‘Haunted Mansion’: Review

Dir: Justin Simien. US. 2023. 123mins

Unveiled at Disneyland in 1969, the theme-park attraction ’The Haunted Mansion’ benefited from its modest charm, offering a family-friendly spooky atmosphere as visitors enjoyed the sight of benign ghosts rendered in agreeably lo-fi fashion. The nagging problem with Haunted Mansion — the studio’s second attempt to adapt the property for the big screen — is that it drains away those simple pleasures, replacing them with an increasing emphasis on action spectacle and strained humour. Despite an appealing cast and some nicely executed moments (not to mention some direct references to the original attraction) Dear White People director Justin Simien’s third feature is mostly a dispiriting experience. 

Mostly a dispiriting experience

Disney releases Haunted Mansion on July 28 in the US, with a UK opening scheduled for August 11. LaKeith Stanfield leads an ensemble highlighted by Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson and Jared Leto, so there’s certainly ample star power. It has been 20 years since Eddie Murphy’s poorly-reviewed The Haunted Mansion brought in $182 million worldwide, failing to even hail the grosses of the other film that year which was based on a Disney theme-park ride, Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl. The same fate may befall Haunted Mansion, which faces a crowded marketplace. Regardless of the theatrical outcome, expect Haunted Mansion to be on Disney+ by the time Halloween comes around.

Stanfield plays Ben, a former astrophysicist living in New Orleans who has hit rock bottom after the death of his beloved wife. He is approached by a quirky priest, Kent (Wilson), who asks him to meet a single mother, Gabbie (Dawson), and her sweet and socially awkward son Travis (Chase W. Dillon), who live in a rundown old house they insist is haunted. Not believing in ghosts, Ben visits the mansion and soon realises that Gabbie is absolutely correct: strange paranormal forces roam the home, although their reasons for hanging out there are unclear.

Simien’s last film was the politically pointed 2020 horror-comedy Bad Hair and, although Haunted Mansion also mixes the two genres, both the laughs and scares are gentler here. Much like the Murphy film, there is nothing gory or grisly in Haunted Mansion’s horror, with Simien mostly relying on cheerful jump scares to ensure that the picture is appropriate for most viewers – except, perhaps, the very young. Rather than being terrifying, Haunted Mansion adopts a funhouse vibe in which the one-liners outnumber the shots of menacing ghouls.

Screenwriter Katie Dippold (who co-wrote the screenplay for the 2016 Ghostbusters) layers in an emotional throughline that is not developed fully enough, envisioning Ben’s journey as one in which he is not just battling spirits but also letting go of his grief for his dead wife. In short order, he will be joined by other misfits — including Haddish’s blustery medium Harriet and Danny DeVito’s eccentric professor Bruce — who are also incomplete in certain ways, finding in each other the sense of community they have been seeking. (As we’ll eventually learn, Ben is not alone in harbouring sadness over a lost loved one.) 

But these quieter, more heartfelt moments do not have much room to breathe in an overstuffed narrative that juggles too many characters and a plot that proves far too complicated. As is the case with myriad modern would-be blockbusters, Haunted Mansion is maddeningly muddled when it tries to explain precisely what is happening, and the results are not very satisfying once Leto’s mysterious villain, known as The Hatbox Ghost, is given a convoluted backstory. At just over two hours, the film lumbers, with both its comedic and suspense sequences feeling laboured. 

Stanfield has been an arresting, off-kilter presence in dark comedies like Sorry To Bother You and romantic dramas such as The Photograph, but here he is constrained by the effects-heavy, conventional studio storytelling. He does have an endearing rapport with Dawson, but it is barely allowed to blossom; likewise, the funny supporting players, no matter their amusing individual moments, never congeal into a winning ensemble. 

Those who know the theme-park attraction will recognise certain visual allusions throughout the film, but such moments don’t liven up the proceedings. Rather, these callbacks merely underline how haunted this picture is by what inspired it. ’The Haunted Mansion’ the ride was a breezy trip that lasted maybe 10 minutes — the film stretches on far longer, offering frighteningly less.