Haunted Mansion

I was hoping they learned from mistakes they made with the last Haunted Mansion movie. The story was much better than I expected, but they executed it poorly. They tried too hard with their overly silly jokes, cheesy ghost visuals, and painfully obvious shout outs to the ride. They tried to cater their jokes to kids, but in a theater full of children and preteens, the only chuckles I heard came from their elderly grandparents. My seven year old even thought it was too cheesy and was hoping for it to be a little more scary. HM is my favorite ride at Disney but I hated their use of obvious references to cater to the fans. Especially their use of the ride's original script. That was unforgivable.

I wasn't expecting Disney's "Haunted Mansion" film to be a masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but I was hoping it would be good entertainment, as the trailers seemed to make it look a bit more fun and authentic than some of Disney's other ride adaptations. It also has a talented cast including LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, and Danny DeVito. Yet the film fell short of my expectations, simply because it is so generic and derivative that it fails to offer the viewer anything new. It's not simply that "Haunted Mansion" might be too scary for younger kids and too juvenile for older kids, as that would not be a problem if the movie was good or interesting--it's just that this film overall isn't very good or interesting, period.

The film follows a single mother and her son who move into the Haunted Mansion, which is in New Orleans. While the film tries to utilize the setting of New Orleans in some decently authentic ways, the rest of the plot and character development is so generic that they fail to make viewers more engaged in the setting. The film's attempts at both humor and scares fall flat, as the jokes are formulaic and corny while the attempts at more frightening moments fail to elicit any tension or suspense, and are quite repetitive and CGI-heavy. For a film that supposedly cost $160 million to make, the visual effects look very cheesy and artificial as well. At over two hours long, the film also runs for too long, especially given the plot has limited resolution or payoff in a way that would be directly satisfying for the audience. While the supporting cast (such as Wilson and DeVito) try their best with the material they have been given and sometimes give off charismatic and fun performances, the rest of the film does not work especially well. Not recommended. 5/10.

While making this movie, they stole so many scenes from Harry Potter and The Frighteners that at some moments I thought I was watching a collage of those movies.

Also; The All Star Cast thing, like this "Michael Jackson - We Are The World" clip, is starting to tire me.

I wish you could find a decent screenwriter instead of working with such expensive actors.

There are such expensive actors, but there is nothing in the name of art.

The CGI part is good but the script is terrible.

Zero originality in 2023.

I think Disney Plus officials are Netflix agents, and they want to bury the Disney Plus name in history.

It wanted to score too easy, was way to slow and the jokes were to predictable all the times. Sorry to see they hurried the history plot line so much, which (on itself) would make a more than fine script. Also sorry to see that many of the beloved characters where also 'just there to be there'; if you blinked your eyes you could have mist it.

Nice to see the decor that makes the entourage of the attraction. But that's about it I'm afraid. The acting was almost on amateur level, the lines and the plot to thin. It made me even long for the previous version. Which also had a lot of things to comment on.

Might be hard to believe, but we actually have a Disney movie that was fun!!! It didn't try to shove an agenda down your throat while still tackling important themes such as loss and grief. Of course that is all secondary to the most important thing...FUN AT THE MOVIES which is rare these days sadly! It was escapism, great cast, not to mention soooo many easter eggs for fans of the ride. If I'm honest, the 2003 version isn't something I hated like many, but this does it MUCH better. I told my wife when we left, "if I wanted someone to know what ride they were about to get on at Disney World, I'd just have them watch this and I love the movie for it".