We Have a Ghost

So first we deal with the positives. Easily my favorite thing about the whole movie is the relationship between Kevin (Winston) and Ernest (Harbour). The story focuses on Kevin and his family moving into this dilapidated old house. The kicker is that it’s haunted by the ghost, Ernest. You get the feeling that he’s used to chasing off new residents of the house but this time he’s met his match. When attempting to initially haunt Kevin, he’s met not by screams of fright but laughter. Dismayed by Kevin’s reaction, Ernest retreats. However, Kevin snagged a video on his phone before all was said and done. Kevin’s brother, Fulton, finds the video and shockingly isn’t swayed at all by the fact that there’s a ghost in their attic. He readily shows it to their dad (Mackie) and he doesn’t bat an eye either. In fact, they immediately hatch a scheme to become YouTube famous over the whole affair. Kevin and Ernest develop a kinship that is rather sweet. Kevin is bent on trying to figure out what happened to Ernest in life to help him find a way out of his ghostly entrapment. The trouble is that Ernest can’t remember anything and he’s also mute. Makes communicating more difficult but not impossible. But finding out what he can about Ernest proves to be a challenge.

I also enjoyed the secondary plot with Tig Notaro’s character, Dr. Leslie Monroe. She’s a paranormal investigator tied in with the Government who is finally vindicated once the legend of Ernest gains enough social media clout. Revitalized in her life’s work, she seeks to rejoin the project “ClipWitch” that she began years ago now that there is viable evidence of a full fledged ghost in the world. She plays the antagonist for a portion of the story but finds her way back as an ally at a crucial point in the film. I will say that her role in the film is significantly small and I think when it comes right down to it, the reason I enjoyed her in this film is because I always enjoy Tig Notaro. Her deadpan comedy is fantastic and even though it’s typically in small, bit roles, her acting is really enjoyable. She was my favorite part of the Netflix original “Army of the Dead”. So despite her role being relatively small in the film, she was a fun presence to have on screen when she was there.

Finally I will say that by the end of the film, there’s some great family dynamics that come into focus. The story starts off a little rough. The characters are rough around the edges and out of sync. The family has had a number of moves and everyone is spiraling in their own directions. Kevin is kind of the odd man out. His older brother is rather self absorbed. His dad is always looking for his next big idea and mom is just kind of there. The relationships are disjointed at best and the advent of Ernest to their mix just pushes everyone further apart. Except for the solace that Kevin finds in trying to help his new ethereal friend, everyone is in their own little world. While his dad and older brother are trying to figure out how to monetize a ghost via social media, Kevin is desperately trying to figure out who Ernest was in life so he can help him become unstuck as a ghost. As the movie unfolds, everyone begins to see the things that are truly important in life and when things are really tested in the final act, the family finds their way back to each other in a really meaningful way. Though ultimately the mechanism of Ernest’s ghost is really the only qualifier that makes this a “horror” movie, I will say in the end that it pleasantly surprised me in the end.

Now what I wasn’t such a big fan of when it comes to this movie. The first act of the movie is this homage to going viral on social media and I thought that the whole plot was going to be fixated on this idea. It was considerably annoying while enduring it. There was a montage of TikTok clips and Snapchat videos that illustrated all the standard tropes. This whole aspect of the film was dated, lazy, and didn’t work for me. There’s aspects of it that showcased Mackie’s character’s desperation to get rich quick which ultimately feeds into his redemption so there’s a part of it that slightly works but there’s much better ways to disparage his character earlier on in the film. On top of it all, I really have to say that the speed at which everyone arrived at the fact that there’s a ghost living in their house and how flippant they were about that was comedic but not in a funny way. When Kevin’s brother sees the video on his phone he’s not shocked or dismayed. He doesn’t even question it. Upon first viewing his immediate natural inclination is to openly accept that their house is haunted by a ghost. Doesn’t bat an eye. Just instantaneous acceptance of the fact that not only do ghosts exist but there is one living in their attic and it’s a fantastic advantage to them. This is only slightly dwarfed by the fact that when their dad walks into this scene that he somehow seems quicker to not only accept and celebrate this fact but he instantly chooses to try and monetize this newfound specter. There is nothing less appealing to me in this moment than the idea that social media is the best venue to display their ghost to boost their own fame. And then the fact that this ridiculous idea somehow takes root and begins to grow for them is just asinine. It begins with garnering the attention of a well known YouTube psychic played by Jennifer Coolidge. This whole endeavor is stupid. I did like that Kevin and Ernest take the opportunity to mess with people but per his character’s moral compass, I feel like Kevin would have likely protested a bit more at being any party to this social media circus his family was cooking up. The whole ordeal is only exacerbated by the fact that Mackie’s patriarch attempts to scold his youngest son’s collusion with their apparition only to forget all about it when finding that the older son’s posting of the ghostly shenanigans has garnered millions of hits online in just a few minutes. A crowd continues to grow outside the family homestead in hopes of catching a glimpse at Ernest. I know there’s an aspect of this that’s realistic insomuch as the desperate fringe of some people who are so eager to participate in an online fad that they would do something like camp outside someone’s home. But the reality is they’re more there as a mechanism to hinder Kevin’s attempt to further understand who Ernest is and how to help him find peace ultimately.

I think the only other thing that I didn’t overtly enjoy from this movie is summed up in the notion of the antics of this film. While I appreciate that it’s a horror comedy, again the only aspect of this film as it relates to the world of horror is that there is a ghost in it. I’ll admit that elements of the finale are a bit more sinister but it really still borders on a slightly updated version of Casper in a lot of ways, just not good ones. Update some of the tropes from the 90’s to 2024 and that’s not a terribly unfair comparison. The film is not scary in the least, save for maybe one or two terribly mild startling moments. I don’t even want to give them the status of jump scares as one of them is just Kevin’s older brother literally jumping out at him. The scene isn’t really played up to a point of tension to manipulate into a scare with a jump. So I do feel like classifying this film in the horror section is a bit unfair. Fellow Netflix horror comedies like Hubie Halloween and The Curse of Bridge Hollow definitely had some far more harrowing moments that lent themselves much more dedicatedly to a true horror nature. Comedy abounded, yes, but elements of fright were not almost entirely omitted. If you replaced Ernest with E.T. then this movie is all but lacking Reese’s pieces and a copyright infringement lawsuit. It’s just not a scary movie and it’s the silliness of the whole thing that undermines that. There are moments when that aspect of the film is enjoyable. When Kevin and Joy (Asian neighbor turned girlfriend played by Isabella Russo) go on an impromptu road trip with Ernest to visit a long lost friend in Oklahoma, there’s a mix up at a gas station with some local sheriff and deputies that hilarity ensues which was pretty entertaining on the part of exercising some of Ernest’s ghostly abilities. It was a fun scene but again, it just undercuts the overall film having much to do with spooks and scares in the end. So I think that’s where I had most of my problem outside of the social media nonsense.

Overall the film isn’t bad. Like I said, it doesn’t feel like much of a scary movie so if that’s what you’re in the mood for then I’d pass on it. Watching it with my 12 year old, (as my 10 year old fell asleep if that’s any indictment of the overall entertainment quality of the film) he seemed to enjoy it. It sparked some fun conversation about other horror movies that I enjoyed having with him so that was a positive. And truth be told, we started the movie later than I knew we should have if I wanted my 10 year old to stay awake. But on a Saturday night, if the movie really grabbed his attention, he would not have drifted off. Even adding in some of my own MST3K jokes on the front end per their request to quell any potential scares didn’t keep him in the mix. I’d say the film is probably a solid grade C. It’s not a bad movie by any means but it’s not going to scare anyone. The story is ok. The actors did a fairly passable job. It hits that mark for what a lot of Netflix programming is, background noise. You could turn this movie on, while fixing a meal or the ever popular folding laundry example and not have to really pay attention while still having the value of background noise in the mix. If you drifted in and out of the film you might not totally understand what was happening at any given time but the nice thing is you probably don’t really care all that much either as nothing about the film is overtly interesting and nobody is particularly endearing enough to care what’s happening to them. Frankly you could flip a coin as to whether you watch this movie or not and feel good about however it turns out. That’s about all I have to say on this particular flick. We’ll be back again tomorrow with hopefully a little more exciting and maybe more traditionally scary film. Pretty sure I’ve got an older, hopefully more reliable pick already in mind. Until then, I’ll catch you on the flip side.