Maeve Higgins

(On Cable TV, October 2020) My expectations ran low in watching Extra Ordinary: Seven months in these pandemic times, the tap of high-budget Hollywood movies has been turned off even on cable channels such as Canada’s Crave, and what’s being shown instead of blockbusters is a mixture of smaller-budgeted, foreign or Canadian efforts. You can never completely guess what you’re going to get, although I appreciate the exposure to smaller, more daring movies. Fortunately, it doesn’t take much more than a few minutes for Extra Ordinary to establish its unique tone. Set in a small Irish town, it features a homely woman still feeling guilt over the death of her father, a renowned psychic investigator. Eschewing any funny paranormal business despite unusual aptitudes, she tries to focus on being a driving instructor… until a handsome man steps into her car and asks for help in getting rid of his deceased wife’s intrusive ghost. Further trouble comes brewing when a local one-hit wonder musician makes a deal with the devil for his next album, and starts looking at virgins to sacrifice. The plot is not that funny, and that’s because much of Extra Ordinary’s initial moments are spent building a universe of small haunted garbage cans, ghosts leaving messages saying, “YOU MUST PAY… THE CAR TAX,” or hauntings trying their best to even get the attention of the living. Aside from the occasional explosion, the comedy here starts out gently, with a good-nature looniness that gradually evolves into crazier and coarser material—by the end of the film, we’ve reached the logical and raunchy end point of the “can’t sacrifice her if she’s not a virgin,” train of thought without the film having lost its good-natured whimsy. It’s really a pleasant surprise, and much of the credit goes to the writer-director pair Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman, as well as Maeve Higgins as the sweet centre of the story. (Barry Ward is also good in a role that eventually requires a bit of rapid character-switching.) The special effects are numerous and used effectively, while the film often makes effective use of pseudo-archival footage as a narrative device. Extra Ordinary flies by at 94 minutes, and ramps up effectively from silly small-town psychic to a demonic portal to hell climax. It’s quite a nice surprise, and a very good genre effort that explores semi-fresh territory with irreverent humour.