The film follows a family who moves into a new home, only to find it haunted by a ghost (Harbour). However, instead of being frightened out or calling an exorcist like in every other other haunted house story, the family turns the ghost, affectionately named Ernest, into a viral media star. However, when Ernest’s newfound fame attracts not only fans and spirit mediums but a crack team of government ghost hunters as well, the youngest son of the family takes it upon himself to protect Ernest and solve the mystery of his death.
The film released on Netflix February 24, 2023.
Previews: Trailer
We have a page of tropes:
- All for Nothing: "Ernest's" in-laws murdered him in order to steal his daughter June to raise as their own. The real Ernest mentions that the now-adult June hasn't spoken to them in years, with the implication she may have suspected the truth, meaning their efforts to take someone else's child meant nothing once said child cut all contact with them.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Kevin repeatedly calls Frank out on exploiting Ernest and treating him like a thing they can use to make money.
- Car Hood Sliding: Ernest slides across the hood of the heroes’ car during a chase sequence.
- Destination Defenestration:
- Ernest is able to frighten the spirit medium enough to send her jumping out a window.
- Frank is forced to lunge at the real Ernest and send him out the attic window.
- Disappears into Light: Ernest dissolves into light particles as he finally passes on.
- Evil Aunt: "Ernest's" sister-in-law wanted a child, so after her sister died she convinced her husband (the real Ernest) to murder her brother-in-law so they could raise their niece June as their child.
- Evil Old Folks: The real Ernest not only killed Randy so he and his wife could steal his child for themselves, but got rid of his blood-spattered bowling shirt - embroidered with his name - by burying him in it. He gets away with it, but renewed interest in the "Ernest" case fifty years later inspires him to take a gun and start cleaning up loose ends.
- Genre Mashup: A horror-comedy mixed with, among others, a sci-fi, a family drama, a rom-com, a road trip movie, a murder mystery, and towards the end a home invasion thriller.
- Ghost Amnesia: Ernest doesn’t have much in the memories of his life or how he died.
- Heel–Face Turn: Dr Leslie Monroe set out to vindicate herself by proving the existence of ghosts - but when she learns that the government has other plans for Ernest, she frees him herself.
- Intergenerational Friendship: The heart of the film is the bond that forms between the ghost Ernest (played by Harbor in his late 40s) and 16-year-old Kevin.
- Laser-Guided Karma: the real Ernest and his wife are hit with this big time. First, their "daughter" disowns and cuts off any contact after apparently learning the truth about her real father, then the wife gets a stroke, and finally Ernest himself gets a Karmic Death at the hands of the ghost.
- The Men in Black: One of the biggest obstacles in the plot is the ghost-hunting government organization led by Dr. Leslie Monroe. Monroe performs a Heel–Face Turn when she discovers that the government funded her project for the normal reasons the government funds these kind of projects in these kind of stories - namely, finding a new weapon to exploit.
- Moody Trailer Cover Song: Defied and inverted - they deliberately lean in on the comedy premise with an upbeat version of the originally moody "Break On Through".
- Nightmare Fetishist: After his video goes viral, Ernest gets his share of fangirls.
- Noodle Incident: The events of the cold open, featuring a family running from the house in terror in the middle of the night, are never explained.
- Our Ghosts Are Different:
- Ernest cannot speak, can be caught on camera, and has Ghost Amnesia.
- Leaving the home in broad daylight is usually impossible for traditional ghosts, but Ernest just has to be convinced into doing it.
- Livings can not touch Ernest as tradition but oddly enough Ernest can touch livings.
- Outside-Context Problem: Inverted - one of the big dramatic parts of the story is the discovery that the U.S. Government was Crazy-Prepared enough to fund Dr. Monroe's ghost-busting project even if they think she's nuts and ghosts don't exist.
- Seen It All: Judy Romano is initially apathetic to Ernest's ghostly antics, figuring it's all cheap special effects while her crew is freaking out. It's only when Ernest grabs her that Judy realizes he's real and quickly loses it.Judy: I gotta get out of basic cable, it's so unprofesh.
- Shipper on Deck: Ernest immediately tries to push Kevin and Joy together, and later dolls him up like a parent would on a kids' first date when the two are forced to (platonically) share a hotel room together.
- Shout-Out:
- Frank thinks that he can summon Ernest back to him by yelling "Beetlejuice" three times.
- After watching actual horror movies for research, Ernest terrifies Judy and her crew with backwards contorting and spider-crawling.
- Frank reads headlines about Ernest being out in public that read “Ernest the Not-So-Friendly Ghost” and “Paranormal Whacktivity”.
- Right after getting a pair of shades that look like the ones Agents use, Ernest has to deal with a Car Chase by phasing through their vehicles when they're still at full speed.
- Take That!:
- The East Asian Joy is the first one to tell Kevin of his house's haunted history."I'm an atheist, but if I die I'd totally come back and haunt Ted Cruz!"
- Judy Romano is initially unwilling to hop on the Ernest bandwagon:"What about Kris Jenner, isn't there someone in her family that died recently?... Her dog?"
- There's a hurricane of jabs at online meme culture, such as the guys doing the "Ernest Challenge" by running into walls.
- The East Asian Joy is the first one to tell Kevin of his house's haunted history.
- Tomato Surprise: Ernest isn't his real name - it's actually Randy. The real Ernest, in order to steal his daughter June to raise with his own wife, bludgeoned him to death from behind and buried him in his bowling shirt - which just so happened to be embroidered with his name - to hide the fact that it was stained with Randy’s blood.
- Unfinished Business: Ernest’s business seems to be reuniting with his long-lost daughter. After accomplishing this, he seems to finally pass on, though the last shot of the film implies he might not be gone entirely.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Of the Obliviously Evil variety. Leslie Monroe distrusts and fiercely hunts ghosts because she's convinced that ghosts are inherently evil, manipulative beings, and she refuses to accept the possibility that Ernest might not be a threat - referring to him as a terrorist simply because he's a ghost. Her Heel–Face Turn involves realizing that Ernest is just a regular person.
- We Will Not Use Photoshop in the Future: Belief in ghosts spreads like wildfire once the first Ernest video is uploaded. A few characters express skepticism but the vast majority of the movie is focused on believers and Ernest's newfound celebrity.
- Who You Gonna Call?: The main threat, as established in the trailer, is a group of ghost hunters with high tech gadgets and orders to capture Ernest.
