THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It’s pretty crazy when you don’t know things go bump on the night until you witness it firsthand.
PLOT
Based on the Disney Parks attraction, 2003’s The Haunted Mansion follows realtor Jim Evers whose gained a success thanks to working alongside his wife Sara. However, the former is deemed a workaholic to the point where he’s been missing out on multiple family milestones. Most recently, he misses his anniversary date due to scoring a new client. He plans to make it up to her by taking Sara and their children Megan & Michael to vacation to a nearby lake. However, Sara gets a call from an occupant living in Gracey Manor. Jim can’t help capitalizing on the possibility of selling it that he takes the family there before the promised trip to the lake. There, they meet the owner Edward Gracey, and his remaining servants: a butler named Ramsley, a maid named Emma and a footman named Ezra. The family ends up staying the night when a rainstorm floods the nearby river. Ramsley would take Jim to a library to discuss a possible deal to make with Gracey, but the latter would unintentionally get trapped in a secret passage. As for Gracey himself, he gives Sara a tour of the mansion, sharing how his grandfather took his life after his lover Elizabeth Henshaw done so first. As for the kids, they follow a spectral orb to the attic, in which they find a portrait of Elizabeth who has a strong resemblance of their mother. As Jim continues following the secret passage, he would meet Madame Leota, a gyspy ghost encased in a crystal ball. He would run away frightened of her supernatural abilities. Once away, he reunites with his children who discover that everyone else in the mansion are ghosts cursed for the past century and are unable to enter the afterlife until the spirits of Gracey & Elizabeth reunite. Gracey believes Sara is Elizabeth reincarnated and hopes to finally marry who he thinks is his long lost love. Wanting to prevent this from happening, Jim is directed by Leota to find a key hidden in a nearby mausoleum which would take them to the truth of Elizabeth’s death. As they pass through the cemetery, they encounter other ghosts and four singing busts. Within the mausoleum, Jim and Megan take the said key from a black coffin, only for it to wake up the undead residents. They try to escape until the door closes on them. Michael would hesitantly save them as he would open the door surrounded by spiders that frighten him. With Leota’s help again, Jim would use the key to unlock a trunk in the attic. There, he’d find a letter from Elizabeth to Gracey, revealing she truly loved him and wanted to marry him, implying she didn’t kill herself. Ramsley would then appear to confess he poisoned her, out of disapproval Gracey would abandon his inheritance for her. Wanting to prevent the truth being revealed, he traps the kids in another trunk and kicks Jim out of the house. In the meanwhile, Gracey would eventually his true self to Sara, in which she clarifies she isn’t Elizabeth. This would trouble Gracey, but Ramsley would assure she is his reincarnated long lost love. He convinces Sara to roll along with the wedding, promising to free the children in exchange. However, Jim gets back inside the mansion by driving through the window. Once back inside, he frees his kids and stops the wedding. He is also able to expose Ramsley by giving the letter to Gracey. As Gracey calls out his butler for his selfishness, the latter would try to summon wraiths to attack the family. But with the truth finally revealed aloud, a fiery entity drags him to hell. Ramsley would try to take Jim with him, but Gracey saves him. Just as Ramsley is taken, Sara would collapse from a poison the butler gave her during the ceremony. Luckily, the orb from before would reveal itself to be Elizabeth who was only able to be freed from her current form until the truth was revealed. As she reunites with Gracey, she also revives Sara. With the curse finally lifted, Gracey gives Jim the deed to the mansion and allows to do whatever he wants before departing to heaven with Elizabeth and the remaining inhabitants within the mansion’s property. The film would end with the Evers family having a proper vacation, heading to Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, with the company of Leota and the singing busts.
THOUGHTS
I think a lot of people can agree it was a hard decision for Walt Disney to adapt films based on their theme park attractions because no one in an audience perspective would have thought of it. The overall reaction chain was mixed because while no one liked The Country Bears, everybody was talking about Pirates of the Caribbean. From that alone, the studio felt encouraged to keep going. Since i didn't attend the parks during the 2000s, this was new territory for me and I of course was openminded for this particular film after already enjoying The Curse of the Black Pearl. While I don't think this film is better, it didn't really have to be to become generally entertaining. In my eyes, I think Director Rob Minkoff was able to craft a fascinating perspective of a titular location. However you feel with the visuals depict the ghost, which I think they're aging fine, the biggest strength goes to the production design because it literally looks like you're watching the walkthrough of the ride unfold. It's not 100% accurate, but it's enough to say its trying to respect the material. Thanks to it, the film nails the cartoonish yet spooky vibe it's going for. What makes this one worthwhile compared to The Country Bears is because it is surprisingly able to teach us how every moment in our lives matter but they're special when you share them with your family and if you put them aside for yourself, you're not truly enjoying what you got. You're easily getting that in the perspective of Jim Evers. Eddie Murphy easily has us fall for him due to the charm his character uses on the job. But he quickly makes it hard when he gets so caught up with work, he forgets his true priority that is being with his family. He does have a fair motive where he's consistent with his work because he wants to provide for them, but he enjoys working so much he almost forgot why he was doing it. Ironically, visiting a mansion filled with ghosts was his wakeup call on what he was messing up on. The comedy Murphy puts into the performance goes to how he is far from capable to grasp the situation and thinking he can get out of it smoothly. It's ironic that his fear is what makes me laugh. Putting that joke aside, he is able to prove the love for his family by fighting for their freedom. And luckily, he fought hard enough to win them back. It makes sense that the one person to call him out on his flaws is the one who loves him most. Marsha Thompson definitely owned it in making Sara the voice of reason who wants all of her family to be together. Looking back, I think the only reason she and Jim fell for each other is how they respect the passion when working on the job because if you're not working hard enough, you're not working at all. She gets what Jim is doing, but she has boundaries unlike him. She can turn off the work mode and embrace her parenthood once she's home. She proves her own set of selflessness by willing to marry a ghost to save her kids, which is a big decision to think about. Thompson even surprised me when briefly getting to play the pleasant spirit of Elizabeth. But in the end, Sara is reminded of where Jim's heart will always be, and it's with her. You know it's a gonna be a bit wild of a family adventure when the kids are involved and honestly, they leave a good impression as well. Aree Davis & Marc John Jefferies both made the most out of Megan & Michael, portraying them as kids who do their best in picking up on their surroundings and going from there. With Megan being the oldest child, she is more curious and is willing to put herself out there to do what's necessary. With Michael being younger, he's the most scared within the family and would rather avoid what fears him. However, he came around in accepting he's not the only one scared and is able to briefly able to overcome his arachnophobia to save his family. If he can put in an effort in overcoming arachnophobia, I think we all gotta give it a try these days. Since this is a ghost story, you knew there was gonna be a big layer of tragedy, which was a heavy load worth exploring. There is no doubt you'll be feeling bad for Gracey because he's just a guy that wants to reunite with he lost. He was manipulated through life and death which he didn't seem to deserve. You want to be happy he gets what he want, but it still sucks it took so long for it to happen. Obviously, this would've not happened had it not been for such an unsettling betrayal. Terrence Stamp quickly makes clear Ramsley is not someone to like due to how demanding he was to everyone in his way. His selfishness is very uncomfortable to notice because it's visible he didn't approve of Elizabeth as a lover due to her ethnicity, being African. And with Sara and her family sharing the same said race, his racial prejudice is far from invisible because he doesn't care what happens to them, as long as he gets what he believes he deserves. There are mentors who will look out for proteges, but Ramsley fails to do that because he didn't separate his wants/needs with Gracey's. So when he gets pulled into Hell, you know he deserved it. Thankfully, he is the only evil ghost because others like Gracey actually had good intentions within the mansion. I thought it was a relief we didn't see a big staff because it would've damaged the story's isolation-like mood. So I didn't really mind the presence of Emma & Ezra because both Dina Spybey & Wallace Shawn respectively show they're figures who mean well. Emma was very shy towards guests, especially Sara because she was trying to maintain her obedience and intended to be discreet about it. Ezra is mostly on edge due to the stakes at hand, but even he tries to be lenient when heading to the mausoleum with a ghost carriage, wanting to make the best of his abilities. Both him and Emma deserve to go to Heaven because the curse wasn't their fault and they went out of her way warning the Evers family about it. With that being said, I hope they enjoy their new chapter as Gracey tends to as well. Of all the ghost characters that became the most interesting, its hard to not say Madame Leota, a distinguishable character of the original attraction. You can likely call her bitter, but she deserves to feel such in her environment. Apart from that, Jennifer Tilly makes her a highlight because with all the metaphors she expresses as a gypsy, she was still helpful by the end of it. She even went out of her way to convince Jim to keep on trying until he succeeded, proving exactly how bad she wanted to curse to be lifted and knew how good of a person he is deep down. While I’ve already admitted to have a soft spot, it doesn’t excuse the many things that bothered med upon re-watching. For instance, what makes Jim think his kids give a shit of seeing him do his job? Sara won’t mind because they’re a team, but he should know the kids are gonna be rolling their eyes without even looking at them. Also, why didn’t see the lock on the gate evaporate? That had to have happened because that’s the only way the gate open without struggle. Of all things, I refuse to believe that’s a continuity error. If you want to get into that shit, how about for a brief moment where Sara’s outfit was pink when it’s yellow for the remainder of the story? Now that is very weird. Ramsley is smart in making the family stay to ensure his plan gets into motion, but was the rain really that bad to flood the road? The fact that neither of the parents check it out to confirm the claims is ridiculous. Speaking of which, was it really part of the plan for Ramsley to take Sara and Jim to the library? It didn’t seem like he knew Jim would find the secret passage, so this was too damn convenient to get them separated. I don’t know about you, but it’s god damn ridiculous for Jim to think termites are capable of making a door look like it’s breathing. Even if that were true, that should be scary instead of comfortable. And I can’t be the only one who thought Jim should’ve not brushed off getting thrown out of the house and landing on his car. Adrenaline or not, he ain’t Superman, so it’s ridiculous how quick he got up after impact. Also, how the hell did Leota get out of the house on her own? Before that, she was last seen in the attic and it’s not like Ramsley had any concern taking her back to her room, so it’s odd how she was able to find Jim on her own. Lastly, was there any true reason to take Leota or the busts to the trip? That was funny for being a pointless decision in all honesty. Other than that, this movie can still find its ways to entertain you. To wrap up, 2003’s The Haunted Mansion is an underrated film for doing its best in sparking creativity to an unconventional premise. If you enjoyed the original attraction similar to Pirates of the Caribbean, I hope you’re able to enjoy this as well. If you didn’t, then I hope the 2023 reboot is more favorable for your taste.
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