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A legendary tale of horror with legions of fans, The Evil Dead is the kind of moviemaking success story that most independent filmmakers would kill for. Made on a shoestring budget in 1981, Sam Raimi's student-project-turned-cult-classic has gone one to spawn two direct sequels, a 2013 remake and a 2023 followup, not to mention a TV series that spanned three seasons. With that kind of longevity, it's no surprise that Raimi's work has itself gone on to inspire countless directors in the nearly five decades since it was first unleashed. And with Dead Lover, director Grace Glowicki is joining those ranks, in this story of a gravedigger that's part Frankenstein, part Evil Dead II. When we first meet the unnamed 18th-century gravedigger (Glowicki), she's facing a personal dilemma. Being in her chosen profession, she unfortunately wreaks of death and decomposition; and consequently, she's finding it hard to attract a mate on account of her stench. One night, however, after peaking in on a funeral for a deceased opera singer and saving the opera singer's brother (Ben Petrie) from some hungry wolves, she manages to inadvertently find the man of her dreams. But when he dies at sea leaving nothing behind but his severed ring finger, the gravedigger sets about to resurrect him in the most bizarre of ways. Attaching his remaining digit to the corpse of his opera singer sister, the gravedigger manages to bring to life an undead creature (Leah Doz), one that she believes contains — at least, in part — the soul of her beloved, dead lover. What the gravedigger never imagined, though, is just how ghastly and perverted a monstrosity she has actually brought into this world. And when the creature flees the sanctity of the graveyard and goes on a murderous rampage, only the gravedigger — or perhaps the opera singer's grieving widower (Lowen Morrow) — can stop it. Thin on plot but heavy on camp, the result is a twist on Mary Shelley's classic tale that will likely divide viewers, thanks to its minimalist approach to everything from its four-person cast to the barebones set dressing. What should appeal to most audiences, however, is the slapstick horror tone of the whole endeavor, something that cheekily evokes the early genre works of Raimi and Peter Jackson. Make no mistake, if you're expecting a traditional creature feature, you may be in for a disappointment. For those in the mood for a creative example of independent filmmaking, on the other hand, Dead Lover is as spooky and scrappy as it gets. |
Dead Lover screens under the Midnight Madness programme at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. Its runtime is 1 hr. 24 min.
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