I’ve loved the Disney-Land Haunted Mansion ride my whole life, it’s probably my favorite of their original attractions, and by extent, I’ve always enjoyed the expanded universe of the rides setting. On its own, the ride is a sensational, atmospheric, and fun spooky attraction that perfectly gets me in that special Halloween mood. However, many of the individual characters from the ride have their own back stories, and the setting has a mythos that’s been expanded in books, video games and even fan sights. Outside of the United States, other versions of the Haunted Mansion ride have put even more focus on characters with either spooky or tragic backstories, and it really gives the ride a life all its own. In short, there’s great potential to expand the Haunted Mansion universe in TV series, specials, and most especially movies.
Unfortunately, unlike “Pirates of the Caribbean”, spin-off material revolving around the Haunted Mansion ride is more sparingly seen, and the rare times we do get something, it’s not always successful. While I have my fondness for the 2003 movie “The Haunted Mansion”, it was largely written off as a disappointment, and even I’ll admit the ride deserved better. Over the years, there was talk of another potential film based on the ride, Guillermo Del Toro’s name was even attached to a project for a while, but it kept slipping through the cracks. Finally in 2023, we got a second movie simply titled “Haunted Mansion”, which was very exciting for me, and even if it didn’t surpass any expectations, I was just ready for a new movie based around the attraction.
This film follows a haunted tour guide named Ben Matthias, who doesn’t believe in hauntings, and is only keeping his job out of respect for his late wife. One day, he’s asked to debunk a supposedly real haunted manner home, which is currently owned by a mother and son, who are relentlessly being pursued by the spirits of the estate, no matter where they go. Sure enough, after Ben’s first visit, he too is followed by ghostly apparitions demanding he go back to the mansion to lift their curse. More and more people get roped into the hauntings, and soon a supernatural investigation is underway to discover the secrets of the mansion, and hopefully bring peace to these unhappy spirits. While the first movie was a self-contained, single night adventure, this movie focuses on people coping with spirits in a haunted location over several months, which is a nice change-up. Eventually, it’s revealed that the ghosts themselves are being haunted by a villainous outside force, who’s slowly growing in power, and may potentially be a threat to both the spirit world and the mortal world.
Right off the bat, I love this set-up, as the concept of ghosts being haunted by another more terrifying ghost is a great idea for a Haunted Mansion adaption. Also, I love that the famous hitchhiking ghosts from the ride are literally living-up to their title by following our human characters no matter where they go, and constantly bringing them back to the mansion. The rides famous line "Hurry Back, Hurry Back", is now re-worded as "You'll Be Back, You'll Be Back" ... which I find more ominous. Naturally, I loved all the details that tributed the ride itself, as we see characters actually ridding on chairs, there’s a replicated overhead shot of the ballroom with the sprits partying, a phantasm play’s the organ with ghostly notes flying out the pipes, and the hallways endlessly stretch on, but only from the characters perspectives. I love this one detail of a candle with a face that gets spooked by an approaching spirit, and it tries to blow-out its own flame … little touches like that go a long way in giving this adaption some personality.
There are also levels to the hauntings and how their presented. At first, the mansion is tightly spaced, dingy and colorless, with only hints of supernatural activity going on. Then when the characters dream, or Astro-project themselves into the spirit world, we see the setting in a different likeness.
Everything is black lit, the ghosts are transparently visible, the environment gets active, it’s colorful, and the setting can rearrange itself in the blink of an eye, almost like “Inception” meets “Insidious” … admittedly not as big as those two, but still in the same realm of imaginative ideas and creative imagery. There’s a great effect of someone landing on the floor, which suddenly becomes a door opening into a hallway, with the character now running in the same frame. There’s even a moment when they replicate the cartoony gag of running through multiple doors, just like in the animated “Scooby-Doo” hallway chasses. The famous stretch room from the ride is also utilized in a wonderful set-piece, with our hero’s trying to scale the walls with the aid of the gargoyles and paintings, while also being pursued by aggressive alligators … although I do wish the gators were more zombie like in their design.
Admittedly, for all the great things at the film’s disposal, there are some setback’s that keep the film from reaching its full potential. The pacing in the first two acts can get a little rocky, and there’s long stretches without any excitement. I feel at least ten or fifteen minutes from these first two acts could have been either removed or trimmed down. There's not much comedy either … certainly a charm factor from the cast, but I’m not really laughing that hard. Also, while the film acknowledges it’s 999 ghosts, we only see them in small glimpses, and I wish there could have been more focus on them and their individual personalities. Once again, this film put’s too much focus on human characters, and when there’s lengthy scenes of people talking with other people, it makes the setting feel less special, and more like a backdrop.
In the plus column, the cast is good, and there’s a comforting chemistry from all these players, which helps carry me through the moments when the narrative loses its momentum. LaKeith Stanfield delivers an admiral performance in the lead role of Ben, and I like the themes revolving around the character, focusing on grief, and how to move on. Rosario Dawson is always a welcome presence, and is good as the mother of a single son. On top of that, the connections between these three leads are fine, and help to give this movie an anchor. Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson and Danny DeVito are all pleasant in their roles, but I do wish they were playing different ghost characters as opposed to more humans roped into the mansion. Even Wiona Ryder in her small cameo is just an ordinary tour guide, when she could have been utilized as a fun supernatural entity.
While the casting of Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota is a curious choice, it’s at least a celebrity playing a supernatural inhabitant of the mansion, which is what I wanted from most of the cast. I also apricate that Madame Leota gets more back story, and a reason for being trapped in her crystal ball. The ghost of Mr. Gracey is present, but noticeably downplayed, especially after the 2003 movie put so much focus on him. The biggest surprise was the absence of the four Singing Busts … it doesn’t feel complete without them. The vengeful ghost-bride Constance Hatchaway gets to shine in some suitably creepy moments. In recent years, she’s become the main villain of the American Haunted Mansion Ride, and I was surprised she didn’t get a bigger role in the movie. Still, her presence was at least welcome, and she contributed to the films best spooky moments.
The real lead villain of the movie is the classic Hatbox Ghost, played by Jared Leto. He was one of the original ghosts from the rides early debut back in the 1950’s, but was quickly removed, as his vanishing head effect never worked to satisfaction. Only recently in 2015, the Hatbox Ghost returned to the ride as one of the main attractions. As such, it’s really cool that the movie singled him out as the lead antagonist, especially after his character had been dormant for so many decades. The movie also gives him a cool backstory, presented in an awesome visual esthetic. The villain himself has a suitably dominating presence, and manages to stand apart from all the other ghostly apparitions.
Once we segue into the films third act, things are consistently exciting, and the film delivers with a terrific looking final battle in a cemetery. Our villainous Hatbox Ghost takes control of some spirits, while others aid our hero’s, there’s green mist, spirits flying all about the place, characters running about the grounds, and thankfully there’s no cliched wedding set-up like in the first movie.
Once the curse is lifted, the spirits are given the choice to either move on, or stay on the grounds, which many of them do … now they can live up to their title of “Happy Haunts”, no longer in fear of a sinister spirit. In a nice twist, the human characters have grown accustom to the ghosts, and choose to live with them in their mansion … which for me would have been a childhood fantasy come true. I also love that the epilogue is set on Halloween, with traditional seasonal decorations on display in the mansion. I think this might be the first time that Halloween and the Haunted Mansion officially came together.
One issue I have to mention is the miss-use of the rides theme song “Grim Grinning Ghosts”. That song has always been an October staple for me, and for years I’ve always wanted to see this song presented as a full-on musical number in either a movie or special. This is the third time I’ve been denied that, and what’s worse … this movie teases me with a dance number set to the famous song.
As our characters celebrate their victory, the ghosts start to throw a Halloween party, the song builds-up, it seems like we’re about to have a fun dance or party number, I'm feeling giddy all over … only to quickly cut to black, and the credit’s role … unbelievable! I at least like that the theme song was utilized in different instrumental segments, including on the streets of New Orleans, which sounded great. Actually, I liked that the setting of New Orleans got some attention and had a personality present in the film. Speaking of hold-over songs, this is the second Haunted Mansion movie to feature the song “Superstition” … not the Raven Symone cover from the first movie, but the original Stevie Wonder version.
While I couldn't imagine this movie scaring any older viewers, it can be effectively spooky for younger viewers, without being a damaging experience. Similar to "Ghostbusters" or "Gremlins", this can be a suitable transition film for older kids entering their double digits to go from fun spooky entertainment to more genuine horror films like "Poltergeist".
When all is said and done, I quiet enjoyed this movie for what it was, and found it an overall improvement over the first movie … but we’re still a far cry from what I feel is a definitive film version. It’s still not on the same level of either quality or appeal as the first “Pirates of the Caribbean”, but I at least felt this latest “Haunted Mansion” put in some effort to be a good movie, balancing it’s fun, goofy and spooky nature with mature themes of facing loss, grief, and a lead performance that was honestly better than this film deserved. Needless to say, all the creatively fun haunts were there, the cast all-around was great, and it may not be on the same high bar of the theme-park attraction … but this was still a fun ride in its own right, and worth riding again when Halloween comes around.
Thanks for
reading my review of the 2023 movie “Haunted Mansion” … and let’s make
every day in October feel like Halloween!
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