After her death by dust poisoning, a woman returns as a haunted vacuum cleaner to comfort her grieving husband. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke blends absurd comedy and class politics into a fable that’s as strange as it is moving.
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This all works because there’s something oddly refined about the vacuum cleaner’s performance, despite the inherently comic premise.
A Useful Ghost 2025
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“There’s a ghost in the machine in writer/director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s humorous and haunting gem of a feature debut A Useful Ghost. However, this is no mere twisty supernatural horror to be forced into neat genre classifications.
It all begins with a simple yet revealing shot of dust floating in the air. It’s this dust pollution that kills Nat (Davika Hoorne) and leaves her husband March (Wisarut Himmarat) mourning her without much sympathy from his family. When she returns as a vacuum, March is overjoyed as he is just happy to have his love back with him. His family, on the other hand, is disapproving and considers the relationship unnatural. Thus, Nat attempts to prove her worth by cleansing their factory of any other ghosts that haunt it.
The result is a film as wryly funny as it is thoughtfully, profoundly and boldly whimsical. It proves Boonbunchachoke is not just an exciting new voice... but one who finds distinct beauty as he brings them all to joyous life.” — Chase Hutchison, The Wrap