Supernatural horror films tend to share one core element in common: what’s buried won’t stay buried. Taiwanese horror-comedy Dead Talents Society takes this in an absurd — and absurdly brilliant — new direction, presenting us with a world where the dead compete to become (and stay) urban legends to avoid disappearing.
Gingle Wang stars as The Rookie, who is on the fast track to oblivion after her family inadvertently throws away a key artifact from her life. In order to be seen by the living and earn her keep in the afterlife, she has to audition for a “haunter’s license” — an audition that she bombs spectacularly. You see, The Rookie didn’t die in a way that would lend itself easily to urban legend, and she’s so shy and hesitant that life passed her by even when she was alive. Luckily, she’s taken on as an assistant to fading diva Catharine (Sandrine Pinna), once an icon of the industry, now wilting in the shadow of her more famous protege, Jessica (Eleven Yao).
This apprenticeship gives director John Hsu, who co-wrote the script with Kun-Lin Tsai, the opportunity to pay loving homage to all the great horror that East Asian cinema has produced over the past few decades. References to The Ring, The Grudge, and even Perfect Blue are woven throughout the various urban legends, always with a cheeky wink to the audience. There are shades of Beetlejuice here too, though never to a point that feels derivative. Where Burton presented the afterlife as one of boredom and drudgery, albeit through a cartoonish filter, Hsu’s version of the eternal waiting room is glossy and frenetic, with the dead as obsessed with the allure of celebrity as we are.
A lesser film might take the easy path of simply critiquing celebrity culture, but Dead Talents Society merely uses this critique as a springboard for a deeper commentary about the crushing weight of expectations. This is something that every one of us can relate to on some level, and Hsu ensures that The Rookie’s deep-felt hurt over being overlooked and her consequent feelings of worthlessness remain the beating heart of the film, even amidst all the zany ghost antics.
And Dead Talents Society is certainly zany, juxtaposing slapstick shocks like The Rookie’s fumbling attempts to become an urban legend with more traditional scare scenes like Catharine’s award-winning hotel haunt. The script knows when to go full tilt and when to pause for breath, and while it favors the former to great effect, it’s those quieter character moments that will haunt you long after the final fright is through.
Dead Talents Society made its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024, where it won Best Director and the Audience Award.
