Show Me the Ghost failed to break any new ground in the Ghost Whisperer genre. If they’d trimmed the film by 20 minutes and tightened up the story it might have made a good episode in one of the many ghostly dramas dedicated to the same theme.

Ye Ji and Ho Doo are friends dating back to childhood. When Ye Ji fails yet another job interview she casts her troubles on her friend reminding him that he owes her money. Ho Doo takes her to his new house that is spacious and came completely furnished and as they would find out later, complete with its own ghost. Unable to break the contract the two determine to either fob the apartment off on someone else or drive the ghost out.

The plot was threadbare and I knew within five minutes exactly where it was going. Some of the scenes felt incredibly forced. It was billed as a comedy and that was a reach unless you find Han Seung Yeon’s relentless screaming and ear-piercing fake crying hilarious. There was only one segment involving four pair of shoes that made me chuckle. Kim Hyun Mok’s performance was as understated as Han’s was shrill. The rest of the cast was adequate but not much more.

For a big fraidy cat like me, this was the perfect kind of ghost story. It wasn’t scary and there was a bittersweet resolution to the haunting. Despite being cursed by an over-used paradigm, with a more imaginative script and compelling acting it might not have been spooktacular, but it would have had more spirit.

10/15/23