Filmmaker Grace Glowicki, who starred in last year’s Booger, not only writes, directs, and produces the horror comedy Dead Lover, but she also stars as the central smelly gravedigger desperate for love.
While the film itself cites Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein as a key source of influence, it is a story about a quirky woman willing to go to lethal, mad scientist wizardry to resurrect a lover after all, it quickly derails from that seminal text in favor of something that feels more like a raunchy, comedic stageplay of 19th century Penny Dreadfuls.
“I’d say that the inspo is probably Monty Python, Mel Brooks, cartoons, exploitation movies, my love of theater. A mashup of those different inspos,” Glowicki tells Bloody Disgusting of Dead Lover’s melting pot of influences ahead of the film’s Sundance premiere.
That eclectic mix of influences yields a bizarre, visually inventive comedy horror odyssey, made even funnier by featuring a small cast that takes on numerous roles throughout the film. Sometimes even in the same scene.
Glowicki explains, “I think it came from my love of old comedy troops like Monty Python, and then, of course, SNL. You have a core group of actors and they’re all just rotating through different characters. There’s something about the reference to theater troops and comedy troops. But then, of course, there’s so much comedy when you have, especially in this film, an actor playing against themselves. When the characters run into the nuns in the woods, it’s Lowen [Morrow] versus Lowen [Morrow]. That actor is on both sides of that scene. It’s so funny just to see someone playing opposite themselves.
“There’s a joy, too, when you switch a scene and an actor that you just saw in one form in the scene prior then has this metamorphosis into a different character. I like to see the edges and the frays in the scenes of performance. It’s not my taste to really have a perfect illusion when it comes to performance. I like to see the imperfections and the cracks and the fact that there is a person in a costume pretending to do something, I really get off on that. So, casting it in this way also helps support that, that’s the preference I have for the performance I like.”
Grace Glowicki in ‘Booger’
Collaboration is important to Glowicki, and the filmmaker fostered an environment where all ideas were welcome, especially when it comes to developing characters. The filmmaker gives an example that also doubles as a tease of the exact type of madcap raunchy comedy ahead.
“They constantly would be surprising me,” Glowicki says of her cast. “One thing that comes to mind is Leah Doz, who plays the Creature in the movie when she does her orgasm scene when she’s looking at the nuns 69ing. I think we cut it down a little bit, but she gave this very long orgasm performance, and I remember crying on the other side of the camera just being like, ‘What a freaking nut this actor is.’ I thought it was so beautiful that she felt so safe to just be so wacky and bold and to try something. And that she was trusting me with that and being so funny at the same time. So, that’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
Dead Lover doesn’t coast on the comedic talents of its cast, though; Glowicki maintains visual interest throughout with unique production design, lighting, and bold experimentations with form.
The filmmaker credits her crew for this, “I really wanted to be experimental with the look of the film. It’s all coming from my love of DIY, low-budget experimental theater where you know you don’t have a huge budget, and so that limits what they can do. Then, the creative balls come up inside; those limitations are so beautiful and have such ingenuity. That DIY theater is the aesthetic I was going for. Then, Rhayne Vermette, the DP, has incredible work, and she has a lot of imagery in her past films of characters but in different colors. Often, one color is in the front, and in the back, a different color is surrounded by darkness. So I was inspired by Rhayne’s cinematography and knew she’d be able to just go crazy with Becca Morrin, the production designer who did Strawberry Mansion, that I was in.”
Making films like Dead Lover has only solidified Glowicki’s passion for playing in the genre space.
“In particular, practical horror/comedy has got its teeth in me,” Glowicki says. “When I start to engage more with fans of that cinema, I’m just struck by how free, fun, and dirty it is, and it’s such a joy in that kind of a movie. I’m over realism, and I’m over drama too. Just personally, as a performer and as a filmmaker, I love watching those things, but I’m done making them. So, it’s the most perfect space for me to have fun with practical effects and explore comedy in a rebellious way with the horror element. Because, of course, death and blood and violence have that rebelliousness that comes with exploring that space. But yeah, I’ve become addicted to the freedom that I feel inside this niche genre of practical horror/comedy.”
Dead Lover makes its world premiere tonight at Sundance.
