Grace Glowicki writes, directs, and produces horror comedy Dead Lover, as well as stars as the rotten-smelling gravedigger desperate to find love.
That stench, the gravedigger’s fetid funk, attracts a potential new mate in our exclusive clip from the shot on 16mm film just ahead of its release in select theaters on March 20 via Cartuna x DWECK.
In Dead Lover, Glowicki stars as a lonely gravedigger who stinks of corpses. When she finally meets her dream man (Ben Petrie), 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.
“Dead Lover is a carnal carnival of longing, and its central romance stems from the Lover character’s love for the rank stank of our lonesome hero, Gravedigger. This horndog soliloquy is the first thing we shot, which set the tone aptly for the rest of principal photography,” Glowicki said of the new clip below.
The screenplay was co-written with Petrie and also stars Leah Doz and Lowen Morrow, and is produced by Glowicki, Petrie, and Yona Strauss. Matthew Miller, Olivia Nieuwland, Lexi Tannenholtz, Rhianon Jones, and Tristan Scott Behrends of Neon Heart Productions serve as Executive Producers.
“Dead Lover is pure DIY, playing like low-budget experimental theater with striking gel lighting and sharp contrasts, and minimal set design that lets its wacky characters shine. It’s a film that proudly marches to the beat of its own unconventional drum, all but ensuring it’s destined for cult film status,” I wrote in my capsule review out of SXSW last year.
The filmmaker previously told Bloody Disgusting, “I’d say that the inspiration [for Dead Lover] is probably Monty Python, Mel Brooks, cartoons, exploitation movies, and my love of theater. A mashup of those different inspos.” Glowicki added during our chat, “I’ve become addicted to the freedom that I feel inside this niche genre of practical horror/comedy.”
Glowicki and Petrie also star as lovers in Honey Bunch.