I feel links those earlier films with the 2004 effort by Edgar Wright, rather nicely. So, instead of another movie from the legendary George A. Romero, this time I've decided to offer what I consider to be the "missing link" to Simon Pegg & Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead" movie. Originally released on 25th March 1994 to Italian audiences, under the title of "Dellamorte Dellamore", it was over two years later (26th April 1996) before the film hit cinemas in the USA under the (perhaps) now more familiar title of "Cemetery Man"... but, when it did, here is the movie poster which would have greeted cinema-goers:-
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ORIGINAL USA POSTER.....................IMAGE SOURCE: Wrong Side Of The Art
Directed by Michele Soavi, and starring Rupert Everett, Anna Falchi, François Hadji-Lazaro, Mickey Knox, Anton Alexander, Stefano Masciarelli and Fabiana Formica (amongst others) plus Alessandro Zamattio, in the role of 'Claudio', together with Katja Anton (as Claudio's girlfriend) and Patrizia Punzo (as Claudio's mother). The film follows the exploits of Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett), who is the guardian of the cemetery of Buffalora, a small town in the north of Italy, where corpses rise from the tombs leaving the "Cemetery Man" with the task of taking their lives for a second time to return them to their rightful place !! Anyway, for those yet to see this "cult classic", here's a brief taster of the movie courtesy of the 'Shameless Films' trailer:-
If you'd like to know more there's a full list of the cast & credits on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) listing for "Cemetery Man", FOUND HERE, which also includes a full storyline / plot summary as well as box office stats, technical specs & much more. For die-hard fans, there is even more information to be had from the Wikipedia Page for "Cemetery Man", VIA THIS LINK, which may help to fuel your appetite for another screening. Although, if you're as much of a fan as I am, you probably won't take too much persuading to watch it again !!
As with many of the films I've highlighted thus far, the best recommendation I can make as to which of the available Roku channels you could use to watch this movie is to suggest "YouTube" as your first port-of-call on account of the vast number of horror movies which, thanks to this channel and it's associated apps, are now readily available to stream via your Roku player(s) whenever you choose.
YOUTUBE.......................................COST: FREE [Roku Guide Review]
If you haven't already added it to your channel selection, you'll find "YouTube" listed among the "Internet TV" channels in the "Official" Roku UK Channel Store and you can easily add it to your Roku player(s) by navigating to the built-in 'Channel Store' from the home screen and scrolling through the options until you see the (above) channel icon. It's completely FREE-TO-ADD as well as being FREE-TO-VIEW so, once you've located it in the list of channels, just click the "OK" button on your Roku remote to select it and then click "OK" again where it says 'Add channel' to install it on your Roku player(s). Having done that, it's simply a case of launching the channel via the 'Go to channel' option & navigating the on-screen menu to play "Cemetery Man" on your Roku which, for the record, runs to 1h 44mins and can be found at:-
LINK TO MOVIE: "Cemetery Man (1994)" on 'YouTube'
Meanwhile, for more of that cinematic experience, here's a few of the other posters movie-goers & home cinema viewers may have encountered depending on their particular location in the world:-
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ORIGINAL ITALIAN POSTER.....................IMAGE SOURCE: Wrong Side Of The Art
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ORIGINAL FRENCH POSTER............IMAGE SOURCE: Pinterest.com
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The thing I really like about the above selection of posters is how much they differ from one another. I especially like how the Spanish title was changed to "Mi Novia Es Un Zombie", which translates to... "My Fiancée Is A Zombie", because it has that campy "Carry On" feel to it which only serves to embellish the "comedy" aspect of this horror comedy. Even some of the one-liners fall into that sort of category, such as Francesco Dellamorte when he says... "I'd give my life to be dead" and, likewise, his exclamation of... "Someone has stolen my crimes!" but one of my favourites has to be the observation by Francesco that, "The living dead and the dying living are all the same. Cut from the same cloth... but, disposing of dead people is a public service, whereas you're in all sorts of trouble if you kill someone while they're still alive!" - CLASSIC STUFF !! That said, there is also a very "arty" side to this film, as well as a fair amount of "gore" but all done in that oh-so-stylish Italian fashion !!
Anyway, to round-off this fourth instalment of "Wicked Watch Wednesday" on 'Day Twenty-Two' of the annual 'Countdown To Halloween', comes a few more FRIGHTENINGLY FUN FILM FACTS for you... for example, did you know that the ossuary (a crypt for bones) used in the film was a real one?! Or that, supposedly, one of the film crew removed some bones from the ossuary only to return them the very next day... claiming he had encountered an angry ghost following their removal from the crypt !! Further "realism" was achieved by building the cemetery sets for the film on actual abandoned cemetery grounds in Italy !! Also (for connoisseurs of art) the shot where Francesco and "She" are seen kissing in the crypt, with the shroud over their heads, mimics the painting of "The Lovers" by Rene Magritte... so never let it be said we don't offer up a little culture alongside our usual ramblings !!
Still, that's all for today... just remember to come back in 24-hours for 'Day Twenty-Three' and more Hallowe'en-themed content, courtesy of "Another CreatureFeature Guide To Hallowe'en On Roku", when I will reveal the next devilish drink for "Toxic Tipple Thursday", and (again) this time next week for another "Wicked Watch Wednesday" as we continue our "Countdown To Hallowe'en" 2014...
Fangs (as always) for reading !!
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