We Have a Ghost is written and directed by Christoper Landon who also directed Happy Death Day, Happy Death Day 2U and directed and co-wrote Freaky. Those movies masterfully blend horror and comedy which is Landon’s strong suit. It’s clear than if he’s intent on continuing to make horror-comedies, a genre which has been good to him thus far, he needs to give them more bite and a more darkly comedic tone. This movie is described as “heartfelt,” a quality that I’m not looking for in my horror-comedies nor does it yield entertaining results when a writer like Landon is shackled by it. The writing in We Have a Ghost varies from sounding like an amateur film project made by 15-year-olds to a 65-year-old cluelessly out of touch with internet and youth culture.
This movie is terrible. If I hadn’t been reviewing it I would have gladly turned it off. Did David Harbour lose a bet with someone at Netflix? Why was he cast in this? He’s a physically imposing man with a cool speaking voice. Why make him into a dowdy, nerdy speechless ghost? What an abysmal role for Harbour. His reveal as a ghost is neither scary, funny nor eventful in any way and the ghost CGI is unbelievably awful. You guys are NETFLIX! What are we doing with these atrocious effects? They’re not even that ambitious! Literally a ghostly arm and a melting face! That can’t be difficult to pull off!
We Have a Ghost is desperate. Desperate, sad, boring, bad and convoluted. It throws everything at the wall and hopes that something will stick but nothing does. You’d think that all of the attempted plotlines would warrant the movie’s two hour runtime but good Lord, this movie is egregiously long. The humour and horror are too childish for older audiences and the emotional beats are too boring and sappy for younger audiences. It’s a hodgepodge that ends up satisfying absolutely no one. Unoriginal, unfunny and uneventful, I’m afraid this confused mess will haunt audiences for years to come.
1️/5
Review by Luke Elisio