HAUNTED MANSION (2023)
Tagline: Welcome, mere mortals.
(Drama, Comedy, Every Ghost but Casper) [PG-13]
This mansion is unhinged. She needs all the help she can get. You wanna be a hero?
In this one, Gabbie and her son Travis inherit a giant mansion. It doesn’t take long before they discover they cannot leave because the ghosts that haunt the mansion will not let them. She enlists the help of her friend Harriet and a priest named Father Kent, but that won’t be enough to get to the bottom of what is really going on at the HAUNTED MANSION.
First off, I remember watching the original HAUNTED MANSION movie from 2003 starring Eddie Murphy. I never ended up reviewing that movie at the time, but you shouldn’t bother remaking any movie unless you are going to straight up hit that freakin thing out of the park. As much as I love the cast in this version, it fails to meet my expectations in a lot of ways. That doesn’t mean it’s not charming, or funny or that it doesn’t have some enjoyable moments.
LaKeith Stanfield is outstanding as Ben Matthias but if we are comparing him to Eddie Murphy, I have to give Murphy the slight edge. Instead of leaning so heavily on Stanfield for comedy as they did Murphy, it was split more between Harriet, Father Kent, and Bruce Davis. Tiffany Haddish (KEANU) is solid as Harriet. She was by far the funniest character in the film. Owen Wilson (THE CABLE GUY) plays Father Kent and is also pretty funny, but honestly, this was one of my least favorite characters he has ever played. Danny DeVito (ROMANCING THE STONE) is just okay as Bruce Davis. I thought he was good for the role, but I also think a dude random dude hanging out at IHOP on a Friday night would have done just as good a job. Chase Dillon is really good as Travis. I strongly believe that he has a great future ahead of him. Rosario Dawson (JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS) is in this movie as Gabbie and is basically sidelined for the entire second half of the film. I like Rosario, but something was off here. Jamie Lee Curtis plays Madame and she’s pretty decent here, but I have seen her in far better roles.
I could be way off, but I think this movie is going to get a lukewarm reception at the box office. It’s really not a horror movie, but it likely would have been much better received with a mid-October release, because a lot of that month is horror flicks for adults. This could have been a nice break up of that, aimed at families kind of along the lines of HOCUS POCUS. I don’t think the imagery was as frightening as the original, but the descriptions of some events and language are likely why it’s PG-13. Apparently, the idea was to make a series of these films, but I kind of don’t think that’s going to happen. It doesn’t even end like they had confidence in that happening.
This movie's strong points include the top-notch CGI, the pacing, and the cinematography. We get some really great sets and it also doesn’t feel overly long even at 34 minutes longer than the original. There really aren’t any wasted scenes and it does draw you in emotionally if you have emotions. If you don’t, then I am very sorry, but it really doesn’t matter because you wouldn’t be able to embrace that emotionally anyway. Unfortunately, this doesn't keep the script from trying to do too much and still ending up doing too little.
Overall HAUNTED MANSION is probably going to be sadly forgettable for most people. This probably won’t be because it’s a bad movie. It’s not. I think it’s forgettable because we’ve seen it before as much as they tried to put a new spin on it. HAUNTED MANSION is a 4 out of 7 when it had a chance to be a 6 or even a 7 with this cast.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF RIDEBACK AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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