[FANTASIA 2019] ‘EXTRA ORDINARY’ Review

The film begins with the teaser trailer opening, a Vincent Dooley infomercial for his “The Talents: Investigating the Paranormal” videotape series that leads into our story, Vincent’s two daughters Rose (Maeve Higgins) and Sailor (Terri Chandler) standing above his grave. They place flowers, Rose apologizes for killing him, and they leave. Shortly after a trash pickup stops and throws the flowers into the compactor. We soon meet Martin Martin (Barry Ward), a man who wants to get help with his abusive wife’s ghost, and then his daughter’s condition, but Rose is reluctant to use her inherited connection to the paranormal as it appears to be the reason for her father’s death. Rose has a bit of a thing for Martin and thus agrees to help, which turns into a business partnership helping ghosts finish business. But complications arise when at the same time a formerly famous singer Christian Winter (Will Forte) and his wife Claudia (Claudia O’Doherty) are looking to sacrifice a virgin, and have their eyes on Martin’s daughter Sarah (Emma Coleman).

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I loved this opening a lot because it sets up the world of Extra Ordinary so well, visually and tonally. Co-writers/directors Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman (with additional writing credits for Demian Fox and Maeve Higgins) in their feature debut, provide a sarcastic, joyously cynical slice of Ireland that is, in a word, delightful. Not that there’s not horror to be found here, because it’s definitely here and when the gore hits it’s terrific and surprising. But there’s so much quirk and charm to be found! The movie also looks great, reminiscent of Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners and Gerard Johnstone’s Housebound in that there’s a dark visual appearance, while the humor plays in contrast and somehow creates harmony. This cast is excellent, too! I absolutely adore Higgins, both as an actor and as the Maeve character. She is hysterically deadpan, and her line delivery is at an expert level of awkward. Ward gets to have so much fun when he becomes a vessel for trapped spirits, becoming whoever possesses him. Finally, Will Forte’s delusional-celebrity villain is firmly in his wheelhouse, and he nails it.

It’s not perfect though. The weak link is the cast is surprisingly Claudia O’Doherty, who is otherwise wonderful in everything else so I’m not entirely sure why she didn’t connect here. The character IS supposed to be awful, at least. Also, there’s a bit towards the ending where I thought the movie was starting to go downhill, and the climax is very strange in comparison to what comes before it. I ended up enjoying how it wrapped up though, and the final moment is an absolutely perfect ending. It’s neat that it’s showing at Fantasia, where it was originally pitched at the Frontieres portion of the festival a year or two ago, which helped start the ball rolling towards funding! I’m so glad it did; Extra Ordinary is one of my favorite discoveries this year and highly recommended.

Good news! Extra Ordinary has been picked up for distribution from Good Deed Entertainment/Cranked Up Films for a Fall 2019 debut!