Disney’s second crack at adapting its famous Haunted Mansion attraction into a cinematic experience fares much better than its Eddie Murphy-starring predecessor. In the hands of writer Katie Dippold and director Justin Simien, 2023’s Haunted Mansion is a soulful New Orleans ghost story that expertly speaks to younger audiences about death, grief's stranglehold, and the afterlife. Dippold finds a tender beating heart at the core of her screenplay without sacrificing the gateway horror ambitions of this PG-13 spookshow. Haunted Mansion successfully balances emotional sweetness and just-frightening-enough spectral scares with a Disneyfication of genre tropes, becoming a fun-filled scary movie for (almost) the entire family.
An eclectic ensemble – led by LaKeith Stanfield in the role of Louisiana tour guide Ben Matthias – squares off against the 999 spirits inhabiting single mother Gabbie’s (Rosario Dawson) new residence. Gabbie and her social-outcast son Travis (Chase Dillon) try to flee from the estate when they discover its paranormal infestation — they’re no fools. Dippold acknowledges how silly it’d be for a family to cohabitate with unpredictable entities and writes characters who hardly want to become Ghostbusters. Still, they have to because the film’s rules cleverly establish a logical reason that keeps everyone from a full-sprint exit. From Danny DeVito’s oddball college professor Bruce to Owen Wilson’s suspiciously chill Father Kent to Tiffany Haddish’s cost-effective medium Harriet, there’s no glaring weak link. Haunted Mansion is one of those comedies where everyone seemed to enjoy their time on set, which makes for a loosey-goosey cast playing off one another’s reactions to supernatural absurdity with easygoing chemistry.
As a film that handles tough conversations about a peaceful, even celebratory afterlife, Haunted Mansion does a tremendous job softening the blow of crushing mortality. Death can be a petrifying concept for any audience, let alone youngsters, but Haunted Mansion handles existential dread and immense grief with the fearlessness of a showstopper like Coco. In the context of storytelling (and without forcing beliefs down anyone’s throat), Dippold uses Ben’s broken heart as an entry point into discussions that blur the lines between “life” and “death” as we perceive. The themes of Haunted Mansion are comforting, like mouthfuls of spicy-savory jambalaya warming our hungry stomachs.
Surprisingly, Haunted Mansion is also scarier than expected for a production based on an all-ages theme-park ride. “Scary” compared to my initial presumption that expected padded-and-safe horror glimpses to please the Disney faithful who couldn’t handle Saturday the 14th, let alone the movies it spoofs. It’s not The Conjuring or Poltergeist, but an early bedroom scare involving a hatchet-swinging husband killer whose ghoulish figure disappears and reappears due to a flashlight’s beam earns the PG-13 rating. Simien uses Ben’s specially designed ghost-capturing camera like he’s in a level of Fatal Frame – Haunted Mansion takes its gateway-horror duties seriously.
Watching the namesake attraction spring to life in Simien’s film is a joy, as everything from dining room dancers to the elongated entryway walls are translated to the screen. Visual effects by DNEG and Industrial Light & Magic dodge any complaints about modern reliance on dull computer graphics in movies, with colorful pinkish-greenish ghost realms and Aquafresh-blue ghosties — none more sinister than Jared Leto’s villainous Hatbox Ghost. Dippold reaches into Haunted Mansion lore and pulls out a menacing uber-spirit, a ride figurehead imbued by an unrecognizable Leto with cackling malice and textbook evil.
If there’s something to ding, the just-over-two-hour duration leaves room for less successful jokes that succumb to the inescapable (but thankfully infrequent) coddling inherent in a horror story told by Disney. Chase Dillon makes a mighty impression as afraid-of-his-shadow Travis, but his fatherless character’s interactions with parental stand-in Ben are also a bit ordinary by dramatic measures. There are corridors of mediocrity scattered throughout Haunted Mansion, whether that’s the alright-at-best disembodied head of Jamie Lee Curtis digitally trapped in a crystal ball or less compelling scenes set outside Gabbie’s haunted property. Between dozens of Easter eggs for seasoned Doom Buggy passengers, wonderfully wicked visuals, and a strong grasp on crowd-pleasing haunted-house mechanics, there’s no reason to leave the mansion for long stretches of the runtime — which becomes a brief frustration when that happens.
Verdict
The first attempt at spinning a movie out of the Haunted Mansion was DOA, but Justin Simien finds new life in the premise. Gateway horror can be so fickle because it needs to impress viewers of all ages while gearing scares toward lower tolerances. Haunted Mansion does precisely this with a cast of characters battling their own existential demons in addition to the their grim, grinning roommates. Don’t worry, it’s still an enjoyable romp that makes for maximum moviegoing entertainment — the boldness of the storytelling and creepiness of haunted New Orleans architecture are welcome bonuses.
