‘Dead Lover’ (in Stink-O-Vision) @ Northwest Film Forum

If you’re sick of by-the-numbers, four-quadrant mainstream movies that refuse to take chances, then have I got an arthouse freakout for you. Take a whiff of “Dead Lover,” a bizarro sack of Canadian weirdness from actor/writer/director Grace Glowicki (“Tito,” “Strawberry Mansion”).

Glowicki stars as a stinky gravedigger who enjoys her work. Bad news: Nobody will ever love her because of her terrible stench. But when the poet brother of a recently deceased opera singer takes in a noseful of the gravedigger, he can’t get enough of her and her dirt-encrusted body.

BUT ALAS! He drowns at sea… but his severed finger washes ashore, so our pungent protagonist builds a machine to recreate her lover… with unintended consequences.

Shot in sumptuous 16mm, “Dead Lover” is a lovingly lo-fi combination of German Expressionism, performance art and community theater that queers the f*ck out of the Frankenstein mythos. It is barkingly mad, riotously kinky, delightfully handcrafted and devastatingly romantic. To wit: The lover is played by none other than Glowicki’s real-life husband; I guess this is their kink.

Now you can experience one of 2025’s best movies with a bonus twist: Stink-O-Vision! Select screenings (including this one) include a scratch-and-sniff card to go along with the plot, featuring such pleasant aromas as “milkshake,” “opium” and “ghost puke.”

If my recommendation isn’t enough, consider the list of weirdos that have been hosting the film’s Q&As in New York and Los Angeles: gross-out comedian Sarah “Squirm” Sherman (“Saturday Night Live”), actor/writer John Early (“Search Party”) and filmmakers Vera Drew (“The People’s Joker”), Amanda Kramer (“Please Baby Please”) and Bruce LaBruce (“Gerontophilia”). The movie isn’t for everybody, but the world would be a more interesting place if it was.

Get stinky with Grace Glowicki.