THE STORY – A lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love.
THE CAST – Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Leah Doz & Lowen Morrow
THE TEAM – Grace Glowicki (Director/Writer) & Ben Petrie (Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 84 Minutes
Power couples are now the latest Hollywood fad. On Oscar nomination morning, both Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold shared a Best Original Screenplay nomination for their work on “The Brutalist.” Last year alone, Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig dominated the box office and walked the red carpet to the Academy with their Mattel-sponsored “Barbie“. Love seems to be the answer to coping financially and creatively nowadays. As more filmmakers turn to their partners for creative consolidation, filmmakers Grace Glowicki and Ben Petrie have already shared the screen together with their own body of low-budget Canadian reveries.
The duo has alternated directorial roles with each new feature film project. Glowicki first entered the scene with her uncompromising debut “Tito” (2019), an intimate character study that transformed Glowicki into the titular agoraphobic protagonist. Last year, Petrie directed his self-referential hybrid feature “The Heirloom” (2024). Glowicki and Petrie play an exaggerated version of themselves in the film as they personify a socially conscientious couple who adopted a rescue dog during the pandemic. With her latest sophomore feature, “Dead Lover” (2025), Glowicki returns to her director’s chair whilst attending to her performance duties as the film’s macabre lead.
Aesthetically, “Dead Lover” is a complete stylistic detour for the couple. Whereas their filmography has largely been confined to dialogue-heavy dramedies, Glowicki switches gears by deliriously paying homage to Mary Shelley and the horror archetypes of old. As the Hollywood empire slowly begins its endless onslaught of public domain adaptations of iconic horror icons, Glowicki, herself, isn’t interested in brooding self-seriousness nor murky colour-grading.
Her vision of Frankenstein shares a similar sardonic tenacity of an early Guy Maddin production. She embraces the role of the lustful grave-digger whilst taking full advantage of her character’s whimsical world. The minimalist production design utilizes a barren soundstage, encouraging viewers to use their imagination to immerse themselves in the film’s artifice. “Dead Lover” is eerily reminiscent of “Tales from The Gimli Hospital” (1988), as both Canadian features augment the rules of period-piece filmmaking through their limited budgets.
Self-taught cinematographer Rhayne Vermette illuminates each unhinged frame with colorful, low-key lighting. The endless grain and emulsion scratches simulate the texture missing from the production design. The implementation of analog technologies amplifies the hallucinogenic ambiance through its flurry of bisexual lighting. The assault of bright colors coincides with the film’s artistic mythos, while the practicality of its visual effects pays homage to the classic techniques of the silent era. Quick-witted cutting and speed-ramping also punctuate some of the film’s iconic climactic punchlines. There’s a clear emphasis on the practicalness and tactility of its methodology, where the film embraces vanguard techniques not usually seen in modern horror pictures.
It also helps that Glowicki and Petrie are both fully committed performers, as they entertain their viewers through their sexualized obscenities and grotesque hijinks. Both performers disguise themselves in the mayhem of reanimation, hiding their Canadian aura with outlandish European accents and outrageous wigs. From the grave, Glowicki sticks to a familiar formula that ends with predictably outlandish results. “Dead Lover” is a fun provocation that embraces its orgasmic retelling of Frankenstein by sticking to the basics.
The film doesn’t pretend to be an innovative re-invention of pre-existing material or try to achieve anything beyond entertaining its audience. As a genre piece, “Dead Lover” succeeds by delivering a consistent comic tone to its edgy narrative. Before Hollywood runs rampant with Guillermo Del Toro’s and Maggie Gylllenhal’s respective interpretations of Mary Shelley’s seminal text, Glowicki officially inaugurates this year’s Frankenstein riff-off with an inventive minimalist spectacle. The film never overstays its welcome, sustaining its short runtime with an insatiable sense of humor. As the damnation of the Western world looms over Sundance, Glowicki reminds her viewers that there’s no harm in having a good, questionable laugh every once in a while. Regardless of the cultural regurgitation of pre-existing iconography, “Dead Lover” stands out from the braindead crowd — embellished by its campy tone and filthy jocoseness.
