We Have a Ghost

Christopher Landon makes wonderfully quirky horror films that defy the typical cynicism of the genre nowadays. He avoids the pretension of “elevated horror” ...

Leslie Monroe [Jennifer Coolidge ](/cast-and-crew/jennifer-coolidge)as Judy Romano, the West Bay Medium [Erica Ash ](/cast-and-crew/erica-ash)as Melanie Presley [Isabella Russo ](/cast-and-crew/isabella-russo)as Joy Yoshino [Niles Fitch ](/cast-and-crew/niles-fitch)as Fulton Presley [Faith Ford ](/cast-and-crew/faith-ford)as Realtor Even as “We Have a Ghost” sags in places, it never completely fades into the dull background of Netflix originals of late. Father Frank ( [Anthony Mackie](/cast-and-crew/anthony-mackie)) is struggling to make ends meet and to maintain a healthy relationship with his increasingly-distant son Kevin (Jahi Di’Allo Winston, so good in “ [Charm City Kings](/reviews/charm-city-kings-movie-review-2020)” and on “Everything Sucks!”). Of course, “We Have a Ghost” becomes a bit of a whodunit too as Ernest learns about what really happened to him, including the identity of his killer. [Tig Notaro](/cast-and-crew/tig-notaro)) and her CIA boss Arnold Schipley ( [Steve Coulter](/cast-and-crew/steve-coulter)). [Geoff Manaugh](/cast-and-crew/geoff-manaugh), “We Have a Ghost” opens with the Presley family moving to a fixer-upper in Chicago.

Netflix's new movie "We Have a Ghost" features filming locations in Louisiana. The Chicago home is portrayed by two homes in New Orleans.

A convention center in New Orleans was transformed into the CIA office. The mountain background was shot in Bozeman, Montana, and added to the setting through visual effects. Naturally, the Presley family’s new house is one of the movie’s standout stars. “We shot the movie in the dead ass of summer in New Orleans, which anyone will tell you is crazy.” The soaring attic where the ghost, Ernest, likes to hang out was filmed on a soundstage. Ahead, dive into everything else we know about the filming locations in the movie.

Review: David Harbour is one lovable dead guy in 'We Have a Ghost'; plus the artful 'Bruiser'. A ghostly figure hangs its head out a ...

His Oscar-nominated latest is the mostly dialogue-free story of a donkey that gets passed from owner to owner and predicament to predicament in vignettes that Skolimowski captures with wit, humanity and astonishing visual flair. “The Outwaters” begins with lots of loose footage of young folks hanging out. “God’s Time” has an endearingly scrappy vibe and a talented cast filled with unfamiliar faces. The real star of “Ambush” is Connor Paolo, playing Cpl. [Billy Bob Thornton](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-ca-billy-bob-thornton-20180607-htmlstory.html) — educates his crew by sharing colorful anecdotes from his misspent youth, filled with rich details about both the fun and the responsibilities of being a bad guy. The artful indie drama “Bruiser” starts out as an engaging but perhaps too typical coming-of-age story about a middle-class kid cracking under the pressure of having to be a diligent and well-behaved student all the time. “We Have a Ghost” is unnecessarily long, padded with tangential comic characters — including Jennifer Coolidge as a phony TV spiritualist and Tig Notaro as a bitter ex-CIA agent — who don’t do a lot to advance the story or make it funnier. It’d be hard for anyone to compete with Thornton, but “Devil’s Peak” isn’t helped much by the bland performance of its lead, Hopper Penn, who plays Charlie’s softhearted son Jacob. Dubbed “Ernest” because of the name stitched on his shirt, the ghost — who can make noise but can’t talk, and can touch people but can’t be touched — tries to chase away the home’s new family by howling and making scary faces. Jalyn Hall plays Darious, a teenager whose parents have saved and sacrificed to send him to a nice boarding school, providing the kind of comfortable upbringing they didn’t have. In this case, most of the heart-tugging comes via Kevin, from his strained relationship with Frank and his attempt to help Ernest figure out who he really is. [David Harbour](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2022-12-02/david-harbour-violent-night-santa-claus-action-christmas) as a spirit haunting a fixer-upper house in the Chicago area.

A so-so attempt to recall kids films of the 80s struggles to find its own personality amidst its many influences.

The bigger it all gets, the further we feel pushed away and it starts to recall the scrappy disaster of Happy Death Day 2U, which squandered the simple joys of the original by needlessly extending the canvas. There is some mildly interesting familial tension at play between Mackie’s opportunist father and Winston’s disappointed son (a speech about being unable to hide one’s faults when a child gets old enough to see them is effective) but Landon struggles to bring emotional heft to the central friendship. In Landon’s simpler, sweeter low-stakes opening act, the film works best, a charming melange of Casper, Beetlejuice and the aforementioned Amblin classics, gently taking us through familiar motions. “We have a ghost!” is then exclaimed with the words meaning something different to each family member. It makes sense that he would then parlay that into the world of family films and so his Landon has always been transparent about his influences – Happy Death Day recalling Groundhog Day, Disturbia recalling Rear Window (to the extent that Hitchcock’s estate tried to sue) – but here, he’s too busy trying to conjure the vibe of a certain type of film to focus on crafting something of his own.

But his latest role as Ernest the Ghost in Netflix's We Have a Ghost is unlike any character he—or almost any other modern actor—has ever attempted. The gimmick ...

In We Have a Ghost, Harbour brings that same tenderness, which as always is juxtaposed by his giant, gruff exterior. Whether Ernest is giving Kevin an encouraging wink to get him to make a move on Joy, or desperately searching the back of his mind to remember how he died, Harbour conveys everything he needs to without crossing the line into pantomime or saccharine sentimentality. The movie is in the vein of Amblin movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s, with parallels to that era of wholesome yet un-patronizing storytelling found strewn throughout. From there, it’s an avalanche of antics as Kevin and his neighbor Joy (Isabella Russo) fight to keep Ernest out of the CIA’s grasp. The question is, why make a movie in which one of its most recognizable stars on Netflix doesn’t say a word? He doesn’t speak once in the entire movie.