The premise behind Haunted Heist sounds like it should be a guaranteed good time. Four estranged friends reunite at a creepy mansion, only to discover the Airbnb getaway is actually a setup for a robbery involving a $20 million antique ceremonial dagger. The catch? The house is occupied by a group of violent (and racist) 1950s era ghosts (Brett Gelman, Ari Dayan) who have their own sinister plans, including a demonic sacrifice. It’s a wild concept that could have balanced supernatural scares with comedy, but the film never figures out what kind of movie it wants to be. The result is a frustrating mix of stale jokes, weak horror, and messy storytelling.
The cast is far and away the film’s strongest element. Tiffany Haddish, Andrew Bachelor, Lil Rel Howery (who also directs), and Karlous Miller have an easy chemistry, and their comedic timing occasionally breaks through even the worst parts of the project. There are moments where it feels like the movie might finally find its rhythm, but those flashes are buried under a script that doesn’t know how to use its talented performers. Even a strong lineup of established comedians can’t rescue material this underdeveloped.
The biggest problem is that the story feels like a short comedy sketch stretched far beyond its natural length. Instead of building momentum, the film gets trapped in endless arguments between characters rehashing old grudges and personal problems. The banter rarely feels clever and relies more on lowbrow humor and jokes that already felt dated years ago. A few gags land, but many others are more awkward than funny, including a bizarre sequence involving a summoned grandmother and a ghostly sexual encounter that just feels so, so wrong.
Howery, who doesn’t appear to have a bright future as a director, struggles to create any consistent tone. The film seems unsure whether it wants to be a legitimate horror movie, a supernatural comedy, or a social satire in the vein of “Get Out.” It reaches for bigger ideas about racism, generational trauma, and confronting the sins of the past, but those themes are mostly reduced to passing, surface level commentary.
The horror elements are equally disappointing. The haunted mansion concept offers plenty of opportunities for tension, but the movie never builds any real suspense. The supernatural threats do not feel frightening, and the cheap looking visual effects only make the ghosts and demons less convincing. The heavy reliance on obvious (and bad) computer generated imagery drains whatever atmosphere the film could have created.
Behind the scenes, the film’s technical issues are all over the place, with abrupt edits, missing pieces of story, and awkward continuity problems. The pacing is uneven with the final act feeling especially rushed, ending with a sudden time jump that comes across as a lazy attempt to wrap up unresolved threads that nobody really cared about in the first place.
The screenplay introduces serious subplots that go nowhere. A character’s cancer diagnosis is presented as an important emotional element before being essentially abandoned. The movie repeatedly hints at deeper character exploration but rarely follows through, leaving the story feeling incomplete.
There is a version of this movie that could have worked. A group of comedians trapped in a haunted mansion while forced to confront their own baggage is a solid foundation for a horror comedy. But the film needs sharper writing, stronger scares, and a clearer sense of identity. Instead, it delivers a collection of disconnected ideas, underdeveloped characters, and lazy jokes. The cast brings energy and chemistry, but they are fighting against a film that never gives them enough to work with.
“Haunted Heist” isn’t scary enough to be horror and isn’t funny enough to succeed as a comedy. What could have been a clever genre mash up ends up feeling like a forgettable sketch that should have stayed on the drawing board.
By: Louisa Moore
Screen Zealots 