‘A Useful Ghost’ Trailer: Cannes Critics’ Week Winner Turns Grief & A Possessed Vacuum Into A Surreal Thai Haunting
Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prix winner “A Useful Ghost” arrives in U.S. theaters on January 16, positioned as a deadpan, dust-filled ghost story about grief, labor, and a woman who returns by possessing a vacuum cleaner. The film follows March, who is mourning his wife Nat after her death from dust pollution—until he discovers her spirit has come back inside a household appliance.
His family, already shaken by a ghost linked to a worker’s death, has shut down their factory and refuses to accept this strange reunion. To earn her place, Nat volunteers to cleanse the cursed factory of its lingering spirits, proving she can be “a useful ghost” by removing the harmful ones.
Starring Davika Hoorne, Witsarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wanlop Rungkumjud, and Wisarut Homhuan, the film blends melancholic workplace satire with supernatural absurdity. Early festival reactions praise its singular tone, with Screen International comparing it to “Yorgos Lanthimos relocated to Thailand.”
Director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke builds on a rising festival career—including his award-winning short “Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall.” Premiering in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2025, “A Useful Ghost” stands out as a rare genre import where the ghost story, factory life, and climate crisis merge inside one haunted machine.
