HAUNTED MANSION : Tuesday 12th September 2023

I saw the PG Rated 'HAUNTED MANSION' this week, and this American supernatural horror comedy film is Directed by Justin Simien in only his third feature film making outing following his debut in 2014 with 'Dear White People' and then 'Bad Hair' in 2020. This is the second cinematic adaptation of Walt Disney's theme park attraction 'The Haunted Mansion' following the 2003 film of the same name which although it was panned by critics at the time grossed US$183M off the back of a production budget of US$90M. This film has however, done the opposite garnering mixed reviews and having so far grossed US$106M off the back of a US$157M production budget making it a Box Office failure. It saw its World Premiere screening at the Anaheim Disneyland theme park in California in mid-July before its release in the US at the end of July and here in Australia from the end of August.

The film opens with Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), an astrophysicist who has worked on the development of a camera to film dark matter. He meets and marries Alyssa, a ghost tour guide, and becomes captivated by her belief in the supernatural, although he remains a firm non-believer himself. After Alyssa dies in a car accident, Ben gives up his career and continues to run her ghost tour in New Orleans, although his mind and his heart is barely in the work which he does mostly for the money.

Fast forward a few years and recently widowed doctor Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her nine year old son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move from New York into the run down Gracey Manor in New Orleans with plans to renovate and upgrade it in order to turn it into a bed and breakfast, only to learn on the first night that it is haunted with an array of ghosts. 

Ben is later visited by priest and exorcist Father Kent (Owen Wilson) who hires him to photograph the ghosts at Gracey Manor. Ben is initially reluctant but goes through the motions for an upfront cash payment from Gabbie of US$2K, until he returns to his home and is followed there by a ghost Mariner who forces him to return to Gracey Manor. Upon his re-arrival Ben learns that Gabbie, Travis, and Kent have also fallen victim to hauntings, forcing them to also stay in the mansion. 

Ben and Kent go off in search of a medium and recruit Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), a psychic with seemingly genuine abilities, and steal blueprints to the mansion from haunted house historian Prof. Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito). Upon examining the blueprints back at the manor the assembled group locate a hidden seance room. Harriet is able to contact the spirit of Gracey (J. R. Adduci) who leaves a written message instructing them to talk to the legendary medium Madame Leota. Upon trying to do so, a mysterious entity forces Harriet out of the house and when Bruce arrives shortly afterwards he too is ousted from the house in the same manner as Harriet, resulting in him being admitted to hospital for a pre-existing heart condition he has. When a number of ghosts run amok at the hospital, Bruce, Gabbie and Ben get the hell outta there and make back to the manor. 

The group stays at the manor where they proceed to look for Leota's ghost. Ben ventures up into the roof space which contains all manner of old relics, ornaments and bric-a-brac where he runs into conflict with a ghostly bride, but finds a locked trunk that is shaking violently. Upon exiting the attic very unceremoniously and thereafter examining the contents of said trunk, they find a large crystal ball in which is trapped Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis). 

Leota explains that William Gracey purchased the mansion and recruited Leota to try and contact the spirit of his dead wife Eleanor every night for a full year, releasing hundreds of wayward ghosts into the manor. An evil entity then tricked Gracey into taking his own life and trapped Leota inside her crystal ball. Harriet attempts to perform a reverse seance for more answers but winds up giving Ben an out of body experience in which he comes across Gracey and the evil entity, known as the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto). 

After Ben returns to the here and now, the next day Bruce takes Ben to get a Police sketch artist to draw up the Hatbox Ghost. He is identified as Alistair Crump, a rich heir who was abused by his father after his mother's death and eventually expelled from the home. Upon reaching adulthood and becoming successful himself, he killed his socialite friends out of revenge for being shunned by society, before being beheaded himself by his team of rebellious servants. 

The ghost of Crump proceeds to lock the mansion down but Ben, Kent, and Travis are able to escape. They find Crump Manor which is located only about an hour away, which has become a historical site and they join a tour of the house hoping to find an artifact that actually belonged to Crump. They learn from the Mariner (who followed them) that Crump needs someone to sacrifice their life and become the mansion's one-thousandth spirit in order to escape the mansion. Travis locates Crump's hat in a makeshift graveyard under the floorboards of the mansion, which they need to use as part of a ritual to banish Crump back to the afterlife.

The three make it back to the Gracey Manor where Ben and Kent rescue Gabbie, Harriet, and Bruce, but Crump burns the hat and plans to use Travis' grief over the death of his father to have him come to the other side and be the one-thousandth spirit. Ben finds Travis and manages to convince him to let go of his father as they and Gabbie confront Crump in the graveyard. 

Kent manages to convince the other ghosts to turn on Crump and join forces with them, and Bruce hands a remnant of the hat plucked from the fire to Harriet, who recites Leota's incantation to banish Crump, but needs to do so several times as Crump is not going down easily. Crump, as he is gradually getting sucked down into the depths of hell, attempts to get Ben to give up his life willingly to see Alyssa again, but Ben says that he is at peace with losing Alyssa before kicking Crump in the face and sending him back to the underworld. Many of the ghosts decide to remain at the mansion, now living in harmony with Gabbie and Travis. Harriet regains her full psychic abilities, Kent is ordainment as a real priest, and Bruce maintains his new friendships. Ben goes back to teaching and adopts a stray cat named Tater Tot, a nod to his wife's love for the Burger King snack. The group all join together the following Halloween for a party at the manor with the merry ghosts. 

'Haunted Mansion' is a mediocre offering from the Mouse House at best and at worst it failed to raise any laughs, has a half baked storyline, and has visual effects that seem plucked out of the 1980's 'Ghostbusters' movies and Peter Jackson's 1996 offering 'The Frighteners'. To me it seemed that in spite of the best intentions by Director Justin Simien and a top notch cast, this film seemed like a cash grab for Disney Studio's looking for a big pay day off the back of one of their more successful theme park rides while targeting a whole new audience of tweens and teens unfamiliar with the 2003 film or the ride itself, which perhaps in the final analysis will sell more tickets to Disneyland, and hence job done as a lost leader!

'Haunted Mansion' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-