We Have A Ghost (2023)
Kevin Presley and his family have just moved into a rather infamous house, although they don’t know it at first. The realtor gushes about the house’s historic significance and all its potential, and since it’s a fixer-upper Kevin’s parents, Frank and Melanie jump at it. Older brother Fulton’s good with it. Kevin is meh, and sits strumming his guitar while there are boxes to be unpacked.
And then he discovers a ghost in the attic. A really nice ghost named Ernest in a bowling shirt.
Instead of being scared, Kevin starts laughing. He can’t help it. He and Ernest get to be friends and bond over music. Meanwhile, Frank uploads the video Kevin shot on his phone to YouTube, where it goes viral, and then then next videos go viral. Ernest becomes a meme, as does Melanie, who naturally screams her head off the first time she sees Ernest. Soon there are TikTok videos galore of people trying to imitate Ernest going through a wall.
Suddenly their house becomes a media circus, with people and news crews standing outside all the time, including a guy dressed as Jesus. The East Bay Medium shows up, and Ernest scares her to death because she’s so jaded and convinced it’s all fake.
Kevin and his new friend, Joy, wonder where Ernest came from and how he died, so they start sniffing around. Unfortunately, so do some government agents who want Ernest and the Presleys under observation. So after sufficient research Kevin, Joy, and Ernest split, and no, I’m not going to give anything away. They do commit grand theft auto a couple of times, though.
We Have A Ghost takes all the classic ghost movie tropes and skewers them, running them through today’s lens of social media and meme culture. It’s an unfailingly cute movie that is refreshingly unafraid to make fun of everyone, which is something not often seen anymore.
The problem is that it’s way too long. A half-hour or so could have been shaved off of it and the movie would have definitely not suffered. And it kind of loses its punch once Ernest, Joy, and Kevin go on their little road trip, because it’s suddenly away from what made it work in the first place. Not every story needs to be taken outside; sometimes it’s preferable to have everything happen in a contained environment.
Especially when David Harbour is involved. We find out early on in the film that Ernest can write, but this is never explored. It’s almost as if the characters forget about it as soon as it happens. It’s too bad because Harbour puts in a wild, crazy and sensitive performance. He likes Kevin. He likes making friends. He may not like YouTube so much but there’s really nothing he can do about it. There was quite a bit of potential there that went pretty much untapped.
Still, We Have A Ghost is a fun movie, and it’s nice that all we, the audience, have to do is sit back and roll with the punches. They don’t make movies like this very often anymore, and when they do it’s best to just enjoy.
We Have A Ghost is currently streaming on Netflix. Rated PG-13.
My grade: B+
Principal cast: Jahi Di’Allo Winston, David Harbour, Anthony Mackie, Erica Ash, Niles Fitch, Isabella Russo, Tig Notaro, Tom Bower, Nicholas X. Parsons, Steve Coulter, Jennifer Coolidge
Directed by Christopher Landon.
Written by Christopher Landon and Geoff Manaugh.