The Presley household has simply moved into an enormous, run-down Victorian home in Chicago. It seems like the kind of home you’d see on the quilt of a ghost story, and that is as a result of the home is certainly haunted — by Ernest (David Harbour), a balding spirit who can solely make moans and groans (you appear to lose your voice once you die, together with a few of your reminiscences). Firstly of the movie, we see a household flee in terror from the haunted home, however the Presleys are completely different.

Kevin (Jahi Winston), the youngest son of the household, is a lonely child who simply occurs to see Ernest first. Fairly than run away in concern, Kevin finds Ernest’s ghoulish antics amusing, and the 2 kind an unlikely bond. You would possibly suppose that Kevin will spend the remainder of the film attempting to maintain his new ghost buddy a secret from his household, however “We Have a Ghost” twists expectations and has all of the Presleys find out about Ernest fairly shortly. Kevin’s mother (Erica Ash) stresses that she does not wish to be like each white household in each horror film and insists they pack up and depart. Nonetheless, Kevin’s father Frank (Anthony Mackie) has greenback indicators in his eyes. We be taught that Frank has a historical past of failed get-rich-quick schemes, and he desires to make Ernest his newest declare to fame and fortune. Frank and Kevin’s older brother (Niles Fitch) add footage of Ernest to YouTube, and shortly Ernest goes viral — leading to a really humorous sequence wherein social media embraces the ghost and turns him into a star. 

Harbour has a considerably difficult position right here — his character is nearly fully dialogue-free, which suggests the actor leans into broad, considerably over-the-top physicality combined with a stunning disappointment that reveals it ain’t simple being ectoplasm. Ernest cannot bear in mind how he died, and he is spent a long time considering he is trapped in the home unable to go away — a perception that seems to be false as we see when Kevin and his buddy Isabella (Pleasure Yoshino) take Ernest out into the world.