- Directed by Christopher Landon
- Written by Christopher Landon, Geoff Manaugh
- Stars Jahi Di’Allo Winston, David Harbour, Anthony Mackie
- Run Time: 2 Hours, 6 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82I1ErFD63U
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was all around pretty awesome. Funny and touching, with great special effects, an excellent cast, and a clever script. The comedy lightens the horror elements very well.
Synopsis
We watch from the street as people run screaming from the house, jump in their car, and drive away. The door slams behind them. Credits roll.
A year passes, and the house needs a lot of work. The Presley family and the realtor go inside for a showing. Frank, Melanie, and their two sons, Kevin and Fulton like what they see, but why is the house so cheap? Melanie asks, “Nothing bad happened here right?” The realtor denies that, “It’s just a buyer’s market.” Kevin, the teenager, goes up to the creepy old attic and thinks it’s a dump. They soon move in.
We soon see that there’s a lot of family tension between Frank and Kevin. Kevin says they’ve had “so many fresh starts that I’ve lost count.” That night, Kevin hears someone up in the attic and goes to investigate. He sees a ghost who “Wooooooos” at him. Kevin giggles and records the whole thing. The ghost wears a shirt that says “Ernest” and he doesn’t think it’s funny at all.
Kevin meets Joy, their next-door neighbor. She says the neighbors call their new home “The House of Death,” and she thinks that’s cool. After school, Kevin confronts the non-scary ghost and has a one-sides conversation with him. Ernest can’t talk and can’t remember anything about his life. He can become physical with a bit of concentration. We soon see that Ernest is a little protective of his new friend.
Kevin starts watching YouTube videos about ghosts and psychics. His brother Fulton steals Kevin’s camera and sees the video of Ernest, so does dad. They’re both impressed, but think they shouldn’t tell Mom. Frank posts the video on YouTube.
Ghost expert Dr. Leslie Monroe does a sparsely-attended book signing at the local bookstore. Someone asks her is she’s seen the new viral video of the ghost in the guy’s attic.
Kevin calls for Ernest while Frank and Fulton are there, and they all see him. Melanie comes in, sees Ernest, and everyone screams. She wants to move, unlike all the white families in horror movies who overstay their welcome. Frank, on the other hand, wants to cash in on this with his YouTube videos—this could be a big opportunity.
Ernest soon becomes a viral sensation, and we see lots of imitator and fan videos. There’s the “Ernest Challenge,” where people run head-first into walls. Dr. Monroe watches the story unfold on the Dr. Phil show, and she’s interested. She goes to the CIA and wants to reopen the old department. They throw her out.
Soon, there are news crews and a mob of fans outside. Kevin and Ernest work on jogging Ernest’s memory. Joy helps Kevin research property records to figure out if Ernest actually lived or died in the house. He bought the house in 1965, but there’s no death certificate.
TV psychic Judy Romano comes to the house for an episode. Kevin shows Ernest a bunch of horror movies to show him what’s scary. She interviews Frank on TV, but as soon as the cameras are off, all Hell breaks loose. He terrifies the production crew, but Judy isn’t falling for it—until she does. The video of that goes super-viral. CIA Director Shipley finally comes to see Dr. Monroe. Her job is to find and apprehend a ghost.
Joy does more research and finds out that Ernest isn’t the man who used to own that house; the ghost’s name isn’t even really Ernest. The real Ernest is still alive. Who is he? Dr. Monroe comes to talk to Frank and Melanie. Monroe says that all ghosts are dangerous and evil and Kevin is in great danger. Frank throws her out. We see that the CIA is preparing a whole containment facility for Ernest.
Kevin talks Ernest into trying to go outside, and the crowd outside chases him down the street with comedic results.
The CIA raids the family house, but Ernest, Kevin, and Joy are out on a road trip They’re trying to track down Ernest Scheller, the former owner of the house, who probably knows the identity of the ghost. The CIA makes Frank report Kevin and Joy as being abducted. The sheriff soon finds the kids, but they escape with a little supernatural assistance after a car chase.
When Kevin and Joy stop at a motel for the night, Ernest tries to play matchmaker.
The next morning, Kevin finds the real Ernest Scheller, now an old man. Scheller was expecting him. He tells how he lost his old bowling shirt, the one the ghost wears. His name was Randy, and he’s his brother-in-law. Randy’s wife died, leaving him alone with his daughter June. One day Randy took June to Ernest Schelling’s house and just vanished. He sold his car, stole Ernests’s shirt and identity. Ernest says Randy wasn’t such a great guy in life, and maybe he deserved what he got.
Suddenly, the ghostbusters arrive with Dr. Monroe in charge/ They shoot Ernest with some kind of gun, and they take him away. Kevin is reunited with his family, and it’s clear that there’s more tension there. Frank and Kevin talk about parenting, and maybe things are going to be better between them now.
At the super-secret high-tech ghost lab, Monroe and the CIA director talk about their new subject. She’s glad to have proven her theories, but now she’s starting to have doubts about the CIA’s intentions. Ernest/Randy starts to have some memories while in custody, and the story doesn’t match what old Ernest said earlier. Ernest murdered Randy. In the fastest about-face ever, Dr. Monroe releases Ernest. Ernest takes an Uber home.
Meanwhile, old man Ernest breaks into Kevin’s house with a gun. He’s kept his secret for fifty years, and wants it kept that way. Frank and Fulton hear someone downstairs and come down with bats to find Ernest holding a gun to Kevin. Ernest admits that he wanted baby June, so he killed Randy.
Kevin runs to the attic with killer-Ernest right behind him. Randy appears, and he’s not happy. Between Randy and Frank, they push the old man through the stained-glass window to his death.
The CIA Director interrogates Kevin about ghost-Ernest’s disappearance. Kevin shrugs. With the murder all resolved, maybe the ghost didn’t need to hang around anymore. The director doesn’t believe it, but can’t do much.
The family goes to find June, Randy’s grown daughter, and there’s a reunion between the two. His memories of her all come back, and she remembers him as well. A little later, Ernest starts to glow and dissolve; he’s moving on, but not before giving Kevin a hug goodbye. Later, the family sells the house and moves away.
Commentary
It’s really long, but it could have stood to be longer still; this would have been a great miniseries. The production values are high, the acting is good, and it never really slows down. It’s a mystery, a comedy, an action film, a family drama, and a horror story all combined. It’s got a lot going on. All questions are answered and everything gets resolved.
It’s funny and fun—I liked it a lot!