Haunted Mansion

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I love when a movie like this comes along in more ways than one. First and foremost, it's a divide in overall criticism. While fans and average movie-goers enjoy it, critics seem to have another thought process. And, as one might expect, when it comes to my own humble opinion, the movie is... okay. But I must admit that I lean more toward the audience on this one because, if nothing else, it could provide us with another decent family-friendly title to watch for the Halloween season. Personally, I tend to have fun with such films.

One may remember the Eddie Murphy vehicle of the same name from 20 years ago. I suppose it's not remembered in the best light when you look at it, so Disney thought a re-do of what could be a really cool concept would be a good move. I would have to say that while there's improvement, things still aren't necessarily perfected. However, what's incredibly refreshing to me was that I thought several scenes in this would work very well for a kid's first toe-dips into the horror genre. My generation had a few Disney movies for "spooky" purposes, which were pretty effective. It's nice to see that come back!

We meet Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), an astrophysicist developing a special camera to detect dark matter. One unfortunate day, he loses his wife, Alyssa (Charity Jordan), in a car accident and takes over her ghost tour of New Orleans. Since losing Alyssa, Ben becomes much more skeptical of the concept of a potential "other side", replacing the idea of her ghost tour with a walking tour of the various historical sights of the city. Meanwhile, single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son, Travis (Chase Dillon), move into Gracey Manor, looking for a fresh start by converting the mansion into a bed & breakfast. They learn how haunted the place is very quickly and run as fast as their legs can carry them.

Ben is eventually visited by a priest, Father Kent (Owen Wilson), who hires him to photograph the ghosts using his special camera. Ben visits the mansion, and we notice Gabbie and Travis are back. We eventually learn that if someone visits the mansion and goes home, a supernatural entity will follow them. Kent has also fallen victim to this. It's almost as though the spirits act as sheep herders for anyone who enters Gracey Manor and tries to leave. Soon enough, the four try to get to the bottom of these hauntings by assembling what Kent calls a "Dream Team" for the supernatural - he is a supposed exorcist.

This "Dream Team" consists of the four characters above, a well-renowned psychic (or, as she insists, medium) with legitimate abilities, Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and Professor Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito), a historian for haunted locations who has blueprints to Gracey Manor in his possession. As the group does some digging, they uncover a dark history behind the mansion's previous owner involving a powerful psychic (sorry, medium) named Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis), the mansion's previous owner, William Gracey (J.R. Adduci), and the dark entity he accidentally summoned who messed everything up, the "Hatbox Ghost" (Jared Leto).

As mentioned before, it is super refreshing to see something aimed at kids/family with genuine creepiness. It doesn't get hardcore with anything, but the film sets the spooky atmosphere quite well. The film also has a good amount of humour and heart, which act as buffers against the darkness of it all, and it makes for a fun time. I'm particularly impressed with Tiffany Hadish here, as she doesn't play her typical over-the-top loud self. While definitely still meant to be comedy relief, she does things more subtly here, and I enjoyed her performance.

This is the kind of movie a family could watch together as a Halloween treat. I'd say it has the fun, family side of 'Casper', but has the dark side of 'The Haunting'. It's creepy to some degree for the younger audience, especially with a kid to relate to. But the film's sense of humour and lightheartedness given to an otherwise terrifying situation makes up for it. The film's likeable cast also spans generations with its talented, familiar names. There's a character here for everyone. Some details, like writing and special effects, could use a makeover here and there, but again, there's nothing that bad about this. Put simply, it's fun.

3/5

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