‘Dead Lover’ Trailer – Grace Glowicki’s Directs and Stars in Surreal Gothic Romance Drama

Filmmaker Grace Glowicki directs, co-writes, and stars in the eccentric gothic comedy film Dead Lover alongside Ben Petrie, Leah Doz, and Lowen Morrow.

Inspired in part by the classic themes of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, the Canadian indie film follows a lonely gravedigger whose desperate longing for love leads her into grotesque and increasingly bizarre attempts to revive her dead lover.

Dead Lover first premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Midnight program, and is set to be released in theaters starting on March 20 at New York: IFC Center and Los Angeles at Laemmle Glendale, by Cartuna and Dweck.

In the film, a lonely gravedigger who smells of the dead dreams of finding love despite being shunned by those around her. When she unexpectedly meets a man who is strangely attracted to her scent, the two quickly fall into an intense romance. Their happiness is short-lived when tragedy strikes, and he dies at sea, leaving behind only a severed finger as a reminder of their bond. Determined to reunite with him, the gravedigger turns to strange experiments and homemade science in an attempt to resurrect her beloved. The result is a bizarre and darkly comedic exploration of devotion, loss, and the extreme lengths someone might go to bring love back from the dead.

Director Grace Glowicki has described the film’s distinctive aesthetic as inspired by both theatrical staging and early cinematic styles. Discussing the visual approach to the film, she explained, “Besides budgetary restraints, I wanted to get the kind of attention on an actor you only can get with a spotlight, like in a theatre. It’s the aesthetic of a black-box theatre production but also of German expressionist cinema … where characters are typically spotlit, surrounded by total darkness.”

Writing about the film following its Sundance premiere, RogerEbert.com described the movie as an “exquisitely crafted Gothic comedy-horror.” The review notes that the film “often loses its way, but it also has a visual flair and a carnal power within an immersive world that doesn’t waver. It keeps you coming back for more.”

Watch the official trailer for Dead Lover above.