Ghost Lab - Is Netflix's Latest Thai Chiller As Good As It Looks?

Question: do you believe in Ghosts? What if you could prove they existed?

That’s the two questions explored in this original Thai horror drama thriller. A movie that also explores morality, obsession and depravity of human behaviour.

What’s this movie about?

Wee and Glau are good friends and intern doctors at a Thai hospital. Glau believes in Ghosts and wants to prove them, while Wee is firmly ground in scientific explanations. One evening while at the vending machine, they both see a ghost of a man who died in a horrific fire.

Determine to prove it wasn’t just a once off, Wee joins Glau in his research, but as they hit a dead end with their research, they realise one of them needs to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to continue. A sacrifice that will question their morality and ethics.

My Thoughts on this Movie

Movies about communicating with Ghosts are nothing new. We’ve seen it before in movies like The Sixth Sense and the Chinese film Matrimony, but I like the way this Thai movie goes about it.

We have two interesting characters: a sceptic and a believer. Wee is our sceptic. He believes everything can be explained with science. While not working, he is looking after his mother who is in a coma, his wages paying for her care. He is your typical sceptic, but has this annoying action where is constantly adjusting his glasses with his thumb and index finger spread far apart. It reminds me of a character from a Japanese movie or video game, but I can’t quite put my finger on who it is, but it feels like a common action.

Glau seems like your typical winner though. Well liked in his job, beautiful girlfriend and a curious mind, he has been studying how to make contact with ghosts for a while but hasn’t made progress, so he hopes his new partnership with Wee can push his research along.

What’s interesting about these two is how their personalities seem to swap. After they decide to do the unthinkable, it’s the change in Wee that’s the most striking. He becomes obsessed and its here when the audience starts to see how this obsession takes over his life. We already know he has nothing else to distract his mind once his mother passes away, so he immerses himself into the research.

And this is when Wee turns into the movie’s bad guy, and it’s a enjoyable character shift. As the audience we start to question his morals and his choices, and how he finds no issues with hurting the feelings of those around him for his research. It’s really psychopathic behaviour but he doesn’t see it that way, his eye is on the prize of the research results.

This is not a traditional horror movie, but adding elements of the drama and thriller genre, the filmmakers have really created something that’s a bit unique, and no doubt will be copied or imitated with various success in the future. There are only a few jump scares and gore moments, they are spread out throughout the film just to remind you this is still a horror, but its all the moral and ethical discussions that add the drama and thriller element where the two boys wonder how far they can push their research methods just to get results.

And that’s part of what I really liked about this film. It was the interactions between the two boys later in the film and as I started to wonder that even if Wee could prove the existence of ghosts, how the heck was he going to present that evidence to everyone else without everyone knowing about all the horrible things he has done.

Quite a dilemma.  

Overall

I enjoyed this film. I enjoyed the moral and ethical questions it asks the audience, and the journey that it takes you on. It felt fresh and original to me.

So I give this a thumbs up.

If you’ve seen it, what did you think?