July 28, 2023
Directed By: Justin Simien
Stars: LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny Devito, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chase Dillion, Jared Leto, J.R. Adduct, Creek Wilson, Ben Bladon, Lindsay Lamb, Charity Jordan, Fedor Steer, Terence Rosemore, Mike Benitez, Erika Coleman, Christopher Winchester, Jo Kay, and many more. Winona Ryder, Dan Levy, and Hasan Minhaj will also appear in the new movie.
Distributed: Walt Disney Pictures
Running Time: 2 hour, 3 minutes (123 minutes)
Genre: paranormal, horror, comedy
Film Website: Haunted Mansion | Disney Movies
Official Facebook Page: Haunted Mansion | Facebook
Official Instagram: The Haunted Mansion (@thehauntedmansion) • Instagram photos and videos
On Twitter (X): @HauntedMansion
A single mom named Gabbie hires a tour guide, a psychic, a priest and a historian to help exorcise her newly bought mansion after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts.
Disney had a Haunted Mansion movie starring Eddie Murphy that came out in 2003. You can find out more about that one at The Haunted Mansion (2003) - IMDb But we are doing a review of the new movie. The 2023 movie opens with LaKeith Stanfield as astrophysicist Ben Matthias meets, Alyssa (played by Charity Jordan) who gives ghost tours in New Orleans. They marry and she dies not long after. Some time later, he works as a historical tour guide for New Orleans where tourists want to learn more about the ghosts rather than its history. Ben has developed a camera that can photograph ghosts, equipment you’d expect paranormal investigators might invent. (Which is funny, as Katie Dippold who wrote the 2016 female-led Ghostbusters, wrote the script for this movie.)
Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) has bought the mansion which she plans to turn into a bed and breakfast. She and her son, Travis (played by Chase W. Dillion) find out to their horror the place is haunted. To find a way to live with the ghosts, she hires an exorcist, Father Kent (Owen Wilson) who fails. She also hires Ben and his camera. Unable to get help, Gabbie and Travis, also hire a medium, Harriet, and medium, Madame Leota, stuck inside her crystal ball since the Hatbox ghost put her in it, and Bruce Davis, played by Danny DeVito.
Although not a 5-star or even 4-star movie, it still was enjoyable. My husband joined me and we recognized many Easter eggs from the ride in Disneyland (where I first did back after it opened in 1969 on a high school bus trip.) LaKeith seems a little stiff in a role for a horror comedy, while Rosario Dawson and the others strike the right cord for the movie. Jamie Lee Curtis is splendid as Madame Leota brought to life, ah, death. Still, I think this might have been better served as a movie for Disney+, with releasing on streaming afterward and DVD/Blu Ray instead of the theater first. Especially against Barbie and Oppenheimer. It might not be in the other two films leagues, but it is a popcorn movie that may work better once out on streaming and DVD/Blu Ray.
I gave The Haunted Mansion 3 ½ ghostly sheep.
Reviewed by Pamela Kinney
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