Dead Romantic

Can’t find the perfect boyfriend? Then why not build one? That’s the opportunity offered to Camille. She may be naive, but sees a passion and honesty about school-freak Zoe that Camille’s so-called friends lack. The fact she meets her when Zoe is digging something up in a graveyard only intrigues Camille more, despite the rumours that Zoe’s dad was a crazed scientist who murdered people for his experiments, before being locked up in a mental asylum.

After Zoe demonstrates in a dissection class that she can bring dead hamsters back to life, Camille helps her gather the parts for a bigger project, one that will prove Zoe’s father was a genius: to create and animate a boy – and if he can be the perfect, gorgeous boyfriend for Camille, who will make everyone jealous at school and show her what love really is, so much the better.

But Camille finds there’s only so far you can go before morals and second-guessing a potentially psychotic friend start making you nervous. Soon she’s wondering if maybe true love is lurking in a heart that’s already beating, and what it means to be a friend.

By turns hilarious and poignant, this dark comedy is pervaded with such sassy, teen-speak candour that few won’t be won over if they lose themselves in the premise.