This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Ahh boy. Disney has once again remade one of their older movies, this time it is Haunted Mansion. This version follows a wide range of individuals who team together to help a mother and son deal with the evil ghosts in their new mansion. With a star-studded cast including Lakeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, and Jamie Lee Curtis, this movie fails to capture the same feeling the Eddie Murphy-led original from 2003.
A lot led up to this failure. For starters, the film is released during the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, meaning this great cast didn’t do any promoting for this movie because Disney (amongst the other major studios) refuse to pay their writers and actors fair wages.
Not that more promotion of the film would have made it a better watch, but it would’ve gotten more butts in seats.
Puzzlingly, Disney decided to release a Halloween movie in the middle of the freaking summer. Horror movies have been getting released all year but for Disney, with the theme park tie-in, it is a missed opportunity to not release this movie in October. Especially with Disney Plus as prominent as it is, they should have made it their Halloween special.
Above all this though, Haunted Mansion movie doesn’t do much to stand out. Beyond the cast, the story is just unengaging. The themes of loss and moving on are strong from the start and it’s just done in a very shallow way. Lakeith’s character lost his wife and Chase Dillon (Travis) lost his father and that is how they are able to defeat the bad ghost. It’s been done before and here I just didn’t feel the emotional intensity that would’ve made it impactful.
Modern Disney movies have a look and feel to them that just feels off. To give Haunted Mansion credit, I think this looks way better than Hocus Pocus 2 or Disenchanted. It’s not the best-looking movie but it’s fine. But it just feels like it’s taking place in a Disney theme park. A movie like this was why Disney Plus is a thing.
Final Thoughts
It’s incredible that a cast this strong can be in a movie this forgettable. It’s not particularly scary or funny in the ways it’s trying to be. What it is, is a very shallow way to try to teach younger people about grief. If it’s a long con to get people to appreciate the 2003 Haunted Mansion, then mission accomplished. I’m hard on this movie because I am just so tired of these Disney reboots.
