Female-led supernatural comedies rarely get the space to be both funny and emotionally honest, but Get Over It is setting out to do exactly that. Being shopped at the Whistler Film Festival, the feature marks the upcoming directorial debut of Korean-Canadian filmmaker Shelly Hong, a long-time actor, writer, and producer.
Adapted from Lynda Simmons’ debut novel Getting Rid of Rosie, the film reunites Hong and Simmons following their collaboration on the short Ed & Alfie.
Blending humor with emotional weight, Get Over It promises more than genre play. It signals the arrival of a feature filmmaker whose voice has been shaped over decades in front of and behind the camera, and who is now ready to bring a culturally specific, female-driven story to the big screen.
From Novel to Screen: Adapting Getting Rid of Rosie
Get Over It began its life not as a screenplay, but as Lynda Simmons’ debut novel, Getting Rid of Rosie, a book that quickly distinguished itself for its sharp humor and emotionally grounded portrayal of female relationships.
Following the completion of their short film Ed & Alfie, Shelly Hong and Simmons were eager to build on their creative momentum. Rather than searching for a new idea from scratch, they turned inward, revisiting Simmons’ existing work.
Hong has described approaching the novel with certain expectations, anticipating a light, “fluffy” romantic comedy, only to find something far more substantial. Beneath the wit was a story that explored friendship, resentment, and unresolved emotional debt with unexpected gravity. That depth made the novel an ideal candidate for adaptation, particularly for filmmakers interested in genre as a vessel rather than a destination.
As part of the optioning deal, Hong and Simmons co-wrote the screenplay, shaping the material for the screen while preserving the emotional core that made the book resonate. One of the most significant creative shifts came when Hong proposed reimagining the protagonist as Korean-Canadian, allowing her to bring personal insight and cultural specificity to the character.
With Simmons’ agreement, the adaptation became not just a translation from page to screen, but a reinvention, one rooted in collaboration, trust, and a shared commitment to telling a story about women that is both funny and uncomfortably real.
What Get Over It Is About (Without Spoilers)
At its core, Get Over It is a story about unfinished business, emotional, relational, and existential. The film centers on Samantha Choi, a woman forced into an impossible choice when Karma quite literally breaks the rules and gives her until midnight to decide the life she truly wants.
There’s just one catch: before she can move forward, she must first get rid of Rosie Fisk, the ghost of a former best friend who played a pivotal role in derailing that life, and who has absolutely no intention of going into any “damn light.”
While the premise leans into supernatural comedy, the stakes are deeply human. Rosie isn’t simply a haunting presence; she embodies regret, unresolved conflict, and the complicated intimacy of female friendship. Her refusal to disappear turns the story into a battle of wills, memory, and truth, where humor becomes a coping mechanism rather than an escape hatch.
By setting the narrative against a ticking clock, the film creates urgency without spectacle. The supernatural elements function less as visual gimmicks and more as emotional pressure points, pushing Samantha to confront what she’s avoided, what she’s lost, and what she still has the power to choose.
In doing so, Get Over It reframes the ghost story as something more personal: not about the dead who won’t leave, but about the living who can’t move on.
A Female-Led Supernatural Comedy and Why That Matters
Although Get Over It wears the trappings of a supernatural comedy, its real focus is neither the ghost nor the gimmick; it’s the relationship between two women whose bond has curdled into something unresolved and corrosive.
In a genre often driven by romance or male-centered arcs, the film places a fractured female friendship at its center, allowing conflict, humor, and emotional reckoning to unfold without being filtered through a love story.
This choice gives the comedy its edge. The humor doesn’t come from jump scares or spectacle, but from recognition: the uncomfortable truths, passive aggressions, and emotional debts that linger long after a friendship ends.
Rosie’s presence isn’t just disruptive; it’s intimate, invasive, and painfully familiar. By leaning into that dynamic, the film uses comedy as a way to expose rather than soften emotional wounds.
The result is a genre blend that feels both contemporary and necessary. Get Over It aligns with a growing wave of female-driven stories that refuse to flatten women’s relationships into rivalry or sentimentality.
Instead, it treats those relationships as complex, formative, and worthy of center stage, proving that supernatural comedy can be a vehicle for stories with real emotional gravity, not just punchlines.
Cultural Specificity as Creative Strength
One of the most defining choices in Get Over It is Shelly Hong’s decision to reimagine the protagonist as Korean-Canadian, a shift that subtly but meaningfully reshapes the story’s emotional terrain. Rather than functioning as a surface-level detail, Samantha Choi’s cultural identity becomes part of how she navigates obligation, guilt, selfhood, and the pressure to “get over” things quietly.
For Hong, this wasn’t an exercise in representation for its own sake, but a way to deepen the character through lived experience. By grounding the story in cultural specificity, the film avoids generic character beats and instead explores how family expectations, unspoken rules, and emotional restraint can influence personal choice. These elements sit naturally alongside the supernatural premise, reinforcing the idea that some forms of haunting are inherited rather than imposed.
Creative Team and Production Momentum
Behind Get Over It is a creative team that reflects both industry experience and strong indie credibility. Shelly Hong steps into the director’s chair for her feature debut after years of work as an actor, producer, and short-form filmmaker, while Lynda Simmons brings the perspective of a novelist adapting her own material for the screen. Their shared history lends the project a sense of cohesion and intention rather than first-time uncertainty.
The production has already attracted notable collaborators. Tina Jung, Donald MacLean Jr., and Mimi Kuzyk are circling the project through I Crone Productions, signaling early confidence in the material. Cinematography duties will be handled by Lainie Knox, whose work on Children Ruin Everything and Tallboyz suggests a visual sensibility well suited to character-driven comedy with emotional texture.
With plans to shoot in mid-2026 in Toronto or Hamilton, Ontario, Get Over It is moving forward with clear momentum. Its presence at the Whistler Film Festival as a project being shopped positions it strategically within the Canadian and international film landscape, not just as a debut feature, but as a carefully assembled collaboration ready to make the leap from development to production.
Wrapping Up
Get Over It is more than a supernatural comedy; it’s a story about choices, accountability, and the messy, lingering ties that shape our lives. By giving Samantha Choi a literal deadline to confront the ghost of her past, the film transforms the concept of haunting into a metaphor for personal growth and self-determination. Karma may break the rules, but the story reminds us that the power to move forward ultimately lies with the living.