166) NEW HORROR RELEASES - Haunted Mansion (2023)

"The living and the dead belong in different places."

Director
Justin Simien

Cast
LaKeith Stanfield - Ben Matthias

Rosario Dawson - Gabbie
Chase W. Dillon - Travis
Owen Wilson - Fr. Kent

Tiffany Haddish - Harriet
Danny DeVito - Bruce Davis
Jared Leto - The Hatbox Ghost
Jamie Lee Curtis - Madame Leota

When Disney released their film "The Haunted Mansion" in 2003, based on the Disneyland ride of the same name, I was excited to see it. It was released following the success of their other ride-based movie "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl." Plus, I like horror. And the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride at the Disney parks. 

Considering how well the Pirates movie did, I thought a Haunted Mansion movie would surely be amazing. I imagined it would have the same style and look as the Pirates movie, but centered on the neoclassical Mansion found in Disneyland's New Orleans Square. If it took place in the same time period as "Pirates of the Caribbean" that would have been even better. Well, it wasn't the lightening-in-a-bottle success like Pirates was. In fact, it was amazingly and painfully disappointing. 

While a few aspects of "The Haunted Mansion" have settled a little better with me over the years, namely Jennifer Tilly's performance as Madame Leota, the rest is still awful. 

The movie stars Eddie Murphy in the lead role, And while he's energetic in his role, is just a weird casting call. I like Eddie. His performance is entertaining. Still, his style and comedy doesn't fit in this scenario. And the two actors playing his children have no energy at all. There's no chemistry between them and Murphy. The ghosts and all-around spooky atmosphere are dull, barely resembling the ride's style and atmosphere. It wasn't what I hoped it would be. All around, 2003's "Haunted Mansion" is a major let down. In fact, the 2021 Disney+ flick "Muppets Haunted Mansion" is a far better movie then their 2003 film. 

I knew what to expect with the "Muppets Haunted Mansion." It didn't disappoint. I got precisely what I anticipated. And I laughed.   

So, Disney waited twenty years to try it all over again. 

Another Haunted Mansion movie came out last July simply called "Haunted Mansion." 

It has a bigger cast than the 2003 film as it stars Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Jamie Lee Curtis, LaKeith Stanfield, Jared Leto, and a cameo from Daniel Levy and an uncredited Winona Ryder. Disney really tried to outdo itself. Regardless, I wasn't very eager to go out and see this new version. I waited for it to start streaming on Disney+, which it did beginning October 4th. 

This new film takes place in New Orleans. Astrophysicist Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) creates a camera that can digitally capture dark matter. He meets Alyssa who works as a ghost tour guide. The two click right away as they're both interested in the paranormal. 

Grim grinning ghosts coming out to socialize? 

The story shifts to sometime later as Matthias is running the ghost tours without his wife, Alyssa. She has since passed away in a car accident leaving Matthias a widow and burdened with grief. 

A "Catholic" priest and exorcist, Fr. Kent (Owen Wilson) wants to hire Matthias to take pictures of the Gracey Manor, located outside New Orleans, with his special camera. Matthias has no interest in taking part as he really doesn't believe in the paranormal any longer. As he tells a tourist on one of his paranormal walking tours around New Orleans, "Ghosts don’t exist. Life is dirt. We’re all dirt." 

Once Kent says payment will be involved, Mattias agrees to go.

A recently widowed doctor named Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her young son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move into the abandoned Gracey Manor with the intention to convert it to a bed and breakfast.

Ben is the first to see a ghost nearly right away after moving in. Of course, his mom doesn't believe his claim the joint is haunted. It doesn't take long before a ghost makes its presence known to her. 

Though she and Ben run out of the house, they really have nowhere else to go. So, they stay despite the hauntings. 

Matthias shows up to the mansion to take spectral photos per Gabbie's request. 

Of course, he doesn't initially experience anything, nor does he believe Gabbie's claims. However, this changes when he returns home and his haunted by the ghost of a mariner who followed him from the mansion. 

When Matthias returns to Gracey Manor, he learns that Gabbie and her son, along with Fr. Kent, also became the victims of their own personal hauntings after stepping foot in the mansion. 

So, Matthias and Kent hire Harriet (Tiffany Haddish) a psychic who claims to have legitimate powers to contact the dead. I'm not sure why a Catholic priest would consult a psychic. 

They also steal blueprints of Gracey Manor from university professor Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito) who studies supposedly haunted buildings around New Orleans and is anxious to step inside Gracey Manor. 

During a séance held in a secret séance room the group discovers under the house, they make contact with the spirit of Mr. Gracey who owned the home years ago.

It's revealed to them that they must consult the spirit of his former psychic, Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis) who has been cursed and trapped in her own crystal ball. 

Everyone stays in the mansion, and dig deeper and deeper into the house's history. They find that there's a dark force behind the spirits haunting the mansion. This evil spirit is looking for one more willing soul to reside in the home along with the other 999 haunts already residing there.  The living must face this evil spirit before it claims its 1,000th soul. 

There's an underlying message that sadness and grief makes us vulnerable to darkness, and that life is worth living. 

The atmosphere pulled from the ride, and how it's used in the story, creative at times, and forced at other times.

Chase W. Dillon (left) Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield,
Owen Wilson and Tiffany Haddish in "Haunted Mansion."

Also, the backstory behind the mansion, the reason for its hauntings, and some of the familiar characters, especially Madame Leota, are certainly imaginative. The writer's clearly did a better job than the 2003 film in coming up with a backstory with the source material they had from the ride. 

Most of the familiar spooky scenes from the ride are there. There are endless hallways, the doorless and windowless stretching chamber, and the hatbox ghost. What's missing is tension. It's barely there. The tension rises in the first act, and begins fading in the second act. It's gone by the third act. 

Even in the climax when the ghosts all come out to scare, no one is scared. It's just a vehicle to make silly jokes and dumb reactions, such as Owen Wilson trying to distract the spirits from something crucial going on elsewhere by insulting them and provoking them to chase him around. I understand that the ride is meant to be both scary and whimsical as "silly spooks sit by your side" as heard in the ride's song. Still, this doesn't help the movie. Despite seeing all the familiar images from the ride, often used in creative ways along with the creative back story, I still found myself waiting for something exciting to happen. And when the movie finally decides to do something amidst the slumping pace, it's underwhelming. 

The movie suffers from a sputtering plot, lack of tension, poorly used comedic cast, and an overall lame payoff. "Haunted Mansion" just didn't hit the spot.

It starts off strong but just feels too flat by the end. The movie tries to be eye popping, which it is in a few scenes. But I just couldn't get into the plot. It's best when the familiar ride scenes are up on the screen. Otherwise, the movie is as charming as a requiem bell. 

165) NEW HORROR RELEASES - Nefarious (2023)

"There's a great battle going on whether we realize it or not - a battle between good and evil. And we're all participants willing or not." 

Directors
Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon

Cast

Sean Patrick Flanery - Edward Wayne Brady/ Nefariamus
Jordan Belfi - Dr. James Martin
Tom Ohmer - Warden Tom Moss
Daniel Martin Berkey - Fr. Louis
Mark De Alessandro - Dr. Alan Fischer

As I've mentioned before, horror movies about demonic possession often do nothing for me except induce an eye roll. The don't demonstrate much except Hollywood's ignorance of the subject matter. That's primarily due to Hollywood's inability to get anything right about religion in general and Catholicism in particular. They rely on the creepy factor behind demons possessing people who are often young girls.  I get it to a point. It is horror, after all.

Sometimes, there's one film in the subgenre that's done well. "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" is the only one that comes to mind. Even others that I've enjoyed, namely "The Exorcist" and "The Exorcist III," still rely heavily on the grotesque aspects of Catholic exorcism, or rather what Hollywood thinks the grotesque aspects are. They take a lot of creative liberties in depicting the devil and possession. 

Head spinning. Projectile vomit. Strings of obscenities. Levitation. It's all the typical haunted house type of stuff. It can be spooky, but it's all they ever rely on. It's what horror fans expect. 

With many exorcism movies, the devil is in the audience's face while God is hiding somewhere far off. He'll be called upon, but who knows if He'll show up or not. 

The 2023 film "Nefarious" is a story about demonic possession. But this one is completely unique from the rest of them. 

There is no exorcism or shocking gag-inducing horror effects like the movies I've just mentioned.  

In this movie, psychiatrist James Martin (Jordan Belfi) is assigned to take over for the previous psychiatrist who was evaluating notorious serial killer Edward Wayne Brady (Sean Patrick Flanery). He's on death row for murdering 11 people. Brady is scheduled to be executed by electrocution. He requested electrocution over lethal injection. He needs to be medically evaluated to determine whether he's mentally competent to be executed.  

The previous doctor, Alan Fischer, committed suicide by jumping from a building after his interview with Brady. 

Fischer believed Brady to be insane and was going to declare him as such. Prison Warden, Tom Moss (Tom Ohmer) hopes Martin will find him sane so he can be fried. 

He warns Martin that Brady is a highly intelligent master manipulator and can easily get inside his head.

When Martin meets with Brady, he informs the doctor that he's actually a demon named "Nefariamus" who's in possession of Brady's mind and body.

Jordan Belfi and Sean Patrick Flanery in "Nefarious."

Martin is an atheist and doesn't believe in angels and demons. So, he thinks Brady is trying to come across as insane in order to avoid execution. 

As the conversation continues on, Martin falls deeper and deeper into the snares the demon has laid for him. 

He tells the psychiatrist that he wants Brady to be declared sane and fit for execution. Also, he wants Martin to write a Satanic book called "The Dark Gospel" for him.
Soon, Warden Moss shows Martin a scrapbook of Martin's life and a manuscript for "The Dark Gospel."

However, Brady knows details about Martin's personal life that he couldn't possibly know. For instance, he knows Martin euthanized his terminally ill mother in order to inherit her money. 

Later, he claims Martin is taking advantage of his pregnant girlfriend who's undergoing an abortion at the same time as their meeting. It's a detail Brady would otherwise have no way of knowing. 

He also claims that by the end of the day, Martin will commit three murders. 

After an intense dialogue and evaluation, the likes of which Martin has never been through before, he makes his evaluation regarding Brady's mental state. But his troubles don't end there. 

Sean Patrick Flanery's performance is brilliant and amazingly effortless. His character has to alternate between the vengeful, proud and ungodly demon, Nefariamus, and the exhausted and terrified Brady. The amount of effort Flanery must have put into his performance is nothing short of pure talent. It truly deserves recognition.

While the film is categorized as a horror flick based on the supernatural aspect of the story, the fear factor isn't found with typical possession tropes common in other demonic possession movies. There are no eye-popping scares. It's found in the psychology of the demonic entity doing the possessing.

This depicts the demonic mindset towards humanity and God's creation, and the war Hell has waged against all of it since the Devil was expelled from Heaven. 

When Martin asks the demon if Hell is a place or a state of being, the demon answers and continues on about Hell's ultimate hatred towards God. He tells Martin, "He made you in his image; we remade you in ours."

When Martin presses him on Hell's ultimate end of destroying nature, the demon says, "Our plan is to hurt Him. To punish Him. And we do that by destroying what He loves, which is you. You're nothing but a means to an end."

As seen in the scriptures, the devil doesn't pronounce the name of God nor His only son, Jesus Christ. He refers to God as "the enemy" and to Jesus as "the carpenter." 

When things go his way, Flannery depicts the demon as proud and speaking like one in control. When he's not in control, he grows frantic and yells, spouting demands and threats. 

The movie also does something demonic possession movies seldom, if ever, depict - the way a demon gains possession of a soul. 

Jordan Belfi and Tom Ohmer

When Martin first sits down to talk to Brady, unaware he's talking to a demon, the demon immediately tries to gain influence over him by enticing Martin to continue the dialogue. 

The more Martin talks, the more he becomes entangled in the traps the demon has laid out for him. 

All the while, Martin keeps thinking he has the upper hand simply because he sees himself as the reasonable one. It's a false sense of security which comes from his atheism. He doesn't believe in God, angels or demons, so what does he have to worry about. The devil already has a victory over Martin as he's already convinced the doctor that the devil doesn't exist. 

Before Martin realizes it, the demon already has him with no means of escape. 

The devil will speak truth and even quote scripture to ultimate serve a nefarious means - no pun intended. He'll skew the truth and the word of God ever so slightly in order to deceive and confuse. 

He is, after all, still an angelically intelligent being. 

Before watching this movie, I listened to an interview with exorcist Fr. Carlos Martin on a podcast called "Pints with Aquinas" during which he discusses "Nefarious."

"It brought you into the demonic mind which is much more interesting," he says. "That's the realm that I deal with - that an exorcist deals with. And that, I will tell you, at the end of the day is far more frightening. It's far more! If you saw somebody levitate in front of you, it would probably make the hair on the back of your head stand up. The 18th time, would it do that? The 118th time? At a certain point, you move on," 

"Nefarious" depicts this psychological aspect rather than all the usual tropes and such unlike any movie I have ever seen. The flow and storytelling is highly intriguing and truly effortless. 

It may come across as a bit preachy with all its dialogue and that most of the story is a conversation. However, that certainly doesn't diminish its significance. This is a film that will surely be culturally noteworthy maybe 10 or so years from now. 

"Nefarious" has a goal in mind and accomplishes it smoothly. It doesn't take nor need much to tell such a timely story.

I surely hope this movie continues warranting attention and consideration for the time period in which it was made.