Seven Something (2012), director Paween Purijitpanya is back with Ghost Lab, which is also the first feature-length film he has directed since Body (2007). With a script he worked on together with Vasudhorn Piyaromna ( Bad Genius , 2017) and Tossaphon Riantong ( Brother of the Year , 2018), Ghost Lab is about the friendship between two young doctors, Wee ( Thanapob Leeratanakajorn ) and Gla (Paris Intarakomalyasut ), who share the ambition to find scientific evidence for the existence of ghosts and various other supernatural creatures. Inspired by their encounter with a ghost in the hospital where they work, Wee and Gla's research begins with serious but fun nonetheless. However, after repeatedly failing to really find a way or scientific theory correct to find supernatural beings, the two began to have the idea to take a more extreme step: approaching death directly by making a suicide attempt.
The first film produced by the production house GDH 559 which premiered exclusively through Netflix , Ghost Lab tries to present a blend of horror storytelling elements with science fiction that is quite interesting. Like other GDH 559 films, Ghost Lab does not only focus on horror or science fiction elements. The friendship drama between the two main characters as well as a number of stories about the relationship between Wee's character and his mother ( Suquan Bulakul ) or the relationship between Gla's character and his girlfriend, Mai ( Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich ), are also presented to give an emotional touch to the Ghost Lab storyline.. The layers of stories with different colors – horror, science fiction, drama, romance – really make Ghost Lab feel densely narrated. However, the line of conflict that is slowly presented becomes a burden when the story script cannot be given a better development quality.
Not all of Ghost Lab's storytelling is poorly executed. An element of mystery in the story that might remind some viewers of Flatliners (Joel Schumacher, 1990) or even The Invisible Man.(Leigh Whannell, 2020) is still quite capable of delivering some memorable moments of horror. The two main characters, Wee and Gla, can also be presented with digging and character development which makes both of them quite easy to like – apart from a number of characterizations that are quite clichéd in the portrayal of the two characters. Purijitpanya's choice to extend the composition of the story with a number of conflicts – with a slow narrative – as well as the execution of the last half of the story which feels confused in providing the right conclusion for the various conflicts that have been previously described, creates the impression of a long-winded and less effective story for Ghost Lab . Quite unfortunate.
Although it doesn't feel special, the acting presented by Leeratanakajorn and Intarakomalyasut is at least enough to be convincing enough for the friendship that is lived by the two characters they play. Leeratanakajorn, in particular, is also able to describe the changes in the personality picture that occur in Wee's figure when he is increasingly obsessed with finding a good life after death. Overall, Ghost Labended up as a presentation that was not able to develop a fresh idea of the story more strongly. The drama element with the horror element in the storyline does manage to present a number of strong moments of its own but, as a complete story presentation, the two elements fail to blend well. Still worth watching even though Ghost Lab is definitely not in the ranks of the best films that GDH 559 has ever produced.
