On their first night in their new house, a sprawling Louisiana estate, Gabbi (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) come to the almost immediate realization that the mansion is deeply haunted.  Refusing to give up on her dream of transforming the historic home into a bed and breakfast, Gabbi employs photographer Ben (LaKeith Stanfield), historian Bruce (Danny DeVito), psychic medium Harriet (Tiffany Haddish), and local priest Father Kent (Owen Wilson) to help the spirits in their home find their peace. 

Justin Simien directs from Katie Dippold’s script the live-action adaptation of Haunted Mansion, a horror comedy based on the popular Disney Park attraction.  Having been one of the original attractions when Disney Land opened in 1971, iterations of the ride have since shown up in no less than three other Disney parks including Florida, Toyko, and Paris.  The film has some frightening moments and themes throughout that push it just past a PG rating into a very soft PG-13, but at 123 minutes long, the film has trouble satisfying any audience.  Frankly, it is too long and drawn out that the younger crowd will become easily bored by it, and for the older crowd, it does not feature enough scares or humor to keep them engaged. 

The ensemble is mostly managed well, and the film is all too happy to show off the star power which it has amassed.  While we do not get to meet all 999 ghosts that haunt the titular mansion, there is a core group of spirits that also get their moments to shine as they plague the cast of the living. The story is centered around Ben, Gabbi, and by extension, Travis; though it feels like it was broken more in the boardroom than the writer’s room and does not serve any of the cast members well. As is often the case with supporting characters, they do not have the burden of plot or development to worry about and can lean into their jokes more than the primary characters can. Haunted Mansion is a shining example of this as both Wilson and DeVito have the highest percentage of jokes landing across the duration. Haddish’s Harriet finds herself somewhat stuck between being a supporting or starring cast member as she gets an arc but is also constantly undercut with product placement – that is unforgivably bluntly written – and saddled with a stale brand of humor because she and Dawson’s Gabbi are written in an incredibly similar voice. 

For the story proper, its arcs are largely intertwined. It opens on a New Year’s Eve party where Ben, a scientist initially, meets Alyssa (Charity Jordan), a ghost tour guide. The two, we later learn, have been separated by death and Ben has sunk into a guilt-riddled depression. He created a camera that is able to capture photos of ghosts but has largely given up the use of it after being unsuccessful in finding Alyssa’s spirit. Once at the mansion, he and Gabbi slowly begin to bond over their grief – she having lost her husband – and Travis begins to view Ben as a father figure he desperately misses. Haunted Mansion, by incorporating these themes, makes for an in-road to broach the subject of death and loss with a younger audience, while still being light and goofy enough to not scare them. Unfortunately, it is a very drawn-out plot line that takes its time in revealing itself, and because large swathes of the runtime are taken up by the film’s floundering antics, the more emotional scenes really drag the energy of the film to a halt. Though both Dawson and Stanfield do a very good job at growing into their chemistry together, Stanfield’s Ben is taken through such a convoluted arc that he is unable to make any sense of the character that is asked to be a little bit of everything to everyone. It is not an uncommon ask for the hero of the story to be the solver of problems, but the script does not support Stanfield at all, and the performance suffers greatly from it. 

Ultimately, the supernatural side of the story comes down to a feud between two of the ghosts: William Gracey (J.R. Adduci), the original owner of the mansion, and Alistair Crump (Jared Leto), the vengeful spirit welcomed into the house by accident during a séance years ago. The two feuding ghosts are lovingly named in tribute to Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey, the Imagineers who developed the effects of the opening-day attraction, and Crump takes the form of “The Hatbox Ghost,” an effect that was decommissioned shortly after his debut in the ride’s initial iteration. A perfected version of this specter was rolled out in 2015 at the Disney Land attraction and is slated to begin appearing at the Florida Park’s ride this year as well. In this way, the film is a really loving homage to the iconic attraction, amplified by composer Kris Bowers’ score incorporating elements from the ride’s theme, “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron’s high angle shots of the ballroom, and a reoccurring effect of hallways and walls stretching out in front of the characters among other flourishes.  

Visually, however, the film suffers from what has begun revealing itself as of late as the live-action house style from Disney, and though the architecture gets a little more of an identity of its own thanks to being based on a distinct ride that is near and dear to many, the colors and lighting leave much to be desired. The palate goes beyond the use of blue at nighttime and borders into an almost gray territory with only a glow of a lamp or a dim flashlight beam to add definition to the frame. It is a shame that much of the first and second acts adopt this really ugly and unappealing color scheme because, as evidenced in the finale, the film can have fun with its colors as it employs zapping greens and purples to liven up the action.  

Thankfully, Haunted Mansion does not feel as soulless as a commercial for the Disney Parks as initially feared, but as mentioned its egregious product placement name dropping no less than five companies across the runtime is somehow worse than if it were just Disney promoting itself. As a work of introductory horror that it seems like it wants to be, it works well, that is, if the younger audience can stay engaged enough to reach the third act. Much like in the conception of the ride, there were disputes about tone before finding the right marriage of lighthearted fun and ghoulish scares, there is a major disconnect here on-screen with how the film wants to present itself. It is a tough project, and it finally settles for trying to be a little bit of everything, but in doing so it never finds its own voice, tone, or style resulting in a confused film that is unable to court and capture an audience.