"Sometimes dead is better."

Pet Sematary (1989)
Director: Mary LambertStars: Dale Midkiff, Fred Gwynne, Denise CrosbyPlot: A family moves to Maine only to find that their new home is near an Indian burial ground.

The Creed family moves from Chicago to a small town in Maine. The new house is gorgeous and on a large lot, but next to a highway that truckers often speed down. Thanks to their next door neighbor, Jud (who is played by the guy who played Herman Munster in the old Munsters TV show!), they find a pet cemetery on their property for past residents' roadkill. Jud also leads Louis Creed, the father of the family, past the cemetery where the ground is "sour"--an Indian burial ground. Anything buried there will come back to life, but as an evil version of themselves. I'll let you guess what happens next.

Pet Sematary is based on the novel by Stephen King. If you're familiar with King's work, then right off the bat you know the film is going to be bloody and that death of some kind is going to happen to at least one person/animal. You know what I like about this movie, though? There's an Indian burial ground involved, but there isn't a house or some other kind of building on top of it; there aren't any angry poltergeists or ghosts of any kind. It's like a zombie-demon type story. I think the presence of an Indian burial ground but lack of ghosts is refreshing, what do you think?

I found this clip from Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments." There are definitely some spoilers here, but Stephen King and Mary Lambert talk about the story so it's two minutes of interesting people saying interesting things. Plus you get to see the most adorable little evil child ever.

"We all end up here sooner or later."

Cemetery Man, or Dellamorte Dellamore (1994)
Director: Michele Soavi
Stars: Rupert Everett, Francois Hadji-Lazaro, Anna Falchi
Plot: Francesco Dellamorte is the caretaker at a cemetery in Buffalora, Italy. Saving the town from zombies is just one of the perks of his job.

Based off of the Dylan Dog series of graphic novels by Tiziano Sclavia, Cemetery Man is a zombie movie that is more humorous and artsy than scary. Seven days after the dead are buried in the Buffalora Cemetery, they come back as zombies, or "returners," and Dellamorte has to shoot them in the head before they can attack the townspeople and cause him to lose his job.

There is also a romantic element in this movie. Dellamorte is lonely and lusts after a beautiful woman; his assistant Gnaghi is described as, "On his I. D. card it reads, 'Distinctive physical marks: All'" and ends up falling in love with a zombie head. It's kind of like the zombie movie The Return of the Living Dead meets Hitchcock's Vertigo. If this seems like a strange comparison, maybe you should watch Cemetery Man for yourself to see what I mean (I'm trying not to do spoilers here..). Though I suppose I should warn you that there is some intense nudity in this movie. Also, it does get a little darker towards the end.

This short clip captures the comedic The Return of the Living Dead feel that is in the majority of this movie, complete with some festive Italian music in the background.