Sommerleigh Pollonais, Senior Writer
Plot: Finding a ghost named Ernest haunting their new home turns Kevin’s family into overnight social media sensations. But when Kevin and Ernest investigate the mystery of Ernest’s past, they become a target of the CIA.
Review: To each their own I always say. It’s a big world out there and what works for some won’t necessarily work for others, which is just my longwinded way of saying I did not like Netflix’s We Have a Ghost one bit!
The premise, which is basically a rip-off of every other similar family styled ghost movie you’ve ever seen (in this viewer’s case the first episode of Disney’s The Ghost and Molly McGee came to mind), as a family moves into a massive house whose price is just too good to be true (Trope #1). And, of course, one of the teens named Kevin (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) isn’t happy with it (Trope#2). He hears strange sounds coming from the attic and discovers there’s a ghost there named Ernest (David Harbour of Stranger Things and Violent Night) which he records on his phone. But instead of being scared off by this, Kevin befriends Ernest (Trope#3) and with the help of his new neighbour Joy (Isabella Russo) he works towards helping Ernest moves on. Things only get crazier though when Kevin’s dad Frank (Anthony Mackie of the MCU) discovers the recording and posts it to YouTube with the hopes of getting rich (Trope#4). Then all hell breaks loose for the family as Ernest goes viral and the rest is exactly what you would expect.
Now I have no problem with wacky family friendly movies that take supernatural tropes likes ghosts and dilutes the scares to make them fun for everyone. When it’s done right you can get classics like Beetlejuice or Casper. The issue I had with this movie is it doesn’t seem to know what tone it wants to strike, which wouldn’t be that problematic if the jumps from drama to comedy were executed better.
The characters are all over the place personality-wise, and with the exception of Ernest I didn’t like any of them. Anthony Mackie as Frank comes across like a swindler and a terrible father and spouse who only cares about his own fame and fortune. Jahi Di’Allo Winston is quite good in his scenes with David Harbour, who also does a solid job portraying a character who for the most part can’t communicate with words, but when it comes to his family Kevin comes across as aloof and even a bit mean as he acts like they’re all beneath him or something. I understand they’re going for the whole “no one gets me” vibe, but it would’ve been nice to see him actually connect with at least one member of his family. As for the Mom and the older brother, they are just that and add no value to the overall plot.
The jokes aren’t funny, the emotional bits don’t connect as well as they should and the whole movie is just too long. I don’t even think it works as a “kind of” good movie; you know, the ones that aren’t great but not a bad way to pass the time? Nope, We Have a Ghost was just an overall bad movie with a concept we’ve seen done better dozens of times over and I wish I could just exorcise this particular spirit from my memory.
Score: 4 out of 10
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Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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