At a certain point, J-horror’s scary ghost girls took over the genre entirely, cranking out countless terrifying flicks that go down in the horror fall of fame. Chinese import Dead Talents Society parodies J-horror and nightmarish tropes with dead tongue firmly in cheek. Embracing the fantastical, writer/director/editor John Hsu imagines a world in which the dead can apply for a “haunting license” in order to stop from fading away. If they meet certain quotas, they can compete for urban legend popularity! In Hsu’s hands, the art of the jump scare becomes paramount in helping a ghost carry out their undying thirst for murder.
Newly-dead ghost The Rookie (Jingle Wang) has started to glitch out, a mark of her loved ones discarding an item that represents her “value.” In an effort to remain on this planet, The Rookie tries to plead her case to be a recipient of a haunting license with the help of a friend. Mustachioed heartthrob Makoto (Chen Bolin) takes notice of The Rookie—he just so happens to be a suave man that runs a professional haunting agency. Makoto offers The Rookie a place to train while looking for a “killer move” of her own. She will be the new protege of the “Femme of Room 414,” also known as Cathy (Sandrine Pinna). Cathy and the rookie team up in tandem to Cathy’s former assistant, the sociopathic Jessica (Yao Yi Ti). The two became at odds when Cathy shut down Jessica’s desire to make a cursed website that would haunt people. Now having gone viral, Jessica’s holier-than-thou attitude towards Cathy creates a fiery female rivalry at the core of Dead Talents Society.
John Hsu crafts a wholly imaginative world here, drawing from shades of Beetlejuice. He embraces the campy farce of horror, giving us a peak behind the curtain at what makes those jump scares as effective as they are. Different dead folks fill all of the essential roles. That scene of a ghost girl gradually getting closer as lights flicker? It only works because the girl has “doubles” to appear with her. How about a door suddenly impossible to open, or a scrawled message written in blood? An invisible effects team comprised of unseeable ghosts are pulling the puppet strings. The next time I watch The Grudge or The Ring, Dead Talents Society’s warped viewpoint on their machinations will be difficult to shake.
As The Rookie attempts to discover an urban legend of her own, the clock begins to tick. The film counts down the days until she will glitch out forever, never to return, if she does not manage to meet her quotas. Dead Talents Society has a certain style that allows it to lean in hard to the baked-in ridiculousness at play. Slow motion accentuates some of the stranger moments, helping them to culminate in visually-stimulating situations. The narration that paints a vivid picture of the “ghostresses” and their hijinks adds an extra element that feels meta—as the commentators pick apart the successes (or failures) of the ghosts attempting to hit their targets, so too do avid horror watchers practically scream at their screen for the characters to not make such dumb decisions.
A major part of why Dead Talents Society ended up such a surprise can be attributed to a constant underestimation of that sweet horror and comedy mixture. The actual narrative doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t need to either. Instead, a high concept script speaks for itself, letting the stylistic flourishes and pulpy characters do the heavy lifting. Pitting two strong female archetypes against one another in cinema is a tale as old as time. Having them battle for “exorcist crawl” domination, however, has to be a first for the genre. Clever and tons of fun, Dead Talents Society proves that scary supernatural lore and clever dark comedy make a potent, if combustible, creation. Celebrate it in every category at the next Golden Ghost Awards!
Dead Talents Society opened up a fresh can of spooks when it screened at 2024’s Toronto International Film Festival.
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