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.