My Review of Haunted Mansion (2023)

 

Written by Katie Dippold

Directed by Justin Simien

Father Kent: "This mansion is unhinged. She needs all the help she can get. You wanna be a hero?"

Ben: "Pass."

For some strange reason, Disney thought it would be an excellent idea to release this movie during the summer. Needless to say that strategy didn't exactly work for them, though sending it to Disney+ for Halloween month was a smart move.

This is a film you want to watch this month and not during the summer. It's also a film marred with some very mixed reviews and while it's not the slam dunk for Disney that Hocus Pocus 2 managed to be, it's actually fairly enjoyable.

It helps that there's a few protagonists to take an active interest in as well. You've got astrophysicist Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) turned cynical tour guide following the death of his wife, Alyssa (Charity Jordan). He's not a believer in the supernatural whatsoever, so it's up to several other characters to get him on board with that.

The other characters/protagonists being a mother and son named Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and Travis (Chase W. Dillon) who bought into the haunted mansion of the piece - the Gracey Manor and are plagued by ghosts. There's also hints of a potential romance between Ben and Gabbie but mostly he's a help towards her son moving past his own grief.

Along with the mother and son duo, Tiffany Haddish,Danny DeVito and Owen Wilson provide a lot of the comedy with their respect roles. A genuine psychic in Harriet, an amusing college professor in Bruce Davies and a conman who does step up as a hero in Father Kent. The three of them are actually a delight to watch while Jamie Lee Curtis has her moments in her limited screen time as Madame Leota.

On the minus side, Jared Leto's performance as the villain of the piece - The Hatbox Ghost aka Alistair Crump was more of a mixed bag. Compared to other infamous villain he's played in recent times, it was better but overall, it's one of the weaker performances in this movie.

- Nice cameo appearances from Winona Ryder, Hasan Minhaj and Daniel Levy in very small roles.

- We got the Disney 100 logo at the start of the movie. 

- The product placement in this movie is certainly over the top but oddly amusing in some scenes.

- Chronology: I'm assuming it's 2023 for the majority of this movie.

Haunted Mansion wasn't the success story that Disney and the poor release date really did screw over an entertaining enough spooky-ish tale. It's not the best adaptation but it's not the worst either. A diverting enough way to spend two hours.

Rating: 7 out of 10