We Have A Ghost (2023) Movie Ending, Explained: You need to know what you’re getting tangled up in before you decide to give the tongue-tied David Harbour-starrer horror comedy a fair shot. Saying that it’s a film that Scorcese could make a sullen tweet about would be a good way to gear you up for Netflix’s We Have A Ghost. Perpetually dad-like Harbour’s Ernest may as well have been a Marvel-bound friendly ghost haunting the franchise with adorable mischiefs.
That being said, this is in no way a bad thing about Christopher Landon’s supernatural comedy. What ‘We Have A Ghost’ lacks in terms of fully developed characters, disinterest in a truckload of unironic narrative cliches, and originality, it makes up for with heart. Having earnest lovability (grant me this pun) on its side as its saving grace and, frankly, its only redeeming quality, Landon’s film strong-arms an avalanche of endearing tropes to manipulate you into rooting for the good guys–in a good way.
We Have A Ghost (2023) Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis
It isn’t just their ideas of who may be the most influential guitar god ever to have existed that 16-year-old Kevin and his father, Frank Presley, doesn’t see eye-to-eye about. In point of fact, Kevin hasn’t been feeling all that close to his father, who in better days used to be his best friend. Frank has lost track of himself in his tedious and often futile passage of tracking easy money. There has even been a pyramid-scheme wreckage of their finances which had Frank’s customers running to the toilet instead of getting the desired effect of the male enhancement pills.
With big bro, Fulton too detached and lost in his teenage tomfooleries and mom Melanie being too offhanded even though she means well, Kevin is a lonely teen in a hostile world. So it comes as no surprise that he isn’t too excited to move into the suspiciously low-on-the-listing, scroungy house in Illinois. And what better way to get an angsty teen to take to an unsolicited move than to give him a cute neighbor? The deal is even sweeter when Joy is a bit of a rebel herself and roars the trumpet in her yelling father’s face.
Enter Ernest
To abide by the haunted house’s housewarming tradition, the ghost in the attic of Kevin’s new home shows his face to the lanky kid. Sadly for the apparition, he doesn’t particularly have the signature ghostly menace in his growls. But even then, Kevin could be a little nicer than laughing straight in his face while recording his amusing moans and groans on his cell phone. As it turns out, when Kevin goes back to the attic to serenade him into showing up, the ghost doesn’t hold a grudge. Looking at the enormous apparition with kind eyes and a pretty discernible bald patch, Kevin wonders what his name could be.
That is before the kid lays eyes on his monogrammed bowling shirt that reads “Ernest.” What a sweet name for a ghost with a glum face who roams the netherworld without the ability to talk or any memory pertaining to his life or death whatsoever. But he’s capable of love. At least, that’s what it looks like when he shoves Fulton across the room when he was picking on his little brother. Kevin can’t keep Ernest a secret from his family despite really wanting to. However, it is pretty peculiar how Frank’s first instinct upon finding the video is to post it online.
What Does Kevin Find Out About Ernest?
The first video of Ernest’s laughable boos receives a fair amount of flack from non-believers online. But with the next one starring a screaming Melanie and Ernest crashing and dispersing into the wall, the Presley house is now officially viral. Floods of tweets and reels celebrate Ernest, and some even go as far as to take part in an Ernest challenge where they violently crash into the wall and fail to go through it due to their material state of being. But that weirdness is nothing compared to those who have developed a crush on the unearthly being. Frank, being the money-driven man he is, has already recognized the raw potential he can exploit.
Because of his father and brother’s self-serving intentions with Ernest, Kevin decides to look him up online to find out who he was and how he died. Kevin’s search was going nowhere, and that is when Joy swoops in with her clickety clicks and finds out that a man named Ernest did, in fact, own the house at some point. Joy momentarily loses interest in the Ernest ordeal when their probing seems to hit a dead-end. But she soon ambushes Kevin in the boy’s restroom to show him the ID of Ernest Scheller. But there’s a catch. The man in the picture isn’t the ghost that has made Kevin’s attic his home. Kevin and Joy need to track down the real Ernest to get to the bottom of his origin.
How Do The Kids Find Out The Ghost’s Origin?
Hoards of Ernesters have congregated around the Presley house to catch a glimpse of the friendly ghost. Melanie may be increasingly irritated by the ceaseless attention the house is getting, but Frank is over the moon counting the cash. When Ernest catches television’s attention, celebrity medium Judy Romano brings over her crew to the house for an episode on her show.
Judy isn’t buying into the real-life ghost phenomenon and can’t wait for Frank to do his bit and summon the fake ghost. That isn’t something the recently trained Ernest takes too kindly. In an Exorcist meets The Conjuring style of wreckage, Ernest scares the bejesus out of each of Judy’s crew before frightening the smug celebrity bad enough to make her take a plunge from the window. That results in attention from a super secret paranormal wing of the CIA. Yes, you heard that right. CIA’s overzealous agent Dr. Leslie Monroe shows up at the haunted house to warn them against the supernatural terrorist.
Meanwhile, Joy and Kevin are paying a visit to the bar that the real Ernest Scheller used to own. The bar’s current owner reluctantly cedes Ernest’s address to the kids. Kevin has been of the notion that facing triggers might make his ghostly friend’s memories resurface. Out in a park goofing around, the apparition’s sad eyes fixate on a little girl on a ride, and glimmery flashes of his own daughter arise before him. Lost in the flood of memories coming to the surface, he reaches out to touch the girl who, unbeknownst to him, screams bloody murder and sends the crowd into mayhem.
The formerly friendly image of the ghost being shattered allows the CIA to get the permits to break into the house and capture him. Flocks of SWAT officials laser up the house and hold the family captive as Joy and Kevin are en route to Ernest’s house. Surprising them with a congenial welcome, Ernest opens the door to his home. With his immobilized wife by his side, Ernest is made to look back to a past he would rather not remember. What Kevin learns of his sweet preternatural friend is hard for him to make peace with. The ghost that resides in his home is Ernest’s brother-in-law Randy.
When Ernest’s wife’s sister had an untimely demise, Randy sought peace in the bottles of booze and left his daughter behind before disappearing. Randy’s spirit enters Ernest’s home by knocking a bronze bird on the floor. Before heartbroken Kevin can get a grip on himself, the CIA, accompanied by Dr. Monroe, blasts through the door and captures Randy. As a team of doctors gears up to experiment on Randy, morose Kevin retreats into his own thoughts that blame him for being unable to save his friend.
Seeing his kid in a devastated state, Frank has had a look inwards to acknowledge all that he did wrong. Frank isn’t the only one who’s rethinking his choices. Spending an entire lifetime studying the nooks and crannies of all things supernatural, Dr. Monroe had convinced herself that a ghost could not be benevolent. Being in close quarters with Randy allows her to see how sensitive and generous a spirit can be. It breaks her heart to see him being poked and prodded by people who believe it is acceptable to torment a ghost. She takes it upon herself to stop the evil scientists and set him free.
We Have A Ghost (2023) Ending Explained
How Did Randy Die?
There’s an unexpected intruder in the exorcized Presley house. Ernest has been lurking around, waiting for everyone to fall asleep so he can break in and finish what he started. With a surprising amount of vigor, the old man chases the family around with a gun and practically confesses to the crime that he expected them to know of already. What he had originally said to Kevin about Randy’s past was only partly true. Randy was evidently in great pain when his wife passed, but he didn’t leave his daughter behind. When Kevin was at Ernest’s home, he told her that neither he nor his wife ever wished for a child.
When in truth, being unable to conceive a child was too much for them to bear. They had snatched Randy’s daughter from him and decided to raise her as their own. To ascertain that Randy couldn’t take the child away from them, Ernest killed him and buried the body in the ground. If the film weren’t already crawling with irrational bits, I would be more peeved at how an old man can take on Frank, Fulton, and Kevin. Just as Ernest is about to shoot Kevin, Randy emerges as a superhero and saves his friend. However, it is Frank who happens to throw the murderer straight through the gorgeous stained glass window that has seen better days.
Did Randy Cross Over To Nothingness?
Kevin isn’t necessarily lying when the CIA questions him about Randy. We’ve all been expecting that Randy will be free from his purgatory once he finds closure. Frank and Kevin have brought him to a scenic threshold of a flowing river to give him all that he has been longing for. They’ve found his daughter June and have granted the lost father and daughter a last chance to be in each other’s loving presence. A daughter touches her dead father, evading the bounds of the two worlds. We’ve seen Randy smile before. But his face is of the sweetest sense of peace as he sees his daughter, someone he didn’t think he would ever see again.
The hardest goodbye he has to say, however, is to Kevin. He has come to love the boy who didn’t mind risking his life for him. Randy has been an irreplaceable source of warmth like no other to Kevin. The two share one last bittersweet hug as Randy slowly dematerializes into the air. The Presley family has decided to sell the house. And yet Kevin can’t help but wonder if Randy can still see him. As they leave the attic, the light flickers. Randy may not be as far gone as they would think. Or perhaps, another spirit has taken his place. Either way, this doesn’t seem to be the end of the road for Kevin and Randy.
Related Read: We Have a Ghost (2023) Review: An Under-cooked Ghost-Buddy Story That’s Occasionally Amusing
We Have a Ghost (2023) Movie Links: IMDb, Rotten Tomatoes
We Have a Ghost (2023) Movie Cast: Jahi Di’Allo Winston, David Harbour, Anthony Mackie, Tig Notaro, Isabella Russo, Erica Ash
Where to watch We Have A Ghost
