Outside of the stunning success of Barbie and the equally impressive turnout for Oppenheimer, it would seem that the biggest film story of this summer season is the way that audiences, despite the enormous arrays of hype, are performing one of their periodic rejections of overly familiar brand names. If the disappointing-to-disastrous returns of such franchise extensions as Fast X, The Flash, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning are any indications, moviegoers have finally hit their breaking point with such things and are hungry for something new, at least for the time being. (At this point, it seems as if the only sure-fire sequel hit currently in the pipeline is Dune: Part Two.) In other words, you probably could not pick a less promising time to release a film like Disney’s Haunted Mansion and not just because it will be going up against the still-powerful Barbenheimer juggernaut. Not only is it a film that is based on the beloved theme park ride, it is a concept that Disney has already attempted once before about 20 years ago in the dubious form of an Eddie Murphy family comedy that made some money but which pretty much found itself erased from our collective cultural memory the moment it left theaters.
And yet, the ironic thing about this iteration of Haunted Mansion is that even though it is doubtful that there are many people out there genuinely clamoring to see it, the whole enterprise proves to be more entertaining than one might rationally expect it to be. Oh sure, it has plenty of flaws—it goes on way too long, the story is too much of a jumble at times and the big bad at its center proves to be a big dud for reasons not entirely limited to the fact that he is played by Jared Leto—and even if I were to make a list ranking all the films based on amusement park attractions over the years, it would rank behind both the original Pirates of the Caribbean and the genuinely weird The Country Bears, a movie that I still cannot quite believe actually exists. However, if you dial your expectations down and are receptive to the notion of a movie that merely wants to supply some goofy family-oriented thrills and chills—sort of a current-day equivalent of The Ghost and Mr. Chicken—it demonstrates enough of a genial spirit (pun possibly intended) and enough laughs to succeed at that task.
As the film opens, single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her young son, Travis (Chase W. Dillon) head to New Orleans to make a fresh start after some bad experiences by moving into a huge and creepy-looking mansion just outside of town. They have hardly set foot in the places when it becomes quickly apparent that the place is overrun by the spirits of dead people. Showing a rare amount of common sense for characters employed in this genre, the two hightail it out of the place after just a few minutes but when they discover that the ghosts have basically attached themselves to them and will follow them anywhere, they return home and, with the aid of amiable Father Kent (Owen Wilson), try to recruit people who will help them get rid of the ghosts once and for all.
The first of the recruits is Ben (Lakeith Stanfield), a one-time astrophysicist and inventor of an astral spectrometer who is now reduced to drunkenly leading ghost tours while mourning the loss of his late wife, true believer Alyssa (Charity Jordan). Inspired more by the promise of a hefty payday than anything else, Ben shows up at the house expecting to see nothing of a genuinely supernatural nature and when the ghosts eventually show up, he flees as well. Alas, the spirits have attached to him as well and he winds up bunking at the mansion with Gabbie, Travis and Father Kent. Ben and Father Kent wind up recruiting two more people into the fold—oddball psychic Harriet (Tiffany Haddish) and Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito), a Tulane history professor with a bum ticker and a fascination with haunted houses. Together, the group goes about exploring the house and its macabre history to try to figure out what is behind the mass haunting in order to bring it to an end before the evil spirit behind it all (Leto) can capture soul #1000 and rule the world or destroy mankind or whatever it is that he is attempting to do.
Although Haunted Mansion contains just enough scares to earn its PG-13 rating—although it hardly hits the terror level of something like Talk to Me, it is probably just intense enough so that parents of younger and more sensitive children may want to be on alert if they decided to go see it—the emphasis is more on laughs and indeed, it does fall into a long-standing tradition of haunted house comedies that stretches almost as far back as the history of cinema itself in which comics ranging from Laurel & Hardy to Abbott & Costello to Martin & Lewis to Bob Hope, to name but a few, found themselves doing paranormal-themed schtick. Of course, the original ride didn’t exactly have much of a narrative arc and screenwriter Katie Dippold (who was one of the writers on the 2016 version of Ghostbusters) somewhat overcompensates for this by providing a storyline that his perhaps a little too overloaded for its own good with some of the elements—particularly the burgeoning relationship between Ben and Gabbie—getting lost in the shuffle. (This is pretty much true about the Gabbie character, who has little to do but smile warmly or look frightened, depending on the moment.) It also takes too long to establish the ultimate villain and when we do finally get a grasp of his ultimate aims, it inspires more shrugs than shrieks.
However, in the moments when director Justin Simien (whose previous film was the far more adult-oriented horror-comedy Bad Hair) essentially puts the script to the side, Haunted Mansion begins to demonstrate a cheerfully silly side that ultimately proves to be kind of winning. Most of this is due to the occasionally inspired byplay that develops between the cast members. People like De Vito, Haddish and Wilson are old pros at this and manage to milk the material for a number of laughs—even when the dialogue itself isn’t especially fun, they give it a spin that inspires chuckles—and Dillon scores a few of his own as Travis. (There is also a really funny cameo appearance from an unbilled whose identity I will not reveal—though they have popped in some of the ads—except to state that they fit the silly/spooky proceedings like a glove. It is also evident that the filmmakers have studied the ride in depth and have thrown in any number of homages, references and in-jokes for the fan base, ranging from the way that some chairs are designed to look like the ride’s Doom Buggy conveyances to a brief but welcome appearance by Madame Leota and her crystal ball, portrayed here by Jamie Lee Curtis at peak imperiousness.
Haunted Mansion is no masterpiece and when it is all said and done, you won’t be leaving the theater feeling the kind of giddy high that you felt after experiencing the wild inventiveness of Barbie. However, it does prove to be mostly likable and amusing—though it does go on too long for its essentially flimsy narrative—and if you don’t emerge from it truly elated, at least you won’t slink out of it feeling completely ripped off afterwards. In addition, while I again admonish you that it might be a tad too intense and spooky for younger and more sensitive viewers, it maintains just enough of a balance between terror and titters so that it could eventually serve as a nice gateway for kids making their first tentative steps into the horror genre. In the end, Haunted Mansion may not ultimately justify its existence as a whole but it has just enough moments that work to make it worth checking out.