‘Stinking Heaven’ is a halfway house of horrors

A new arrival precipitously upsets a sober-living home’s already fragile equilibrium in “Stinking Heaven,” a heavily improvised, achingly self-indulgent indie drama directed by Nathan Silver.

Set in suburban Passaic, N.J., circa 1990, the film takes place almost entirely in a house run by newlyweds Jim (Keith Poulson) and the decidedly younger Lucy (Deragh Campbell) for fellow recovering addicts who aren’t exactly living together in harmony when Lucy’s messed-up ex-lover Ann (Hannah Gross) checks in.

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That her presence triggers a downward spiral for many of the home’s hippie-dippy inhabitants doesn’t exactly come as a surprise given all the bickering and bad behavior crammed into its 70-minute running time.

What is surprising is the fact that Silver refers to the production as a “black as tar comedy,” considering the virtual absence of anything that could be taken for humor save for the cheesy, droning sci-fi/horror movie score.

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While the early going might bring to mind the Dogme 95 school of stripped-down filmmaking espoused by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, the result, with its collective of uniformly unsympathetic characters, ultimately overdoses on all the unscripted bad vibes.

“Stinking Heaven.”

No MPAA rating.

Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes.

Playing: Arena Cinema, Hollywood. Also on Fandor.