A festival darling, Canadian writer-director Grace Glowicki’s lo-fi gothic comedy is a genuine Frankenstein’s monster, an arthouse curiosity/hybrid of weirdo student-film aesthetics, slapstick gore and oddball poetry. Dead Lover is the story of an unnamed gravedigger, played by Glowicki, a smelly, ‘fetid creature’ who seeks to break her cycle of pungent loneliness when she meets dubious poet Swimmer (co-writer Ben Petrie) after his sister’s funeral. When she gets word that Swimmer has become lost at sea, the gravedigger embarks on a mission to resurrect her lover and satisfy her own desires.

Opening with a quote from Mary Shelley, Dead Lover dives deep into a dank well of psycho-sexual imagery, with seeds, bushes and extremely extended digits. Despite a rather repetitive narrative, the moral feels hopeful rather than grim; when it comes to finding romance ‘never stop digging… maybe love is about digging deep’. 

Dead Lover uses deliberately retro visual stylings, aggressive strobe lighting and dollar-store puppetry to create a seedy love affair that’s willing to delve into body horror and outright necrophilia. For obvious reasons, Glowicki’s gothic romance won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a promisingly offbeat and original piece of dark gallows humour. 

Dead Lover, Cameo, 18 August, 11.55pm; Vue, 19 August, 4.15pm; Filmhouse, 19 August, 8.30pm.