‘Ghost Lab’ Movie Review: A Unique Absurdist Upgrade to a Conventional Supernatural Thriller

Directed by Pawan Purijitpanya, who co-wrote the script with Vasudhorn Piyaromna and Tossaphon Riantong, Ghost Lab opens as a horror-comedy. The story revolves around two doctors, who become obsessed with gathering knowledge-based evidence to prove the existence of supernatural bodies after murders in hospitals. The movie explores deeper into the 'afterlife' theme with unpredicted plot twists. GDH 559 Co’s Director for Brand New Business told Thai PBS World referred to as the story 'quite unconventional' and a shot at exploring beliefs in supernatural bodies. Young doctors Wee (Thanapob Leeratanakachorn) along with Gla (Paris Intarakomalyasut) cooperate together at a hospital, but their friendship goes beyond their operating relationship. They’re an unlikely pair.

Wee lives at the hospital to care for his long lethargic mother. Gla is the socializer in a happily committed relationship with Mai (Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich). When some of the friends encounter a petrifying spirit during a late-night shift, it sparks the tracking of proof in the name of science. The investigation leads to unheeding obsession, and the hunt becomes treacherous. Gla and Wee trade light-hearted pranks, that establish their bond. Wee’s sentimental stakes come in the form of his fidelity to an unresponsive, frail mother. One terrifying encounter with the spirit of a horribly burned patient later, and the pair begin their sequence of experimentations. This first act follows a longtime mold; the friends use cameras, temperature, and varied spirit hunting tools to document their finds. Complete with spooky scenes, ready within the atmospheric hospital. Once through all those acquainted beats, though, the narrative shifts with an astonishing event.

Ghost Lab illustrates to the extent that humans can go to fulfill their ambitions, through a persistent appealing narrative that’s palpitating and hits an emotional chord. The filmmaker Paween Purijitpanya well utilizes the acquainted tropes of the genre that functions as the cherries on top of a promising story and drives a crucial purpose concerning impulsive decision-making amid the desperation to succeed.

Ghost Lab is a good example to advocate how clichés aren’t always a concern to genre-specific movies. It proves that a new world is waiting to be discovered if you subvert them well enough. The movie tries to reason ghosts supported familiarity, motive, and also the semiconductive factors that contribute to their ‘existence’. The film is definitely a lot more fascinating once it captures the child-like zeal of its’s characters than the extreme second hour that explores the dark corners of human ambition. Despite the various absurd twists and turns resulting in a dramatic finale, the film is worth watching because of its timely relook at the horror genre.

While Ghost Lab does not provide anything path-breaking or new in terms of its background score, it nonetheless holds the plot and gives it the necessary emotional depth in the need of the hour. The visual tone of a supernatural film can get extraordinarily stereotyped robust the cinematographer Pithai Sithmuth offers a realistic touch to the frames within the limitations of his setting. The writing is a fine mix of novelty and tropes that go together with the genre. The screenplay is even more engaging though the film could have done with a crisper second hour.

Final Score – [7/10]
Reviewed by – Ritika Kispotta
Follow her @KispottaRitika on Twitter (https://twitter.com/KispottaRitika)