This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist.In the early 2000s, Disney first attempted to bring their popular rides to the movies, with extremely mixed results. After kicking this experimentation off with the odd choice of The Country Bears in 2002, Disney went for two of their biggest attractions the following year with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and The Haunted Mansion. Pirates would go on to become Disney’s biggest live-action franchise ever, all while managing to capture what people loved so much about the ride. And while the Eddie Murphy-starring Haunted Mansion did respectfully at the box office, it didn’t match the magic of the beloved ride and understandably got lost in the shadow of Jack Sparrow.

Now twenty years later, Disney has made another attempt at bringing one of their rides to the movies, this time with Dear White People director Justin Simien (who worked at Disneyland when he went to film school) and The Heat writer Katie Dippold. The result is a charming, just spooky enough, and often delightful film that captures the spirit (all 999 of them) of the over 50+-year-old ride.

‘Haunted Mansion’ Is Elevated by Its Wonderful Cast
Image via Disney

This new Haunted Mansion starts off by introducing us to Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon), who have moved to a mysterious mansion, and soon discover it to be filled with ghosts. To free their house of such spirits, they enlist the help of Ben (LaKeith Stanfield), a paranormal tour guide in New Orleans; Father Kent (Owen Wilson), a priest; the psychic Harriet (Tiffany Haddish); and historian Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito). Once someone walks into the mansion, they find themselves followed by one of the mansion’s 999 haunts, which means that these six must stay together in the mansion until whatever is going on gets cleared out. This includes coming face-to-face with the most terrifying ghost of them all, the Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto), and receiving help from Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis), a psychic who has become trapped in her crystal ball.

RELATED: The Hatbox Ghost Welcomes Foolish Mortals With SDCC Exclusive ‘Haunted Mansion’ Poster [Exclusive]

It’s this ensemble, who is mostly stuck with each other, that makes Haunted Mansion so enjoyable. No matter what happens, it’s always appealing to watch how this group plays off each other. Stanfield brings a real heart to Haunted Mansion, as Ben is still dealing with the loss of his partner Alyssa (Charity Jordan), has a ball with the young Travis, and has great comedic timing with the entire cast. It’s especially a treat to watch Wilson, Stanfield, and DeVito together in a scene, and Haddish’s over-the-top approach to being a psychic fits well within the context of the film. It doesn’t take long before this sextet begins to feel like a family truly struggling with these ghosts together.

Justin Simien and Kate Dippold Show a Love For This World
Image via Disney

The love for the original ride also comes out through Simien’s direction and Dippold’s screenplay. Like Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion uses the ride as a jumping-off point, rather than being too beholden to it. Even if you’ve ridden the ride hundreds of times, Dippold finds fun ways to play off what we know and defy the expectations we have for this house. It builds on the lore of the ride in amusing ways, fleshing out characters that only get a passing mention, making them essential to the narrative at hand, while still keeping the group of humans stuck in the mansion the focus. These references aren’t thrown in to check a box of things existing fans will want to see. Rather, they nicely fit into the story in ways that make perfect sense.

However, the key to it all is the way Dippold writes the human characters. Even in broad characters like Haddish’s Harriet, Dippold finds a way to give her a nice emotional throughline, and Stanfield gets some wonderful moments to play the love and pain that he’s feeling after the death of Alyssa. It’s a nice surprise to see how the Haunted Mansion handles loss, death, and saying goodbye to the ones we love. At the same time, Dippold balances these moments out with scenes of the entire group that are fantastic to watch, and sometimes, Haunted Mansion is at its best when these six are throwing jokes off each other as they just play around with the concept at hand.

‘Haunted Mansion’ Expands on the Ride
Image via Disney

Simien is also having a ball here, matching the slightly creepy, but always entertaining tone of the ride, as he expands on that in fabulous ways. Both Simien’s directing and Dippold’s screenplay effectively utilize the individual pieces of the ride to create something new that honors the past but finds their own story to tell that fits alongside what we already know about this location and characters. The film brings this world of haunts to life in a way that almost reminds of 1995’s Casper, but with a style and tone that distinctly feels like the ride at all times. Maybe it’s because of Simien’s history working at Disneyland, but the glee of getting to bring this world to life in this way can be felt through his directing, making things like the Hitchhiking Ghosts, the Stretching Room, or the floating candelabra leap off the screen.

Haunted Mansion isn’t reinventing the wheel with this haunted house story, for sure, but it’s the gratification of watching this cast have fun with each other, and the pleasure that Simien and Dippold have playing in this sandbox that makes this quite often a treat to watch. It might not be deeply hilarious or legitimately scary, but that’s exactly what a narrative adaptation of this ride needs to be, threading that line while also remaining fun throughout. Between 2003’s Haunted Mansion and 2021’s Muppet Haunted Mansion, Disney has clearly been dying to make this world cross over to a larger audience, and with this Haunted Mansion, us foolish mortals finally have a movie that does justice to the ride itself.

Rating: B+

The Big Picture Haunted Mansion is a charming, delightful film that captures the spirit of the beloved ride thanks to its wonderful cast and the love shown for the original attraction. The ensemble cast, featuring LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, and Danny DeVito, plays off each other well and creates a sense of family as they navigate the haunted mansion together. Director Justin Simien and writer Katie Dippold successfully utilize the elements of the ride to create a new story that honors the past, while also infusing it with their own style and tone. The result is a movie that is fun, entertaining and pays justice to the Haunted Mansion ride. Haunted Mansion comes to theaters on July 28.