I Just Saw

Based on a theme park ride, Disney’s Haunted Mansion is one of their few live-action films in a while to not be a bastardisation of one of their animated classics. It also has a lively sense of humour and real energy to its storytelling, harkening back to the first Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), also based on one of their attractions. As was Jungle Cruise (2021), meaning I think that there have now been enough such films to constitute a sub-genre.

Of that genre, if the first Pirates film is the best, Haunted Mansion comes second and Cruise third. 2003’s The Haunted Mansion, meanwhile, might rank a distant fourth given that it’s one of the many family-oriented films that Eddie Murphy made once his heyday was long past, ranging from the historically disastrous (2002’s The Adventures of Pluto Nash) to the mediocre (2003’s Daddy Day Care). I don’t think it’s too outlandish to guess that this new adaptation of the ride is better than the one that came out 20 years ago.

The plot is that a New Orleans-based astrophysicist, Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), is grieving the loss of his partner when Father Kent (Owen Wilson) requests his expertise in spectral photography at a mansion inhabited by Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon). On crossing the threshold, however, he finds himself tied to the house by mischievous ghosts and determines to break the spell with the help of his new friends, also including a professor (Danny DeVito) and a medium (Tiffany Haddish).

Surprisingly to me, this film has gotten middling to bad reviews, the consensus (as per Rotten Tomatoes) being that it’s neither funny nor scary enough. As for “scary”, it’s a family film, you’re not going to get a Nightmare on Elm Street sequel. You’re not going to see blood pouring out of sconces and the cute child protagonist dragged to Hell. I don’t know why any grown-up critic would expect scares from a Disney flick. That’s like going to a romance film expecting to see action violence, or a DC film expecting to be entertained. And if the film was genuinely scary the same critics would be calling it inappropriate for children.

With regards to “funny”, it’s not exactly a knee-slapper but I found it jolly enough. It’s really a Halloween-themed adventure film a la Hocus Pocus (1993) or Caspar (1995), both of which also received middling to poor reviews before becoming cult favourites. I have a suspicion that Haunted Mansion will do well on VOD and streaming come Halloween, what with parents looking for films to watch with their kids or just keep them occupied for a couple of hours, which may be why Disney elected to release this 12A film before the spooky season. Parents might be hesitant about taking their little ones to a film recommended for ages 12 and above, but who really looks at classifications all that hard when picking something out from the kids’ section of a streaming service?

The special effects I thought were conceptually fun, using a lot of distorted perspectives to shrink and enlarge various parts of the mansion, including a reference to MC Escher. The plot takes hints from Shirley Jackson’s classic 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, in its depiction of a group of people trapped at a haunted mansion overseen by a villainous patriarchal spirit. The effects have been criticised too but I found them effective and colourful, if a little dimly lit here and there.

The film is old-fashioned in ways both good and bad. Its boilerplate structure as to both its main and child characters is a little overfamiliar. Matthias was an astrophysicist at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) but now he’s leading ghost tours around New Orleans because he lost his partner for the most generic reason possible for one of these films, while Travis is a nerdy kid who can’t understand why kids don’t find his classroom diligence and bow ties cool.

However, these generic elements are outweighed for me by the charmingly old-fashioned adventure stuff, which includes messages drawn on bathroom mirrors and read via steam from the taps, ghostly sea captains, and Scooby-Doo corridor chases. The celebrity supporting roles are also fun. Jamie Lee Curtis shows up as a head in a crystal ball and Jared Leto gives his first acceptable performance for years as the evil spectral patriarch. (Although I suspect that his voice was digitally tinkered with. He’s unrecognisable anyway, so it would have been worth just hiring a great voice actor.)

All in all, this is a fun gothic adventure film with some colourful special effects, good performances, and a nice spooky vibe. Good summer (and Halloween) entertainment.

Rating: 3/4