We Have a Ghost [2023] [PG-13] - 3.4.4 | Parents' Guide & Review | Kids-In-Mind.com (2024)

Why is “We Have a Ghost” rated PG-13? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language, some sexual/suggestive references and violence.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a kiss, some flirting, several sexual and suggestive references, a man is murdered, several encounters with law enforcement including weapons being fired toward a ghost and teenagers, a few car chases leaving property damage, many arguments, and some strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

Finding a ghost (David Harbour) in his new family home, a man (Anthony Mackie) publicizes the story on the internet and basks in the resultant social media fame. However, when his son (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) starts investigating the amnesiac ghost’s past, they become the targets of a secretive government agency. Also with Erica Ash, Niles Fitch, Isabella Russo and Tig Notaro. Directed by Christopher Landon. [Running Time: 2:07]

We Have a Ghost SEX/NUDITY 3

– A teen boy and a teen girl kiss briefly. A teen girl and a teen boy lie on a bed in a motel and sleep (they find a stain on the sheets on the second bed in the room and say they smelled something bad).
►A teen boy reveals his abdomen in a mirror for an Instagram selfie, refers to himself as “hot,” looks at a lot of dating apps (we see girls’ faces), and talks about having sex. A woman on a social media platform says a ghost impregnated her. A woman flirts with a married man, smiling and saying, “You’re mine.” A man tells a woman that he saw someone who was gay, acting as if it were scandalous, and she shrugs off the comment.
►A teen girl wears short-shorts and another teen girl wears a bra under an open shirt (we see cleavage and her abdomen).

We Have a Ghost VIOLENCE/GORE 4

– SWAT officers, police, and CIA agents chase, threaten, shoot at, and try to capture a ghost and two teens; the encounters include handguns, rifles, electronic rifles with flashing lights, a car chase, and car crashes as the ghost and two teens run through streets and stores and people scream; the ghost jumps into a few police cars and causes them to crash by distracting the drivers (once by shooting out the dashboard), we hear metal twisting and see a couple of bumpers fall off; a cruiser smashes into a pillar outside a store (no injuries occur), a semi-truck hits a car and another car runs underneath it and gets stuck, a sheriff points a gun at the ghost in a house and the ghost takes the gun, a deputy points a gun at a teen boy and a teen girl kicks the deputy in the crotch to make him fall down.
►CIA and SWAT people force their way into a home and take over the house as the father and mother shout in anger; a woman says she’d rather swallow razor blades than give the CIA information. A man is found in a house by a teen boy and the man holds the boy hostage at gunpoint as a man and a woman scream. A man and a teen boy arm themselves with a ball bat and a metal rod and go after an older man found in their house and the older man kicks the boy down basem*nt steps; they all end up in the attic after a struggle, the old man grabs a teen boy, and a ghost grabs the older man who shouts, “I killed you,” and gets knocked unconscious by the ghost; the other man rushes the older man, causing him to fall out a window to his death below (we see no blood).
►SWAT officers use electronic rifles to cause intense pain to a ghost and they arrest him along with a teen boy and teen girl; two police officers yell at the ghost, who is held in a room with a force-field and one officer points the weapon at the ghost as a woman uses another such a weapon on the officer, shooting him unconscious and allowing the ghost to escape.
►A flashback shows two men as one man leaves his young daughter with the other man, who kills him with a metal sculpture, striking him on the head (no blood is seen); the living man buries the dead man in the backyard.
►Screams are heard at night from an old house and people rush out the front door that slams loudly behind them; they scream as they enter a car, speed away and we see the house a year later during the day and understand that it is abandoned. A family moves into a house and a teen boy says it’s a dump as we see trash, debris, and cobwebs and hear creaking doors. A ghost appears in a house and befriends a teen boy, but throws an orange at the boy’s father (it does not strike the man). Men, women, teens and children scream at a ghost in different scenes.
►A ghost can touch people, but people cannot touch him and when they try, they move right through him; sometimes he is translucent and sometimes he is invisible. A ghost pranks a fake TV psychic by roaring, moaning, contorting his body into something bug-like as he runs on all fours, and melting his face (his eyeballs fall out); he tries to strangle the woman with a muscular, skinless arm that shoots out from his mouth, and then he releases her as she screams. A ghost cannot speak and uses facial expressions, gestures, and a few written words to communicate. A ghost runs through walls on a social media video and is followed by several young men trying to do the same, but they crash into the wall and fall down (no blood is seen). Two teen boys argue and wrestle, and a ghost tosses the older boy into a wall, frightening him into leaving the room.
►A huge crowd cheers and shouts outside a ghost’s house, making it hard for the family to go anywhere. Men and women scream and run out of a house. Children at a playground run and scream when they see a ghost. We hear that a little girl was attacked by a ghost in the past. A ghost steals a car and visits an elderly man whose wife sits immobile in a chair, suffering from dementia.
►We hear that a man’s wife died in childbirth. A teen girl says she wants to be a ghost to haunt Ted Cruz. Parents and teen children argue in several scenes, sometimes loudly, about the father failing at several flimsy business schemes. We hear that a man had a fistfight at a bowling alley. A man and a woman argue heatedly in several scenes. We see two women argue and a man and a woman argue loudly. A man shouts at his sons and takes their cell phones away from them, saying that they use them too much. We hear that an internet post about a man shooting himself in the face was fake.
►A woman meets a ghost at a lake and tells him he is her father; they hug and in a few minutes, the ghost begins to turn into golden dust and disappears as a teen boy hugs him and looks sad.

We Have a Ghost LANGUAGE 4

– 1 obscene hand gesture, 5 sexual references, 30 scatological terms, 13 anatomical terms, 19 mild obscenities, name-calling (old White man, old White dude, stupid White family, Ernest-the-not-so-friendly-ghost, house of death, paranormal whacktivity, racist [scatological term deleted], stupid, insane, crazy, dummies, weird, fools, dog-face, ghost boy, woo-woo science, lame, snitch), exclamations (wow, whoa, shut-up, oh my gosh, jeez, son of a …), 1 religious profanity (GD), 24 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Christ on a cracker, thank God, sign of God, Holy [scatological term deleted], a man dresses up like Jesus Christ). | profanity glossary |

We Have a Ghost SUBSTANCE USE

– A woman mentions another woman taking Xanax with wine, and we hear that a man was high on drugs. A bar shows shelves with various liquor bottles, a man appears wobbly (we don’t see him drink), a man is said to have been a heavy drinker, we hear that someone was drunk, and we hear that a man will drink himself to death.

We Have a Ghost DISCUSSION TOPICS

– The supernatural, ghosts, science vs. superstition, social media, cellphone videos, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, CNN.com, texting, racial stereotyping in high school, frequent use of profanity, money, work, fame, anger, amnesia, death, loss, murder, secrets, loneliness, compassion, the clandestine services of the US, government intrusion, injustice, family, helping others.

We Have a Ghost MESSAGE

– Parents don’t have to be perfect and they can let teens make decisions, even if they sometimes break rules.

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.