Sometimes, SFF movie news can feel a little repetitive. You type the words “Marvel” and “DC Studios” and “Disney” over and over again. But not today. Today we get to talk about Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost, which makes its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival later this month and has, at present, a surprising and delightful trailer.
The synopsis doesn’t prepare you for the reality, but it is quite promising:
March is mourning his wife Nat who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family reject the unconventional human-ghost relationship. Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.
As my editor said after seeing the summary, “Woman can’t escape housework even in death.”
The trailer, though. The trailer is funny and eerie and baffling in excellent combination. There’s a vacuum makeout session (pictured above). There is a caption that reads simply, “Oops, a ghost.” Oops! There’s also running and screaming and a big splash of blood. It’s tonally all over the place in the best way.
A Useful Ghost stars Davika Hoorne as Nat and Witsarut Himmarat as March, her husband. It’s the first film from director Boonbunchachoke, who Deadline says “is regarded as one of Thailand’s hottest emerging directors on the back of his short films.”
Let us cross all our fingers and toes—and vacuum hoses—that a U.S. distributor picks this up so we can see it.