Of all the movies Disney should be reattempting, they pick the one that barely left an impression back in 2003. Foolish mortals, indeed. That being said, I have always advocated for studios to remake their less-than successful movies instead of redoing something that worked before. Perhaps we do need a revitalization of a theme park ride. But when you have the directing sensibilities of the man behind Dear White People saddled with the writer behind Ghostbusters 2016, this new Haunted Mansion is presented with quite the chilling challenge. Can it be funny and scary and thoughtful all at once?
The film wastes no time in establishing that the mansion is haunted. Single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move in and quickly find themselves in the company of spirits. Even if they leave the house, the hauntings follow them. In the same fashion as the Avengers, they assemble a team of quirky individuals to investigate the house and combat its spirits. These heroes (I’m not using the word, the script used it first) include paranormal tour guide Ben (LaKeith Stanfield), priest Father Kent (Owen Wilson), psychic Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and Professor Davis (Danny DeVito), a historian on the house.
Setting Up Plot and Lack of Stakes
This is where Haunted Mansion takes a while to get going. Our protagonist Ben may be a paranormal tour guide, but he doesn’t believe in ghosts for one second. When Father Kent turns up at his front door with Gabbie’s request for help, Ben takes the job only because it was well paid. It’s not until he leaves the mansion and takes a ghost with him – via a family-friendly version of the TV channel-switching scene in The Conjuring 2 – that he finally believes ghosts exist.
These sequences of “recruitment” can easily feel procedural and predictable. Though there are a couple of good laughs to be had early on, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re just waiting for the group to get together so the plot can actually “start.” But even when the players all arrive, the script still takes a while to figure out its rules and internal logic, before it can finally explain what is going on in the mansion, what’s causing the hauntings, and what needs to be done.
In the meantime, the film chugs along with a lot of bathos skit comedy, where every actor gets to say or do something weird to get a laugh, and it almost always undercuts the dramatic moment of the scene. Most of the time, the tonal whiplash makes it hard to take any moment seriously. When so much of the writing has “that just happened” energy attached to it, it’s difficult to feel the peril and the emotional stakes.
Thoughtful Ideas and Love for the Attraction
At its best, Haunted Mansion holds some thoughtful ideas about grief and loss, presented in a family-friendly way. Stanfield gives a remarkably great performance, as we slowly come to learn what happened to Ben and how he ended up the way he did. On paper, the character’s journey is very thoughtful, and there are some nice surprising moments between Stanfield and Dillon, as Ben tries to be the missing father figure in Travis’ life.
I just wish the script would have been more serious with its story, or at least juggle its tone better. Just enough improv comedy is good, and sometimes, it works wonders. Wilson may be doing the same schtick where he whispers a lot (though he does not say “Wow”), but his signature humor shines here as a man who isn’t so much scared of the hauntings but is more… tired and mildly annoyed. It brings back fond memories of when he led action movies with Jackie Chan. DeVito is also very funny here, bringing a level of cute stubbornness that gets the group into trouble. However, too much improv comedy can result in the audience feeling like the movie doesn’t care about its own story. By the time the emotional stuff comes, you question whether it’s earned.
All the while, director Justin Simien shows his love and admiration for the theme park attraction by creating a faithful adaptation of not just the ride, but even the line waiting experience. From the elevator designed to look like a stretching room to the evil villain revealed to be an incredibly faithful-looking Hatbox Ghost, fans of the ride would be able to tell that the filmmakers paid close attention.
Haunted Mansion: Good Enough?
Even when this new iteration of Haunted Mansion turned out to be better than expected, it still feels hit-and-miss. It has a couple great cameos, but then it also has CGI Jamie Lee Curtis in a crystal ball. It features some weird twisty sequences that feel as if Sam Raimi went PG, but they’re also undercut by the constant need to make a joke about something.
In the end, Haunted Mansion is okay. Visually, it’s made with love, and all the actors are in the mood to play. For better or for worse, it makes for a fun spooky night on Disney+ for the family.
Haunted Mansion premiered at Disneyland on July 15, 2023. It will be released in theaters worldwide on July 28, 2023.
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