Haunted Mansion (2023 film)

Haunted Mansion is a 2023 American supernatural horror comedy film. Directed by Justin Simien, the film is written by Katie Dippold and stars LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Rideback, it is the second theatrical film adaptation of Walt Disney's theme park attraction The Haunted Mansion, following the 2003 film of the same name.

Haunted Mansion premiered at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, on July 15, 2023, and was released in the United States on July 28 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $118 million worldwide, failing to make back its budget of $150 million. Haunted Mansion was released on digital platforms on October 3, the Disney+ streaming service on October 4, and Blu-ray and DVD on October 17.

Plot

Summary

A single mother and her son move into an old mansion in New Orleans and discover its long history of hauntings, working with a number of different characters to uncover the mystery.

Synopsis

Astrophysicist Ben Matthias develops a camera to detect dark matter. He later meets and marries Alyssa, a ghost tour guide, and becomes entranced with her belief in the supernatural. Following Alyssa's untimely death in a car accident, Ben gives up his career and continues to run her ghost tour.

Years later, widowed doctor Gabbie and her son Travis move from New York into their recently-purchased antebellum mansion, Gracey Manor, to turn it into a bed and breakfast. During their first days, they learn that it is haunted with ghosts. Ben is visited by the priest and exorcist Father Kent who hires him to photograph the ghosts. Ben is initially incredulous until he returns home and is haunted by a ghost Mariner who forces him to return to the mansion. Ben learns that Gabbie, Travis, and Kent have also fallen victim to the hauntings, forcing them to stay in the mansion.

Ben and Kent recruit Harriet, a psychic with legitimate powers, and steal blueprints to the mansion from haunted house historian Prof. Bruce Davis. The group finds a hidden séance room and Harriet manages to contact the spirit of Gracey who leaves a message reading instructing them to talk to the legendary medium Madame Leota. Upon trying to do so, a mysterious entity forces Harriet out of the house. Bruce arrives shortly afterwards and becomes possessed.

The group stay at the mansion where they proceed to look for Leota’s ghost. Ben goes into the attic where he runs afoul of a resident ghostly bride and finds a locked trunk. Upon examining the contents, they find a crystal ball which houses Leota's spirit.

Leota reveals that William Gracey bought the mansion and recruited her to try and contact the spirit of his dead wife every night for a full year, releasing hundreds of ghosts into the mansion before an evil entity tricked Gracey into taking his own life and trapped Leota inside her crystal ball. Harriet attempts to perform an astral projection for more answers but ends up sending Ben out of his body, wherein he discovers Gracey as well as the evil entity, the Hatbox Ghost.

The next morning, Bruce and Ben meet a sketch artist who draws up the Hatbox Ghost. They identify him as Alistair Crump, a a rich heir who was abused in his childhood by his father after his mother's death and was later expelled from his home, Crump Manor, disappearing after being shunned by society. Upon reaching adulthood, Crump repurchased his old home, and used lavish parties to kill his fellow socialites out of revenge for ostracizing him, before being beheaded himself by his mutinous servants. Crump proceeds to lock the mansion down but Ben, Kent, and Travis manage to escape. They find Crump Manor, which has become a historical site, and learn from the Mariner (who followed them) that Crump needs someone to willingly give up their life and become the mansion’s one-thousandth spirit in order to escape the mansion. Travis finds Crump's hat, which they can use as part of a ritual to banish Crump back to the afterlife.

The three make it back to the mansion where Ben and Kent rescue Gabbie, Harriet, and Bruce, but Crump burns the hat and plans to use Travis' grief over the loss of his father to have him to come his side. Ben finds Travis and manages to convince him to let go of his father as they and Gabbie confront Crump in the graveyard. Ben makes peace with losing Alyssa, Kent manages to convince the ghosts to turn on Crump and join forces with them, and Bruce delivers a piece of the hat to Harriet who uses Leota's incantation to banish Crump.

Many of the ghosts decide to stay at the mansion, now in harmony with Gabbie and Travis. Harriet regains full confidence in her psychic abilities, Kent undergoes ordainment to become a real priest, Bruce maintains his newfound friendships, and Ben goes back to teaching and adopts a stray cat named Tater Tot, a nod to his wife's love for the snack. The group later reunites on Halloween for a party at the mansion with the resident ghosts.

Production

The project was announced on August 28, 2020 with a script by Katie Dippold, with director Justin Simien taking the helm in April 2021. This film project came after the long-anticipated Guillermo del Toro version spent years stuck in development hell.

Cast

• LaKeith Stanfield as Ben Matthias, a paranormal tour guide in the French Quarter.
• Owen Wilson as Father Kent, a priest hired to exorcise the Mansion.
• Rosario Dawson as Gabbie, a single mother and doctor from New York who moves into the Haunted Mansion.
• Chase Dillon as Travis, Gabbie's 9-year-old son.
• Tiffany Haddish as Harriet, a psychic who can communicate with the dead.
• Danny DeVito as Bruce Davis, "a smug professor" that is a paranormal expert obsessed with finding the Haunted Mansion.
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota
• Jared Leto as Alistair Crump/The Hatbox Ghost
• J.R. Adduci as William Gracey
• Erika Coleman as Eleanor Gracey
• Ben Bladon as the Hatchet Man
• Creek Wilson as the Mariner
• Lindsay Lamb as Constance Hatchaway
• Fedor Steer as Ezra
• Terence Rosemore as Phineas
• Mike Benitez as Gus
• Chad Crumley and Sebastien Soudais as the Duelists
• John Curran as Pickwick
• Tracy Goode as the Executioner
• Bryan McClure as the Beheaded Knight
• Charles Black as Victor Guest
• Don Stallings as the Venetian Ghost
• Ashley John as Lady Blue
• Rick Andosca as the Caretaker Ghost
• Helene Henry as Tightrope Girl
• Kamran Shaikh as Alexander Nitrokoff
• Jared Simon, Joseph Miller and Ian Covell as the Quicksand Men
• Kay Galvin as Abigaile Patecleaver
• Charity Jordan as Alyssa Matthias
• Winona Ryder as Pat, a tour guide at Crump Manor.
• Dan Levy as Vic, a tour guide and murder mystery actor at Crump Manor.
• Hasan Minhaj as a police sketch artist

Gallery

Images

Posters

Video

Haunted Mansion - Official Teaser Trailer

Trivia

• Although different from the earlier 2003 film adaption, this movie shares a few connections with it:
  • The primary main protagonists, a mortal family who first set foot in the mansion, are African Americans
  • An antebellum house located in the bayous of New Orleans, Louisiana serves as the titular mansion and the main setting
  • The house' name is Gracey Manor
  • The caretaker and his dog appear as ghosts in the graveyard
  • A curse is placed on the mansion following a terrible event, causing it to be haunted.
  • The proprietor of the house, Gracey, commits suicide out of grief over losing a loved one. However, in this version, Gracey drinks poison while the 2003 Gracey hangs himself.
  • A wedding dress is seen in the attic