Extra Ordinary (2019)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Extra Ordinary (2019) – M. Ahern & E. Loughman

 I’m sure this Irish horror-comedy is a cult classic in-the-making, particularly because it eschews gore and has a tender feeling for its misfit characters.  The comedy is goofy, sometimes adult, and often pretty funny.  The horror is not really to be taken seriously either.  The plot, for all its ridiculousness, fits together very neatly.  Maeve Higgins plays a driving school instructor with the ability to contact and exorcise unruly ghosts (the kind who possess recycling bins, for example); however, she doesn’t want to use her powers due to a tragedy in her past.  Yet when poor Martin Martin (Barry Ward) requires her assistance, not to exorcise his nagging ex-wife’s ghost but to rescue his teen daughter from becoming a virgin sacrifice in the Satanic rites of pompous muso Christian Winter (hilarious Will Forte), she yields.  What follows is a silly set of anecdotes as they exorcise and collect ectoplasm from ghosts around their community (cue character actors).  The finale employs real special effects to hit things home, sealing the deal.  Often these sorts of genre offerings flop somewhere along the line but happily this one holds together all the way through.  Recommended!