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.
Pam says:
There have been plenty of iterations of the Disney story “Haunted Mansion” that came before this newest one which stars LaKeith Stanfield and Rosario Dawson along with several other high profile stars. It’s always a lot of fun to see these big names doing fun stints in a kids’ movies, especially when the movie can appeal to and entertain adults. But, alas, I’m afraid the 2023 version of “Haunted Mansion” isn’t one of them.
Dawson plays Gabby, a single mom attempting to raise her 9 year-old son who is a little different. Looking for a fresh start for them both, she buys a mansion but quickly finds that their new abode is haunted. Reaching out to the experts including Father Kent (Owen Wilson), a medium (Tiffany Haddish), historian Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito) and spectral photographer who has a tragic past, Ben (Stanfield), Gabby searches for a way to leave this evil place. The “professionals” enter the house, but once they do, it’s rather difficult to leave…actually, it’s impossible. Together, this ragtag group must somehow exorcise the mansion or one of them is going to die.
The story starts off strong with Ben falling in love with Alyssa (Charity Jordan) who tragically dies. We fast forward many years and catch up with Ben who left his rocket scientist job for that of a tour guide in New Orleans to disprove the existence of ghosts. He is grieving for Alyssa and cannot move forward. Ben is then duped into a job for Gabby and as he meets all the others who now can’t leave the mansion, he learns that he is the key to everyone’s future. And this is where the story begins to fall apart. The ghosts come out and chase the humans as they try to find the lead evil ghost who is hell-bent on finding his last victim. One chase scene turns into another and another as the walls flip and flop to create a dizzying and menacing nightmare for each of them. The special effects are stellar as they bring us in to all our worst nightmares.
There is humor in the story thanks to the talent of Wilson and DeVito, but we just don’t get enough of it. Haddish’s quirky style is initially fun, but after the first hour, it becomes grating. Stanfield gives it his all but unfortunately, it comes off as contrived and Dawson isn’t given enough dialogue or opportunities to develop a more meaningful character. The scenes with Travis (Chase Dillon) and Stanfield, however, are truly sweet and heartfelt, driving Stanfield’s character to greater depths, but we needed more of that as well.
“Haunted Mansion” has a well-earned PG-13 rating, so the story needs to appeal to an older group of children. To do that, it needs more complex characters with whom to connect. The simplicity of the story is more geared toward the little tykes, but it’s way too dark and scary for any child under the age of 10. Additionally, with a running time of over 2 hours, it’s going to take a refill or two of popcorn to get you through this one.
1 1/2 stars
