Haunted Mansion (2023) * *

 

Directed by:  Justin Simien 

Starring:  LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny Devito, Tiffany Haddish, Chase Dillon, Winona Ryder, Daniel Levy, Jared Leto, Jamie Lee Curtis

Haunted Mansion feels almost as lifeless as the ghosts who inhabit the New Orleans mansion recently moved into by Gabbie (Dawson) and her son Travis (Dillon).  The cast is full of actors who are more than capable of delivering laughs if any were to be found in the movie, but instead they are forced to put on a smile and try their best not to be upstaged by the visual effects.

The mansion is chock full of spirits wandering its halls which Travis notices right away and soon after his mother follows suit.  They flee as any reasonable people would only to come back because no matter where they go, the ghosts haunt them.   This brings former ghost hunter Ben Matthias (Stanfield), who is grieving the loss of his young wife and is more or less mailing in his job as a tour guide, to the mansion at the behest of exorcist Father Kent (Wilson).  Ben is able to take photos of the estate with his invention, a camera which can detect ghosts.   With further assistance from paranormal professor Bruce (Devito) and psychic Harriet (Haddish), Ben is able to find out who the ghosts are and why they continue to hang around the world of the living.   The villain is a spirit voiced by Jared Leto who looks like Jim Carrey's Grinch, only gray instead of green, and wants to possess 1,000 souls in order to rule the world...I think.  He has 999 souls banked already, so all he needs is one more vulnerable person to give up his soul in exchange for a reunion with a deceased loved one. 

I was reminded of the superior Casper (1995), which had the friendly ghost and his three mischievous cousins haunting a mansion bought by a paranormal scientist who wants to reconnect with his late wife.  Casper had laughs and an emotional center which kept the movie together.   Haunted Mansion, based on the Disney ride of the same name, is almost devoid of joy or laughs while it treks its way through a slog of a plot.  These are actors who could have improvised a better script themselves and injected some fun into the proceedings.  Alas, they spend Haunted Mansion looking adrift and overwhelmed by the deceased that surround them.   I've been on the Haunted Mansion ride and isn't as long as this movie even with the hour wait figured in.