Haunted Mansion (2023) Review!!

Synopsis – A single mom named Gabbie hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest, and a historian to help exorcise their newly bought mansion; after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts.

My Take – Though Disney has found massive financial success with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, their other film adaptions based on their theme park rides, have mostly just crashed and burned. Their latest, and third take on the Haunted Mansion attraction, following 2003’s Eddie Murphy starrer and 2021’s Muppets Haunted Mansion streaming special, falls squarely in the middle of these efforts.

In the hands of writer Katie Dippold (The Heat, Ghostbusters) and director Justin Simien (Bad Hair, Dear White People), the film is mildly entertaining and manages to stand in its own space thanks to a cast of actors who are playing off one another reactions to supernatural absurdity with easygoing chemistry.

That said, the film does not do much to stand out from being an average film, mainly as it can’t decide what it wants to be. It is never exceptionally funny nor is it particularly scary (with an exception of a few sequences), making it more of adequate viewing experience than a thrill ride. It’s never complex, and manages to stay a joyful representation of the ride and a decent way to kill 123 minutes.

The story follows Ben (LaKeith Stanfield), a grieving Astrophysicist, who after the recent death of his wife, Alyssa (Charity Jordan), gave up on his profession and became a reluctant New Orleans tour guide. Spending his days drunk and sullen, Ben finds his routine disrupted when Father Kent (Owen Wilson) shows up at his doorstep, offering him $2,000 to help Gabbie (Rosario Dawson), a young single mother, and her 9-year-old son Travis (Chase Dillon) to deal with their haunted house situation, which they had initially hoped to turn into a bed and breakfast.

Aiming to make a quick buck, Ben, a skeptic himself, with his special dark matter detecting camera in hand does wind up at a mansion. But after spending time in the house and not experiencing a single ghost, Ben heads back home, only to be haunted.

Turned into a believer, at least for now, Ben finds himself pairing up with Father Kent, a cost-effective medium Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and an academic specializing in haunted houses Professor Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito) to help rid the the house of the evil spirits that live there, particularly a nasty one called the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto).

Without a doubt, grief is the key focus of the film. We see Ben grapple with letting go of his grief and see another member of the cast do so as well. While the ghosts allow young audiences to fall in love with the supernatural horror genre in a way that only all-ages horror can, the grief in the film aims to show that choosing how you grow from grief, how you leave it, and how you process the powerful emotion is something that only you can do. You have to choose to let go, move on, or celebrate a memory while missing the person you created it with.

Outside of these dramatic elements, the film is also filled with humor that will have you laughing regardless of your age, primarily from Owen Wilson and Danny DeVito, whose comedic timing and chemistry lighten every scene they need to while still bringing a fair bit of sincerity to their camp.

One of the things that you can tell from the ensemble is that they loved being there, and that joy shines through in their comedy. But the film tries to do balance both, inducing tonal whiplash in an otherwise emotionally resonant script. For every breakdown by Ben poised to move audiences to tears, there’s an intrusive one-liner the next minute.

That’s not to say that plenty of that stuff isn’t fun too. Director Simien and his production team craft a delightful recreation of the most famous rooms, apparitions, and sight gags. Scares wise, the film is never exactly spooky, 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.

Performance wise, LaKeith Stanfield and young Chase W. Dillon are the clear standouts. Both bringing in fantastically emotive turns that ground the emotional cores of the film. Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson and Danny DeVito happily embrace their roles as comic reliefs, and their decades of experience shine through in this regard.

Though, Rosario Dawson is a central character, and does decent enough, she is handed over a raw deal here. Jared Leto is sinister enough as the villainous Hatbox Ghost. In smaller roles, Jamie Lee Curtis, Winona Ryder, Dan Levy, and Hasan Minhaj are memorable. On the whole, ‘Haunted Mansion’ is an enjoyable family film that is adequately spooky and funny.