Anomaly Film Festival 2025 Coverage
A Useful Ghost review
Thailand brings us a possession story with some new things to say. Maybe…too many new things.
Festival reviews will not contain spoilers.
A Useful Ghost
Directed by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Written by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Starring Davika Hoorne
A Useful Ghost Review
Like every feature film at the Anomaly Film Festival, A Useful Ghost came packed with a short film in its program. This time around, the 21 minute Chilean film Empty Jars opened the show. The thematic fit for the program was possession. Empty Jars is a ghost story that inevitably becomes a possession film. A Useful Ghost is all about possession…but not the kind we’re used to seeing. Empty Jars also puts a new spin on the concept…but it does stick to human possession. After a woman frees a spirit from a marble inside a jar (which sounds weirder than it plays out) a relationship begins between the two. Wanting something more…the woman schemes to find the spirit a body with unintended consequences. This was a fun concept that flew by even though it was the longest short at this year’s festival.
What didn’t fly by was that evening’s feature presentation, A Useful Ghost. Clocking in at the longest 2 hours and 10 minutes in recorded history…there was a lot to like about this movie. You’d just like it more with a tighter edit or snappier pace. A Useful Ghost comes from Thailand…a country whose filmmakers tend to take their time with their storytelling. A Useful Ghost changes genres multiple times within the framework of one story. None of them are shortchanged. You’re going to get full stories whether it’s best for the overall picture or not.
As noted, A Useful Ghost is about possession. Namely, the possession of inanimate objects by whatever ghosts are hanging around. At least…that’s what part of the movie is about. Its best moments come from this concept. A Useful Ghost is downright hilarious when we’re watching a man reconnect with his late wife in her new form as a vacuum cleaner. Even as the story is dealing out effective commentary…it’s intercutting it with another story and setting up a genre change within its own. Comedy eventually gives way to drama. Drama is inevitably replaced by revenge/action/horror.
We appreciate a story that takes multiple swings. A Useful Ghost certainly does that. It just does it in slow motion too often. One minute you’re enjoying a romantic comedy between a man and his household appliance…the next you’re getting a lot of exposition about how everything works. I’m not entirely sure it all added up in the end…the rules of who empowers these ghosts by remembering them is spotty for a plot point treated so importantly.
There’s a lot going on in A Useful Ghost. An entire subplot develops out of that vacuum cleaner stuff that dominates the second half of the story. This is where the pacing of the movie gets itself into trouble. The comedy dries up completely (and on purpose) and we get something more dramatic and, eventually, emotional. It takes a while to get where it’s going…introducing more characters and situations to keep the story grinding in place. While the ultimate payoff is probably worth it…the movie is also busy cutting away to an entirely different storyline. It’s all related, of course. But it’s an awkward way to present a story. Nothing is able to take hold long enough to make a full impact. The second half of A Useful Ghost could have used any of the humor found in the first.
But there are a lot of good things here too. I don’t want it to come across as a negative review. A Useful Ghost is a unique story that takes real chances with the telling of it. The comedy is the clear highlight. It’s so good you might spend some of the second half of the film thinking about the 90-minute comedy cut of the movie you want to give a rave review to. The final emotional beat of the story works despite some missteps along the way. And the surprisingly bloody climax was a nice treat…even if it didn’t feel completely earned. Basically, movies that take chances like A Useful Ghost deserve to be recognized for doing so. Even when some of its swings miss.
Scare Value
There’s no getting around it…A Useful Ghost feels way too long. It shouldn’t. There are some great ideas and equally strong executions in here. They just don’t all mesh together perfectly. If you’re into stories that take chances and, more importantly, dramatically change tone along the way…you’ll find a lot to like in A Useful Ghost. You just might want to watch it in more than one sitting.
