Review of the movie We Have a Ghost: Netflix’s latest horror comedy is a passable hark back to a more innocent time in Hollywood filmmaking, but it can’t help but feel a little cynical.
We Have a Ghost, a new horror-comedy from writer-director Christopher Landon, might prompt Dinesh Vijan to take notes. The new Netflix movie, which resembles a cross between Casper and The Haunting of Hill House, stars Anthony Mackie as Frank, a businessman with a spotty past and a chip on his shoulder, and David Harbour as the amiable ghost Ernest, whose existence Frank decides to greedily capitalise on.
According to writer-director Christopher Landon, “the main challenge of this movie wasn’t necessarily the action, it was the environment, having to really battle the elements.” Everyone will tell you that it was crazy for us to shoot the movie in New Orleans in the middle of the summer.
In spite of extreme heat, lightning outages, and a month-long production halt due to Hurricane Ida, the cast and crew persisted. (“David’s crazy hairpiece is sliding off his head,” Landon adds.) Continue reading to learn everything else we know about the locations where the movie was filmed.
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The two former Marvel employees, however, only play supporting roles in this movie; instead, newcomer Jahi Di’Allo Winston, best known for the Sundance film Charm City Kings, plays the lead. He portrays the troubled adolescent Kevin, who is sick of his family’s repeated attempts at “fresh starts,” largely as a result of his father’s errors. Everyone seems to be sick of Frank’s quick-money schemes, including Kevin’s older brother and their mother. But when Ernest shows up in the attic of their new home and Frank sees dollar signs, the entire family reluctantly decides to entertain him.
It is clear right away that Ernest is not intended to be terrifying. He wears The Big Lebowski’s Walter Sobchak-style clothing, sports a combover, and appears to be a little let down when Kevin tells him that his personal life is “1000 times scarier” than he could ever be. They quickly become friends, but the film doesn’t really explain why Ernest is so confident in Kevin. Landon doesn’t even try to explain why Kevin is so unhappy.
Nevertheless, Kevin befriends Ernest before his father decides to upload videos of him to YouTube because he sees business potential. Similar to Marcel the Shell with Shoes On from the previous year, the plot centres on a small shell character who helps a recently divorced man get back on his feet through nothing more than kindness. Ernest quietly embarks on his own personal journey while offering Kevin similar emotional support.
In one of their first meetings, Kevin says, “We can’t touch you, but you can touch us,” hinting at the effect Ernest will have on him. But Kevin isn’t confident enough in himself to think he’ll be of any help to him. Of course, eventually, he is. But first, he has to deal with Ernest and their family’s sudden fame as a result of his father’s videos. They draw all kinds of weirdos to their property as a result of the videos, including daytime news anchors and a crooked Jesus Christ. As he embarks on a mission to investigate Ernest’s past and assist him on his journey, Kevin, who is being pursued by a CIA agent straight out of an Amblin adventure, decides to take matters into his own hands.
We Have a Ghost drags on inexcusably, which is strange for a movie geared towards young audiences with short attention spans. It also can’t help but feel a little disposable, which isn’t a good situation to be in, especially in a time when similar forgettable “content” is in high demand. Its failure to fully utilise the scene-stealing Jennifer Coolidge is by far the biggest crime.
The issue with movies like this is that, despite being competently made and frequently starring talented (and extremely popular) actors, they are typically approved not because their production was urgently needed, but rather because streamers had quarterly targets to meet. Even the most moving scenes in We Have a Ghost have a certain artificial quality. This wasn’t the case even 15 years ago, when similarly derivative movies like Transformers and Super 8 still had heart despite all the bells and whistles. If only Landon had been able to focus his love of 1980s family and horror movies into something more memorable.
- Christopher Landon is the filmmaker
- Cast members include Anthony Mackie, Tig Notaro, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, David Harbour, and Jennifer Coolidge.
- 2.5 out of 5
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