Serafima Serafimova
When we were little, my friends and I had very different ideas of what constituted a fun pastime. Theirs involved playing hide and seek or skipping rope, or examining each other’s genitals. Mine was reading aloud from Stephen King’s The Shining and scaring the shit out of them. So you could say that I’m a bit of a horror fan. And although I am a sucker for a good zombie flick or a gory slasher, the paranormal has always haunted a special place in my heart, and as such, I am well versed in all the sub-genre tropes.
Whether they’ve returned to seek revenge, tell their story, or just get confirmation of their own death, the plot usually revolves around unfortunate souls with purpose-driven immortality. Fucking Ghosts, however, is unlike any other ghost story I have ever seen, heard or read before – these are rampant spirits with an entirely different kind of unfinished business.
Alongside the smutty humour, Fucking Ghosts pays tribute to a host of horror films, including The Exorcist
Jam-packed with clever lines and inside jokes, Fucking Ghosts pokes fun in all the right places and is one of those rare shorts that tickled the entire S/W team, disarming us with its low-fi SFX and crude humour. At just three minutes in length, writer/director Jason Cook’s debut is short and sweet, and delivers instant gratification and a happy ending to an audience made up of horror lovers and haters alike, so it comes as no surprise that it was selected at a jaw-dropping 33 film festivals around the world.
The story follows the Simpsons – a young couple with a 1 year old baby who move into their perfect new home. Or so it seems… as what they soon discover, to their horror and disgust, is that the house is haunted by horny ghosts, who take every opportunity to terrorise the family by fornicating right in front of them. There’s only one thing the victims of this unholy abomination can do – call a sexorcist! Fucking Ghosts is a parody film trailer for a (sadly) non-existent film and it’s every bit as ridiculous as you’d expect, and yet somehow, Cook has pulled it off and the result is a laugh-out-loud masterpiece.
“I did it to see if I could. Now I want to make the feature!”
With a background as a commercial director, whose creative vision is usually crafted around the clients’ needs, Cook embarked on this project armed with determination and a simple aim – to make people laugh. “I wanted to make an absurdist horror film filled with all the tropes but make them funny” – he shared with S/W – “I did it to see if I could. Now I want to make the feature!”.
From the titles and logos to the set design and the dialogue (“It wasn’t yoghurt!” being my absolute favourite line), every detail is intentional and painstakingly thought-out, and as such, the film warrants at least a couple of views to ensure you absorb and appreciate it all. The voiceover, with its dramatic script and booming presence gives the story structure and that familiar feature film trailer vibe. The edit too, with its choppy pace and quick fades to black, is masterfully cut together. The look is cinematic and moody, which is in stark contrast with the simplistic ghost costumes consisting of white bed sheets with comically painted black eyes. The result is absurd and absurdly funny all at once.
In short, Fucking Ghosts is exceptional. Not just because it’s outrageously funny but because it proves that you can take a few sex-crazed bed sheets with a ridiculous backstory involving a tragic orgy, and turn into a huge success. It shouldn’t work, but by Lucifer it does!