(PG) 123 minutes<\/strong><\/p>\n
If you look close enough, you might spy phantoms lurking in the background of Haunted Mansion<\/em>, the second family-friendly horror comedy to be inspired by the Disneyland ride of the same name, following the 2003 version with Eddie Murphy, which I assume is long forgotten even by dedicated fans.<\/p>\n Rosario Dawson (left) as Gabbie, Tiffany Haddish as Harriet and LaKeith Stanfield as Ben in Haunted Mansion.<\/span><\/p>\n In every version of this material, the mansion is said to be in the French Quarter of New Orleans, suggesting the ride\u2019s original designers took inspiration from the real world\u2019s similarly located LaLaurie mansion, haunted in legend by the ghosts of murdered slaves.<\/p>\n Making that connection explicit wouldn\u2019t be the Disney way, but it\u2019s not by chance the 2003 Haunted Mansion<\/em> involved Murphy\u2019s character reuniting the spirits of a persecuted interracial couple. Nor does it seem likely any of this history was lost on director Justin Simien when he signed on for this loose remake, thinking back to his 2013 campus satire Dear White People<\/em>, later adapted into a successful Netflix series.<\/p>\n In this context, there\u2019s something especially suggestive about the casting of LaKeith Stanfield, whose air of grounded paranoia recalls his roles in Get Out<\/em> and Atlanta<\/em>, which tackled the subject of racism past and present in a satirical yet eerie manner, hinting that America could be seen as one big haunted house.<\/p>\n Stanfield plays Ben, a griefstricken astrophysicist turned tour guide whose scientific skills come in handy for photographing the ghosts of Gracey Manor, home to widowed doctor Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her young son Travis (Chase W. Dillon), a bright misfit who can\u2019t understand why other kids don\u2019t like him despite his efforts to dress well.<\/p>\n Gradually, they\u2019re joined by a whole gang of further misfits, including Tiffany Haddish as a brash but insecure medium, Danny DeVito as a classical scholar (a first, I think) and Owen Wilson as a possibly fraudulent priest.<\/p>\n Further celebrity guest appearances follow, not all of them strictly necessary to the plot, which is generally disjointed and confusing. Towards the climax, the whole cast decamps for a second haunted mansion, which really does seem like too much of a good thing.<\/p>\n It also seems like a sure sign of a script tinkered with by many hands, although the credits identify just one writer, Katie Dippold. Whatever she or anyone else originally had in mind, no central theme emerges beyond a blandly generalised one about moving on from the past, which is to say that overtly at least, this Haunted Mansion<\/em> plays it even safer than its 2003 predecessor.<\/p>\n Still, Simien doesn\u2019t entirely fail: he hardly could with this cast, apparently let loose to improvise around the digital set-pieces. Whenever there\u2019s a lull, Haddish jumps in to take over, while Wilson supplies the same kind of amused running commentary he did in the 1999 version of The Haunting<\/em>, another movie I thought had been wholly forgotten.<\/p>\n Stanfield\u2019s Ben is a different kind of distanced observer, visibly perplexed not just by his encounters with the supernatural but by the absurdity of existence in general: an emotional monologue about the death of his wife is played completely straight, and edited as if no one quite knew what to do with it.<\/p>\n For an actor to stay focused amid so many distractions is a feat in itself. But Stanfield has his own special form of intentness, with his guarded stance and his eyes alive with thought, as if searching for something in the movie that isn\u2019t there.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n