O.T. GHOST OVERTIME (2014)

Genre: Horror/Comedy
Director: Issara Nadee
Cast: Ray Macdonald, Ananda Everingham, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Akarat Nimitchai, Pimpawee Kograbin, Nalintip Phoemphattharasakun, Suttasitt Pottasak, Sukhapat Lohwacharin, Atthaphan Phusawat, Petei Hokri, Milan Ketsuwan, Kanyarin Nithinapparath
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Rating: NC-16 (Sexual References & Horror)
Released By: Golden Village Pictures 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 11 December 2014

Synopsis: O.T. Ghost Overtime continues the story from film O.T. in the omnibus 3AM. After being spooked by the ghosts in their office, Karan (Shahkrit Yamnarm) and Tee (Ray Macdonald) have made it out alive, though they now suffered hallucination and paranoia. They can’t use the elevator, and they have to constantly checking if the person standing next to them is actually a human and not a ghost. But still, the two bosses still play ghost-pranks on their employees. This time, they’re joined by a new partner Badin (Ananda Everingham). They tease and spook the staff who stay late in the evening to claim overtime. But things always get spookier late at night in this unusual company. This time, together they will have to rescue the company from a critical condition while experience unexpected events in their own office. Their staff who loves working overtime will be part of this misadventure.

Movie Review:

Gone are the days of ‘Shutter’ and ‘Alone’, when Thai horror was at its peak and inspiring audiences to go into the dark halls of the cinema for a good scare. Indeed, the occasional one that gets a release in the cinemas almost always comes and goes with nary a notice. To be fair, the genre got a slight shot in the arm with the ‘hor-medy’ ‘Pee Mak’ last year, which poked fun at its clichés in a ‘nudge nudge wink wink’ manner without becoming a joke in and of itself. And thanks to the runaway success of ‘Pee Mak’, we get wannabe copycats like ‘Make Me Shudder’ and its sequel ‘Make Me Shudder 2’ as well as this feature-length spinoff from the short of the same name.

Isara Nadee’s short about two ‘horrible bosses’ who come up with the idea to prank their employees who work late in the office just so to claim overtime pay was probably the best thing about the horror omnibus ‘3 A.M.’, and Nadee has here expanded the concept to feature-length. Returning with Nadee are his two leads Karan (Shahkrit Yamnarm) and Tee (Ray Macdonald), who after being out-pranked by real ghosts in their office are now still afraid to ride the elevator by themselves. That hasn’t stopped them from doing exactly what they used to do though, and they are here joined by another like-minded boss Badin (Ananda Everingham). 

The basic premise of Nadee’s conceit lay in figuring out what was real and what was just a prank, but whereas such a simple-minded concept was effective in drawing out the laughs and scares in a half-hour short, stretching it to a 106 minute movie simply drains whatever novelty there was in the first place. To distract his audience however, Nadee substitutes the confines of the office with that of what is supposedly one of the top five haunted hotels in ASEAN, in which the three bosses and their employees are to spend one night in. Because their company is at risk of bankruptcy (and their employees at risk of losing their jobs), everyone goes along to plan for the wedding in the supposedly haunted venue despite some initial reservations. 

Strange things proceed to happen at the said venue, and true to the nature of the short that inspired this movie, there are plenty of flashbacks and twists to reveal just who did what and who did not. A few of these hit the mark, but mostly Nadee’s attempt to mix comedy with horror falls flat. It doesn’t help that he constantly tries to out-smart his audience, unveiling turnabout after turnabout so much so that one begins to doubt if anything that happens within the movie is consequential in the first place. At least ‘Pee Mak’ bothered to ground the humour with tongue-in-cheek sensibilities; here, Nadee simply goes for every available ‘a-ha!’ moment to show that what you thought you knew was in fact just a guise for something else. 

The fact that we do not care about any of the characters makes their predicament even less engaging. Everingham is competent as a lead, but his character is not much different from that of his co-stars Yamnarm and Macdonald. Of the employees whom our three protagonists have no qualms playing jokes on, only the timid lecher among them makes any sort of impression – and that’s because Nadee deliberately uses him to push the audience’s buttons, going for the easy habits that are bound to get someone’s attention, such as masturbating while peeping at his colleagues. And though Akarat Nimitchai and Pimpawee Kograbin are good eye-candy as the couple looking for their wedding venue, their stiff acting does little to enliven the proceedings. 

Though it ostensibly sells itself as a horror comedy, ‘O.T. Ghost Overtime’ isn’t quite as funny or thrilling as it probably intended to be. The pranks aren’t that ingenious, bordering largely on juvenile and pointless, while the scares turn out undermined by the constant reversals that make you question if there is anything to be taken seriously about the entire film at all. There is a fine line between being intelligent and being infantile and this ‘smart-alecky’ movie unfortunates comes off more the latter than the former. 

Movie Rating:

(Not particularly clever or funny or scary as it wants to be, this feature-length spinoff of the ‘3 A.M.’ short is yet another disappointing Thai horror)

Review by Gabriel Chong