Dead Talents Society Review — TIFF 2024

Think Beetlejuice meets Monsters Inc., The Devil Wears Prada, and The Boys. The only exception is that it is an adult horror! This seems like a lot to imagine, but it all makes sense in John Hsu’s Dead Talents Society. This Taiwanese horror-comedy felt so refreshing, among others in Hollywood’s iterations, like Abigail or Lisa Frankenstein. Both were good movies, but not like this.

The story follows a meek and newly dead teen who is just called Rookie (Gingle Wang) that learns from an undead diva named Catherine (Sandrine Pinna) how to haunt the living. The film really leaned into the essence of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, but against the backdrop of modern-day Taiwan. And like Monsters Inc., this netherworld thrives on scarring the living. So much so that the spirits have created their own version of Entertainment Tonight and all of the other Hollywood shows that follow celebrities’ lives.

The catch of this world is that souls have a finite shelf life after death and must regularly spook up the mortal realm as a curse or urban legend in order to secure a “haunter’s license,” a renewable reprieve from total oblivion. This becomes a problem for Rookie since she has 30 days to have a steady stream of scares before being permanently dead.

“The super special sauce of Dead Talents Society was its ability to recognize the horror tropes that came before and make its own thing.”

From the beginning, the CGI/VFX work was a bit dodgy and almost seemed like it was on a TV show budget. However, the many scenes that mixed practical effects with CGI put the nail in the coffin. The team-up of blood from the makeup department and the costume department was spectacular in Dead Talents Society. I could tell the crew had a lot of fun utilizing blood effects, especially for pushing the comedic beats.

The cinematography was nothing stellar, but scary enough to execute what needed to be done. It played on the standards of urban legends and how they are spotted in real-life. This was seen through many examples of the style of the girl in the well from The Ring, or many iterations of possessions in The Exorcist films.

The score was nothing too memorable to mention, but the music choices were hilarious. There is a scene where Rookie and her pro team are enjoying themselves with a fun karaoke session, and the song choices are remarkably cheeky—especially the one that becomes the film’s running gag.

The super special sauce of Dead Talents Society was its ability to recognize the horror tropes that came before, and make its own thing. It was funny to see that the spirits have a magazine called Morgue, which is a play on Vogue. That whole marketing side of being the number one scarer or number one urban legend screamed The Boys and the show’s running media gags through Vought.

In a surprising turn of events, the film also became a dramatic story. Even though the film was a lot of fun to enjoy, it had some strong takeaway morals and messaging. This attention to detail was strange and a little out of place, but I respected its courage to do the unexpected. Not many horror comedies could say they could bring audiences to tears.

While the aforementioned inspirations of Dead Talents Society were more targeted at kids, this one is definitely not that. But it has the core nostalgia and influence of those films. The film’s 1 hour and 50-minute runtime flew at certain moments but slowed down near the end in an expected way. At the end of the spooks, Dead Talents Society was probably the best horror-comedy I have seen all year, thanks to its innovative narrative and paying homage to many campy classics. And do not forget to stay for the post-credit scene for one last laugh!

Check out more of CGMagazine’s TIFF 2024 coverage here throughout the festival.