Haunted Mansion

I’ll never quite understand why Disney decided to release a movie about ghosts, funeral parlors, and Victorian graveyals in the dead heat of July. I watched this in a theater where the AC was cranked so high I was actually shivering, nursing a slightly-too-cold iced coffee that gave me brain freeze right as the first jump scare hit. Maybe that was the intended "4D" experience, but it felt like a metaphor for the film itself: a project that is strangely out of step with its own timing.

A Soul Under the Shingles

In an era where every Disney ride is being strip-mined for "cinematic universe" potential, Haunted Mansion (2023) arrives with a lot of baggage. We already had the 2003 Eddie Murphy version, which has settled into a sort of "guilty pleasure" nostalgia for Millennials. This new iteration, directed by Justin Simien, tries to do something much riskier. Instead of a straight-up slapstick comedy, it anchors itself in a surprisingly heavy drama about the weight of loss.

The heart of the film isn't the CGI ghosts or the shifting hallways; it’s LaKeith Stanfield. He plays Ben Matthias, a brilliant astrophysicist turned depressed ghost-tour guide who has lost his "spark" after the death of his wife. This is where the film’s dramatic DNA really shows. Stanfield doesn’t play this like a family-adventure lead; he plays it with a haunted, soulful exhaustion that feels like it belongs in an A24 indie. When he’s recruited by Rosario Dawson’s Gabbie to investigate her new, ghost-infested New Orleans estate, he isn't there for the money—he’s there because he’s already living in a ghost story of his own.

The Motley Crew and the CGI Fog

The "motley crew" dynamic is where the film tries to find its pulse. You’ve got Owen Wilson playing a "priest" (who is actually just a guy in a collar with a slide deck), Tiffany Haddish as a medium who’s perhaps a bit of a fraud, and Danny DeVito as a crotchety professor who looks like he’s having the time of his life. DeVito basically resembles a high-budget estate sale gone wrong, and honestly, his energy is infectious.

However, the film often struggles to balance these performances with the sheer volume of "IP requirements." Because this is a Disney ride adaptation, the screenplay by Katie Dippold has to check off boxes: the Hatbox Ghost, the stretching room, the Madame Leota crystal ball (played by Jamie Lee Curtis). Sometimes it feels like the characters are just walking through a very expensive commercial for a vacation I can't afford. The visual effects are top-tier, but there’s a certain "CGI-mush" that happens in the final act, where the physical reality of the mansion is swallowed by a digital vortex. It’s a common symptom of contemporary blockbuster filmmaking—the bigger the stakes get, the less I actually care about the walls closing in.

Processing Grief in the Streaming Age

What makes this film worth a look—and what separates it from the 2003 version—is its willingness to talk to kids about death. In our current cultural moment, where family films often feel sanitized or overly frantic, Justin Simien allows the movie to slow down and sit in the quiet, dusty corners of grief. The relationship between Ben and the young Travis (Chase W. Dillon) is genuinely moving. They aren't just fighting spirits; they’re two people trying to figure out how to live in a world that feels emptier than it used to.

The film's release was hampered by the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike, meaning the actors couldn't promote it. The premiere at Disneyland famously featured theme park characters on the red carpet instead of the cast. It felt hollow, and in many ways, the box office reflected that lack of human connection. But watching it now, away from the marketing mess and the weird summer release date, you can see the film's intent. It’s Disney’s obsession with turning every turnstile into a trilogy clashing with a director who actually has something to say about human connection.

Haunted Mansion is a bit of a tonal jigsaw puzzle. At times, it’s a spooky, atmospheric drama about finding a reason to wake up in the morning; at others, it’s a loud, frantic chase through a digital funhouse. While it doesn't always stick the landing, the performances from LaKeith Stanfield and Danny DeVito give it more spirit than your average corporate product. It’s a solid October watch that unfortunately premiered in July, proving that even a good ghost story can fail if the sun is shining too bright.