Haunted Mansion

By: Dana Jacoviello

This is another remake of Haunted Mansion from the one in 2003 with Eddie Murphy, and I must say that I am not sure which one I would recommend at this point. They both had strengths, but had a bit more weakness than the other. Now I have not watched the original one in a long time, but they did both have messages that were important. I had to keep starting the 2023 installment over again, due to getting distracted, which is not a good sign when watching a movie. A solid film grabs you from the beginning to end most of the time. I had to really just sit down and pay attention to write my honest thoughts. Some might disagree, but my theory was that this movie was going to be so much fun, hilarious and a joy to watch. It starts off mysterious, which I did appreciate, but I feel like people will get lost in who the audience is truly aiming for with this movie.

This version of Haunted Mansion has a little bit of a different story, but still a good message Single windowed mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) is a doctor who moved with her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) for a fresh new start. She happens upon several fun and interesting characters and people in New Orleans. Once they settle in the mansion, they realize it is inhabited by spirits, and not all good ones. Gabbie decides to hire several of the town’s residents to help her rid the house of these entities, as they are not allowed to leave once inside without being followed by a ghost. One in particular local resident named Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield) shares a similar grief to Gabbie as he has recently lost his wife unexpectedly. The evil part of the house feeds on grief, so it is interesting to see things unfold.

The excitement for most will be over the cast. Haunted Mansion has a stellar cast made of up Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Owen Wilson, LaKeith Stanfield and Jared Leto. The casting is something to jump for joy over, but it failed to truly show the specialty these extremely talented actors have in my opinion. With DeVito, Haddish and Wilson in this movie should have people hysterical. I only found a few lines here and there that made me actually laugh or giggle. I expected more there to be honest. That was disappointing. It really was not the fault of the actors though. They worked with what they were given. The writing could have been much better. There is a lag in the middle of the movie that will lose many people. And it is very confusing if this is aimed at adults, teens or kids. There is nothing substantial at what the goal was there, although Jamie Lee Curtis was given decent material, as she was one of my favorite characters.

There were elements of this movie that I enjoyed. The mood, the hauntings were fun, the cinematography was good, and the special effects were not cheesy. So, that was a major plus as it set the mood. Some of my favorite moments were with Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis and Tiffany Haddish. Their characters were fun, but Haddish should have had some better lines that made the audience tickled with laughter as she is a well-known comedian. There is too much talent in this movie to not utilize the actors for their special talents, which is capturing the audience. A few laughs here and there is not enough for these comedic talents that can bring the laughter home.

I also enjoyed some of the serious moments about grief. That is such an important topic, especially in today’s society. It is relatable in losing people we love, and that aspect was done well. Getting to know who the ghosts were and what was going on in the house added some thrills to the movie.

The directing of this movie by Justin Simien was well done as far as the filming went, such as everything in the background. I am not too familiar with Simien’s work, but I can say he should have recognized that this movie was far too long to hold anybody’s attention as it dragged on the storyline. It slows in the middle, and you get lost. It starts off good enough, then gets to the middle where you just feel like you are watching a never-ending story that plays out for hours. This movie should have cut parts out and been shorter – keeping it simpler and straight forward and to the point. It did not need to be over two hours.

If you enjoy these types of movies, go for it. It ends with somewhat of a bang, but again, the lag was brutal, which can ruin an entire film. I would not recommend this to anybody unfortunately. If I did, it would just be for the cast. I think many will prefer the original version more. The actors did well for what it was, so I would not put any blame on them for the shortcomings of this movie. You work with the material you are given. And they did that very well. But this movie could have been memorable, and it just was not. It was not horrible, but it was not something you are going to remember or that will be a Halloween staple.