Spooky Movie Month Day #7 – Haunted Mansion

October 7th 

Tonight I was in the mood for a good ghost story. But knowing my kids and getting a late start, it would have to be something they’d be willing to invest themselves in – something not too terrifying, something with actors they’d recognize, most of all; something easy and fun. The clear and only choice was:

The new, 2023 release of Haunted Mansion! 

When Ashoka, Lightening McQueen and the Lorax team up with Laurie strode and Ms Hill to fight the Joker so Lieutenant Elliot and Hawthorn can process their grief safely in a gorgeous house with almost a thousand grim, grinning ghosts, you know it’s gonna be a good time!

Directed by Justin Semien and written by Katie Dippold, Haunted Mansion is a gorgeous PG-13 reimagining of The Haunted Mansion, which just happens to be our favorite home away from home. 

Weaving together the lives of six very different folks, the Mansion’s reluctant residents do their best to fight off a terrible otherworldly adversary before he can step out of the Beyond and into our world. 

The Haunted Mansion ride has a truly special place in my heart. When I was a kid, I didn’t call it by its name and it was never just “the haunted house ride”. 

Oh no. In fact, calling it that was a sure fire way to insult me! 

It was my house. 

I would spend hours daydreaming about living there with its 999 happy haunts, exploring, spending time in each of the rooms and making friends with all the ghosts who lived there. During covid, I even redecorated my bathroom in a Haunted Mansion theme! The kids have been wandering the halls and gardens since they were 6 weeks old. Our time there and the moments we’ve spent are truly a part of our family history.

So, as you can imagine, I’ve been DYING to see this. We missed it in theaters this summer due to our theatre and performance schedules, but I was determined to jump on it as soon as I could once it was available at home.

Watching it brought back all those nostalgic childhood feelings with a star-studded cast and they did it so beautifully, with such a touching story and powerful message, I even cried a few times! 

I won’t give away too much since this is such a new movie, but I will say – Haters; we clearly did not see the same movie. 

I found it visually beautiful, full of nods to the ride, had a cast I was genuinely excited to see together on screen. It wasn’t perfect, but I truly loved it.

A few critiques;

• I would have liked to see more of the pet cemetery and the animals represented in the movie. Considering our house here in California has mostly pets out front, I was surprised by the lack of ghost animals.

• I wish they’d spent a bit more time on Master Gracey. I can’t get into why without spoilers, but I really felt like the story left him hanging.

• A good medium knows you use more than just sage when cleansing and protecting a space! By all means, though – if you can get it cheaper at Costco, go for it.

• And last, there was one aspect of the stretching room they missed. I was sure they were going to do it toward the end, but it never happened and I am curious why they left it out. 

Now, enough of my opinions – What did the younglings think!?

Lion absolutely loved it. They thought it could have been a bit scarier but also liked that it wasn’t TOO scary. They’re ready to watch it again and look for all those tiny details and easter eggs! 

Dragon thought it was just the right amount of scary and the humor made the scariest part a lot easier to deal with. A little known fact about Dragon; they struggle with grief and the loss of loved ones. As it came up heavily in the story, I was worried it would be too close to home and that they’d walk out. To my surprise and relief, not only did they stay, but later when we talked about it, Dragon told me it didn’t bother him as much because he knew the characters were going to be okay because they had each other. Just like us. That, and they had popcorn, so when a sad part would come up in the movie, they just thought about how much they loved popcorn instead of dwelling on it. Good strategy, kid!

Both Dragon and Lion said they appreciated how someone must have thought about how scary it could have been and put the silly scenes next to the scary ones to make it easier for kids. They thought that was very kind of them and something only Disney would think of.

All in all; four enthusiastic thumbs up – we will most likely be watching this again tomorrow… and the next day.

What’s up next? No idea, but I’m sure it’ll be a scream! Join us for day #8 on The Mothership to find out!