Mousoulis’ fifth ultra-low-budget feature, Lovesick was scripted in Septe mber 2001 and shot the following December, a process recorded in a frank and extensive fil mm aker’s diary which re mains online. That was a little more than two decades ago, both in reality and fiction. T he protagonists of Bill Mousoulis ’ Lovesick (2002) would have been paying even less for their one-bedroom apartment further down the hill, upstairs in a red-brick six-pack, as inner-suburban Melbourne as it gets. I managed it myself for a few years as a recovering arts student, when I moved with a couple of friends into a three-bedroom workers’ cottage off Smith St, total rent just over 200 dollars a week. Those were the days, when you could have no income to speak of and still live in Collingwood. Ages 12 up.“If a viewer understands the story and characters fully, then I have failed.” And given the polished dark-and-deadpan humor, it's a natural fit with Gen Y, too. An elaborate die-cut with stamped acetate on the cover dares readers to laugh at a silhouette of a cartoon girl in an open casket, an effect heightened by the extra-tall trim size inside, pink-and-black graphics liberally adorn the margins, epigraphs to chapter openings, etc. While the author has a built-in fan base from her ghostgirl Web sites, high-impact design will ensure attention from casual browsers as well. Plotlines raise the stakes, putting Hurley's consistent wit to the service of classic themes about claiming identity. Sent to Deadiquette school along with other teen spirits, she skips out, still determined to woo her longtime heartthrob, never mind that "he doesn't even know I'm alive." The jokes stay sharp, from the goth girl who gives her a "make-under" to throwaway lines (caught breaking some cardinal rules, Charlotte mutters to herself, "I'm dead"). Charlotte Usher's plan to catapult herself from the ranks of the invisible to the heights of popularity at Hawthorne High no possibility for allusion goes unturned hits a major snag on the first day of school when she chokes to death on a gummy bear. Hurley, an independent filmmaker, debuts with this glittering comedy, a prime exemplar of what might be called demento mori, a growing subgenre of satire about teens who will not or cannot die.
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