A USEFUL GHOST - Comedy Film Fest at FOMO Cinema

Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke | 2025 | Thailand | 2h10m | Thai language with English subtitles

A USEFUL GHOST begins with an instantly unusual premise. After a woman dies, she returns to her husband in ghost form as a vacuum cleaner, and from there the film unfolds into something funny, melancholy, strange, and unexpectedly tender. Rather than treating the supernatural as horror, it uses it as the starting point for a deadpan comedy about love, grief, memory, and the absurd ways people try to hold on to one another and look after each other. It's really quite sweet.

Anyone who has ever been to Thailand or has Thai friends will instantly recognise the humour. Its comedy is dry, off-center, and quietly surreal, less interested in big punchlines than in awkwardness, tone, and the strange logic of the situation itself. The film keeps its emotions real even as its world grows more bizarre, which gives it a very distinctive charm.

WHY I'VE INCLUDED IT IN THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM: Because I want my program for Comedy Week to expand the idea of what comedy can be. A USEFUL GHOST delivers a rare mix of fantasy and the supernatural in a comic voice that feels genuinely different from the other American and European titles in the program. It's one of the week’s most unexpected films, and I'd argue one of its most original.

LOCATION: FOMO Secret Cinema, Bazari Orbeliani, Tbilisi. A five minute walk from Liberty Square metro.

HOW TO FIND FOMO: Enter Bazari Orbeliani via Atoneli St above Carrefour and take the stairs on your left to the first floor. You can also check our Instagram story highlights for a video showing exactly how to find us:
https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17933106294029235/