Haunted Mansion (2023 film)

This article is about the reboot. For the 2003 Disney film of a similar name, see The Haunted Mansion (2003 film).

Haunted Mansion

Directed by

Justin Simien

Produced by

Dan Lin
Jonathan Eirich

Written by

Katie Dipold

Starring

LaKeith Stanfield
Tiffany Haddish
Owen Wilson
Danny DeVito
Rosario Dawson
Chase W. Dillon
Daniel Levy
Jamie Lee Curtis
Jared Leto

Music by

Kris Bowers

Cinematography by

Jeffrey Waldron

Editor(s)

Phillip J. Bartell

Running time

123 minutes

Language

English

Budget

$157.8 million

Gross revenue

$117.5 million

External links
Official website	IMDb page

“Home is where the haunt is.”

―Tagline

Haunted Mansion is a 2023 American supernatural horror comedy film based on the attraction of the same name. It is a reboot of the 2003 film adaptation. It was released on July 28, 2023 to mixed reviews.

Synopsis[]

Gabbie, a single mother, and her young son Travis recently purchased a New Orleans estate at auction only to discover it isn't quite as empty as they expected. Gabbie hires a grieving widower, who works as a ghost tour guide, a psychic, a priest, and a local historian to exorcise the vengeful spirit from the Haunted Mansion.

Plot[]

Ben Matthias is an astrophysicist who meets a woman named Alyssa, a ghost tour guide at a New Years Eve party, and becomes entranced with her belief in the supernatural. Ben marries Alyssa, and builds a camera that can detect ghosts, but she dies in a car accident and in a state of grief, he gives up his career and puts his equipment away, becoming a ghost tour guide to run his wife's job. Years later, Gabbie and her son Travis move into Gracey Manor to turn it into a bed and breakfast, only to learn that it is haunted with ghosts. They further realize that when they leave, the ghosts continue to haunt them until they return to the mansion.

The next morning, Ben is visited by exorcist priest, Father Kent, who hires him to take photos of ghosts inside Gracey Manor. Ben is initially incredulous until he returns home from visiting the mansion and is haunted by a ghost of a Mariner who forces him to return. Ben returns to the mansion, and learns that Gabbie, Travis, and even Father Kent have fallen victim to hauntings, forcing them to return to the mansion. He and Kent then proceed to recruit Harriet, a psychic with legitimate powers, and historian Prof. Bruce Davis who is obsessed with the history of the mansion. Upon mentioning that he needs heart surgery, Ben and Kent opt to not bring him along and steal some of his notes on the house. Harriet is annoyed over being haunted by the ghosts, but stays as well and together the group find an old séance room. Harriet manages to contact the spirit of Gracey who leaves a message reading "Talk to Leota". Upon trying to do so, a mysterious entity forces Harriet out of the house. Bruce arrives shortly afterwards where he too gets haunted, and kicked out of the house on a chair sending on the road, where he gets hit by a truck and briefly ends up in the hospital.

The group stay at the mansion where they proceed to look for the ghost of Madame Leota. Ben goes into the attic where he runs afoul of the Bride before finding an active trunk. Upon examining the contents, they find a crystal ball which houses Leota who reveals that Gracey bought the mansion, but after the loss of his wife, he recruited Leota to try and speak with her spirit every night for a full year, which caused ghosts taking up residence. After Leota continued to speak with Gracey's wife, an evil spirit was summoned and tricks Gracey into believing that his wife was asking to join her from beyond the grave and took his own life and captures Leota, knowing that something sinister was afoot, discovered the evil entity who captured her and trapped her in her ball. Harriet attempts to do an astral projection for more answers, but ends up sending Ben out of his body who discovers Gracey as well as the true root of all the hauntings, the Hatbox Ghost.

The next morning, Bruce takes Ben to get a sketch artist to draw up the ghost before they do a facial scan to learn that the Hatbox Ghost is the ghost of a man named Alistair Crump, a rich heir who was abused in his childhood by his father after his mother's death and was later expelled from his home, disappearing after being shunned by society. Upon reaching adulthood, Crump repurchased his old home, and used lavish parties to kill his fellow socialites out of revenge for ostracizing him, before being beheaded himself by his mutinous servants. Realizing that they need to find the remnants of his head, the group learns that another manor that was Crump's actual home would have it. Crump proceeds to lock everyone in the house, but only captured Gabbie, Harriet, and Bruce, while Ben, Kent, and Travis manage to escape with the help of some stretching portraits. They find the manor, which has become a historical site, and learn that the Mariner followed them. He agrees to help them on the condition that they take him to the sea. While the tourists are in another room, Ben, Travis, Kent, and the Mariner head over to a fireplace, where Travis is forced to go into a hidden trapdoor within the fireplace and finds Crump's hat, which they can use as a ritual Crump back to the underworld.

The group make it back to the mansion where Travis is asked to wait in the car for his safety and a scared Kent reveals that he is not a real priest, but a Halloween store employee, but Ben gives him the confidence to go inside. Ben and Kent rescue Gabbie, Harriet, and Bruce, but Crump, who needs one more ghost to release himself and exact the revenge on the living world he promised for. Ben learns from Gabbie that Travis' father had died last year, and they group realizes that Crump is planning to use (not only Ben's but also) Travis' grief over the loss of his father to have him to come his side, and make him the 1,000th ghost. Ben and Gabbie go searching for Travis, Harriet gets Leota, Kent takes on Crump's ghost army, and Bruce tries to retrieve what little of Crump's hat is intact. Ben manages to plead with Travis to let go of his father as they and Gabbie confront Crump in the graveyard. Kent manages to convince the ghosts to turn on Crump and join forces with them. Bruce delivers the hat piece to Harriet who uses Leota's incantation to Crump away to the underworld with Ben finally making peace with his dead wife.

Having successfully defeated Crump, the ghosts decide to all stay at the mansion, now in harmony with Gabbie and Travis. Harriet regains full confidence in her psychic abilities, Kent undergoes ordainment to become a real priest, Bruce maintains his newfound friendships, and Ben goes back to astrophysicist teaching and adopts a stray cat named Tater Tot, a nod to his wife's love for the snack. The group gather at the mansion for Halloween to party with the ghosts.

Cast[]

LaKeith Stanfield as Ben Matthias, a man who "was once an astrophysicist engineer working on a camera that could perceive paranormal activity, but after the death of his wife, his life fell to pieces. Now he’s an unenthusiastic ghost tour guide in the French Quarter of New Orleans who no longer believes in the paranormal."
Rosario Dawson as Gabbie, a single mother who purchases the New Orleans estate.
Owen Wilson as Father Kent, a priest hired to help exorcise the ghosts.
Tiffany Haddish as Harriet, a "hapless psychic who is hired to speak with the spirits at the Haunted Mansion."
Danny DeVito as Bruce Davis, "a smug professor."
Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota
Chase W. Dillon as Travis, Gabbie's son.
Jared Leto as Alistair Crump/Hatbox Ghost
J.R. Adduci as William Gracey
Creek Wilson as Mariner
Ben Bladon as Hatchet Ghost
Lindsay Lamb as Bride
Charity Jordan as Alyssa Matthias
Fedor Steer as Phineas
Terence Rosemore as Gus
Mike Benitez as Ezra
Erika Coleman as Eleanor Gracey
Christopher Winchester as New Year's Eve Bartender
Jo Koy as Daytime Bartender
Kathi Callahan as Carol Tourist
Marilu Henner as Carol Tourist
Hasan Minhaj as Sketch Artist
Daniel Levy as Vic
Winona Ryder as Pat (uncredited)
Charles Black as Victor Guest
Chad Crumley as Dueling Ghost
Sebastien Soudais as Dueling Ghost
John Curran as Pickwick
Tracey Goode as Executioner Ghost
Bryan McClure as The Headless Knight
Don Stallings as Venetian Ghost
Ashley John as Lady Blue
Rick Andosca as Caretaker Ghost
Kamran Shaikh as Suited Man on Dynamite
Helene Henry as Ballerina
Jared Simon as Hatted Man in Quicksand
Joseph Miller as Quicksand Man
Ian Covell as Quicksand Man
Kay Galvin as Elderly Woman with Rose
Terence Mathews II as Alister's imitation of Travis' Dad (voice)

Additionally, the Organ Banshees, Birthday Ghost, Harriet the Opera Singer, Caretaker's Dog, Haunted Armor, The Mummy, the Alligators, The Watchful Busts, the Ballroom Dancers, the Haunted Trees, April-December, the Raven, Werecat Lady, Black Prince, and the Graveyard Specters all appear in the movie.

The Singing Busts were to appear as well, but they were deleted from the final film.^[1]

Production[]

A Haunted Mansion reboot was announced as far back as 2010 with the intent to have Guillermo del Toro write, produce and direct the film.^[2] His take would have featured the famous Hatbox Ghost in a major role and be legitimately terrifying and funny.^[3] Imagineer Jason Surrell was brought on as a creative consultant.^[4] However, due to numerous delays, del Toro dropped out as director, but would remain as a writer and producer.^[5] Ryan Gosling had entered early negotiations to star, while D.V. DeVincentis was hired to rewrite the script.^[6] Ultimately, nothing came of this version.

In August 2020, Katie Dippold was hired to pen a new screenplay, while Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich would co-produce.^[7] The following year, Justin Simien signed on as director,^[8] while LaKeith Stanfield and Tiffany Haddish entered negotiations to star.^[9]

In August 2021, it was revealed that casting was underway for the roles of Master Gracey and his wife, the Mariner, the butler, the Bride (based on Constance Hatchaway), and a duelist. Additionally, roles for the portrait ghosts are also underway.^[10]

Production is expected to begin in October 2021 under the working title Joyride.^[11] Owen Wilson and Rosario Dawson joined the cast in early September.^[12]^[13] In mid-October, Danny DeVito joined the project.^[14]

On February 25, 2022, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film is set to be released on March 10, 2023.^[15]

On September 15, 2022, Variety reported that the film was delayed to August 11, 2023.^[16]

Music[]

Main article: Haunted Mansion (soundtrack)

In 2022, composer Kris Bowers was confirmed to be scoring Haunted Mansion.^[17]

Director Justin Simien confirmed that Bowers included several interpolations of the "Grim Grinning Ghosts" theme in his score, stating, "Our composer, Kris Bowers, turned those simple phrases into one of the most lush, exciting movie scores I've heard."^[18]

Reception[]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 37% of 252 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "Haunted Mansion's talented cast makes the movie a pleasant enough destination, although it's neither scary nor funny enough to wholeheartedly recommend."^[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 47 out of 100, based on 52 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[20]

Trivia[]

This is the first film based on an attraction that is a reboot of a film.
This is also the first film based on an attraction to use Disney's 100th anniversary logo.
This film sometimes marketed as The Haunted Mansion or its foreign language equivalent in many countries.
This film was released 20 years after the original film.
Action figures of Marvel-owned characters (including Black Panther, Loki, and Storm) can be seen outside the tent in which Travis sleeps in.
This is Owen Wilson's second role in a live-action Disney film since Around the World in 80 Days in 2004.
This is Danny DeVito's third role in a live-action Disney film, after the 2019 live-action remake of Dumbo and 2020's The One and Only Ivan.
This is Jamie Lee Curtis' fourth role in a live-action Disney film after Freaky Friday and the first two Beverly Hills Chihuahua films.
Due to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, instead of actors attending the premiere, it was attended by some of the iconic Disney characters including Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty), The Evil Queen (from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), and Cruella De Vil (from One Hundred and One Dalmatians). Director Justin Simien still attended however. But it is currently unknown whenever the cast would attend the planned second world premiere for the film's anniversary to make up for the original premiere, which was partly affected by the strikes.