There’s nothing quite like the particular kind of disappointment that comes from walking into a film excited and walking out questioning how it ever got made. That was the mood leaving Haunted Heist, Lil Rel Howery’s directorial debut, which premiered this week at Fantastic Fest. What should have been a clever, high-energy mix of heist hijinks and supernatural comedy instead landed as one of the most painfully misguided and awkward screenings I’ve attended in years.
The premise sounds promising enough: a recently released ex-con gathers his longtime friends for a reunion, but there’s an ulterior motive — he plans to steal a valuable antique rumored to be hidden in the house he’s “rented” for their get-together. The twist? The house is haunted. In theory, this could have been a fun, fast-paced collision of genres. In practice, Haunted Heist is neither suspenseful nor funny, and it’s barely coherent enough to follow.
The film boasts a cast of proven comedic talent — Tiffany Haddish, Karlous Miller, Andrew “King Bach” Bachelor, and Howery himself — but the writing fails them completely. Scenes ramble on as if no script existed at all, with endless, clumsy ad-libbing that substitutes noise for wit. Instead of jokes, we get meandering dialogue and aimless banter. By the halfway point, it’s clear the movie isn’t building toward anything; it’s simply treading water until the credits roll.
And then there’s the tone — or lack thereof. Haunted Heist frequently stumbles into territory that’s not just lazy but downright offensive. Stereotypes are played for laughs, and several jokes land with such uncomfortable weight that the mood in the theater shifted palpably. After the premiere, I spoke with a number of viewers — including three Black friends — and we all shared the same stunned reaction: we were shocked that a Black writer, Carl Reid, had created something so tone-deaf and regressive.
Howery and the cast were in attendance, clearly hoping for laughs and applause. Instead, many audience members ended up in the hallway talking about how bafflingly bad it was. Thankfully, the film clocks in at just over an hour and a half — though even that felt far longer than it should have.
In the end, Haunted Heist is a frustrating misfire: stupid, meatless, offensive, and utterly pointless. What could have been a fun, fresh debut instead plays like a first draft someone forgot to finish. This isn’t just a bad movie — it’s one that actively squanders every ounce of potential it had.