Rent Haunted Mansion on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Katie Dippold
Directed by: Justin Simien
Starring: LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer
Plot
Single mom Gabbie hires a tour guide, psychic, priest, and historian to help exorcise her newly bought mansion after discovering it is inhabited by ghosts.
Verdict
I didn't expect much, and I was still disappointed. I thought the ensemble cast would at least provide entertainment, but this stuffs the movie so full that nothing and nobody gets due time. The story is generic, which is to be expected, but this is never as humorous, funny, nor as tense as it should be. It's a miss.
Skip it.
Review
Ever since Disney created the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise out of a ride, they have been trying to do it again. Tomorrowland wasn't bad, but Jungle Cruise was a disappointment. Disney tries to elevate another ride, and this this the second take on the Haunted Mansion.
Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) buys a haunted house without ever looking at the property. The humor is light with Gabbie encouraging her son to give the house a chance after he claims he saw a ghost, and then fleeing seconds later when she sees it.
Ben (LaKeith Stanfield) is an astrophysicist turned ghost skeptic tour guide solicited by Father Kent (Owen Wilson) to prove ghosts are in the house. My concern from the beginning with this movie is whether it will have the right tone. It needs to balance comedy and horror.
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| LaKeith Stanfield plays Ben |
Ben walks the house taking fake photos which is hilarious. He doesn't believe in ghosts, but if that's the case I'm not sure why he would even go to the house other than the plot requires it. The premise for this is solid. Once you enter the house the ghosts follow you, bringing you back. That's how we get everyone in one spot. This has a lot of interesting characters though this doesn't do enough with them. While this spends a lot of time on Ben's backstory, it's rather heavy for what the tone of this movie should be.
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| LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Rosario Dawson play Ben, Father Kent, Harriet, Gabbie |
It doesn't help that this is longer than it needs to be and isn't as fun as it should be. Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, and Owen Wilson are underused. There are too many characters and not enough space. This is too preoccupied with backstory for Ben and even the house. Only a forced and impossible discovery can get the plot on track and help them solve the mystery of the house. This should focus on light scares and the comedy between the characters. It could easily split them into pairs and have a lot of fun with it. Instead we're mired in a generic backstory.
Disney turned a theme park ride into a solid franchise with Pirates of the Caribbean. That worked because it had a solid story that was a fun adventure and multiple great characters including Captain Jack who chewed the scenery in every scene he entered. That's also exactly what Haunted Mansion lacks. This movie needed more focus and fun. A buddy horror comedy with Ben and Kent could have been really entertaining. Pairing off any of the characters and having them lost in the house would have been more fun that what we got.
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