Haunted Mansion (2023)

I need just two things from a movie based on a Disneyland ride: for it to entertaining enough as a movie that I can enjoy it and that it evokes the feel of the ride. Haunted Mansion does just enough of both. Screenwriter Dippold has crafted a fun story that fits in with the well loved elements of the famous ride. It also manages to have just enough weight to feel more than trivial while being just scary enough to live up to the property's haunted spirit without being too much for the children the movie is aimed at... again, like the ride. While it may not transcend any of its tasks to become anything more (perhaps in the way the first Pirates of the Caribbean film did) it is a step up from the first time Disney tried to make a movie out of this ride. 

Haunted Mansion isn't perfect and it's not quite the sort of film adaptation of a corporate property that is anything more than what it purports to be. It's plot jars a little bit in the first act until it finds its groove. Once it does it capitalizes on its cast as Haddish, DeVito, and Wilson make for a good comedy team. But the real asset of the film is Stanfield who commits to the film and delivers a layered performance that rounds out his character to depths that a film like this doesn't usually go. He is the MVP in a stand out cast who go the distance despite the film's shortcomings. 

So little about the film reaches greats heights but all its elements come together to be fun enough, and connected enough so that fans of the ride can see that experience in the too. 

Haunted Mansion

Starring: LaKieth Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Chase W Dillon, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto, Winona Ryder, Dan Levi, Hasan Minhaj

Director: Justin Simien

Writer: Katie Dippold