‘Dead Talents Society’ is a supernatural horror comedy about ghosts who endeavour to be the centre of an urban legend or risk disappearing entirely.
Since no one can truly know what happens when we die, creators often speculate on the possibilities. Some are more serious, projecting potential hopes or fears about what may be waiting in the hereafter, while others have fun with the idea of an alternative existence beginning with someone leaving this life for literally another. It varies if the worlds are connected so the dead can continue to watch or interact with those they left behind, or completely independent and separate from the land of the living. In Dead Talents Society, the afterlife celebrates ghosts who successfully scare the living, generating new urban legends.
After accidentally losing her tie to her loved ones, the ghost of a meek teenage girl (Gingle Wang) has 30 days to obtain a haunting license, become a famous spirit and keep from disappearing. The world of the dead celebrates its popular ghosts, who gain notoriety by scaring celebrities or going viral, earning the status of an urban legend. Desperate, she accepts the offer of a talent agent (Bo-lin Chen) who manages Catharine (Sandrine Pinna), one of the most famous and frightening ghosts on the circuit. Haunting is a team effort, but in spite of everyone’s encouragement, the new girl has difficulty overcoming her shyness and finding her scary niche. In the meantime, Catherine’s former protégé (Yi Ti Yao) is confidently delivering jump scares around the world — much to her chagrin.
This is a Tim Burton-esque horror comedy that imagines a very active afterlife, complete with talk shows, sensational news outlets and earnings thresholds. The Chairghost (Di-Yang Huang) oversees the licensed spirits and ensures they’re meeting their quotas or they risk being disappeared since there’s no room on the roster for failures. There’s a lot that goes into a good haunting, including devising a bloodcurdling backstory, designing an intimidating costume, mysteriously affecting inanimate objects and breeding an atmosphere of fear so the target achieves maximum scare. The whole production is comically theatrical as audiences step behind the curtain to see how intricately planned and entirely not intimidating the performance really is in the end.
Horror fans will delight in the many familiar characters types and scare tactics that appear throughout the picture, such as the Little Red Hiking Hood whose hair conceals her face and only utters guttural sounds, and Catherine’s “Exorcist walk.” The ghosts are highly competitive, particularly those that haunt the same locale, as they fight to get credit for the scare no matter how small. Catherine’s home base is a hotel, which she reluctantly yet gracefully agrees to share with the rookie. But other spirits work roads, tunnels, parks, restrooms, mountains — wherever someone has or could meet a horrific death.
It’s an offbeat comedy that understands the genre enough to both execute the scares and have fun with the tropes — a rare and entertaining find.
Dead Talents Society had its North American premiere in the Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Read other reviews from the festival.
Director: John Hsu
Starring: Bo-lin Chen, Sandrine Pinna and Gingle Wang
