WE Have A Ghost is a supernatural family film, now showing on Netflix, that lacks a little life.
But it makes up for its worrying lack of pulse with plenty of oomph, which will undoubtedly appeal to its younger target audience.
The film’s story has a sort of ET The Extra Terrestrial vibe to it, albeit with more of a Casper the Friendly Ghost paranormal twist to proceedings.
The Presley family, who have had more fresh starts than Bertie Ahern, move into their new home, which has a rather murky and haunting past. After striking up a friendship with their ghostly lodger, the family become internet sensations, giving PewDiePie and Jacksepticeye a run for their money.
But as poor old E.T. found out to his detriment, making friends and stepping out of your comfort zone usually brings shadowy government agencies sniffing around, looking for an opportunity to do some probing of their own.
Ernest, played by David Harbour of Stranger Things fame, is haunting the home of teenage boy Kevin (Jahi Di’Allo Winston). The pair quickly strike up a friendship and earn each other’s trust. The problem is, Ernest does not know why he is stuck in Kevin’s family’s attic and has no memory of either his life or death.
The empathetic teen wants to help Ernest regain his memory so he can move onto the afterlife but his father Frank (Anthony Mackie) and brother Fulton (Niles Fitch) have other plans.
After capturing Ernest on video and becoming overnight social media sensations, their focus is purely on selling merchandise and becoming bigger YouTube stars than Mr Beast.
But with the CIA now on Ernest’s tail, himself and Kevin must go rogue and travel across the country to find out what really happened this spooky figure.
We Have A Ghost is far from perfect, but there’s plenty of laughs and excitement for the kiddies as well as a fairly touching ending to bring it to a rather wholesome conclusion.
(3/5)
