Pirates of the Caribbean is an exception. The 2003 film (known in Italy by the misleading title The Curse of the First Moon), inspired by the Disney parks attraction of the same name, was a huge success, creating an important franchise (one of the few characters of the 21st century not based on books, comics or TV series) , among other things, with four sequels so far (and a fifth on the way), giving the already famous Johnny Depp the most iconic role of his career, that of the glorious pirate Jack Sparrow.
Also released that year was The Haunted Mansion, also taken from the Disney park attraction of the same name (originally The Haunted Mansion, a haunted house), but even though the main character is a star like Eddie Murphy, I won’t achieve that. the same success, even if the income is still decent.
Twenty years later, Disney is trying again with Justin Simien’s Haunted House, which hits theaters on August 23rd. The plot is very different from the 2003 film, in which Eddie Murphy worked as a real estate agent.
Widow Cabby (Rosario Dawson) moves with her young son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) to a house near New Orleans, North America’s most magical and haunted city.
Unfortunately, the mansion is haunted: almost all peaceful, but they are controlled by an evil and manipulative ghost. Cabby then must assemble a bizarre team to drive them out: Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), a failed astrophysicist turned haunted house guide (but he doesn’t believe in ghosts), Father Kent, a strange (and implausible) priest (Owen Wilson) , Harriet, a fortune teller, perhaps a charlatan, or maybe not (Tiffany Haddish), Bruce Davis, a strange professor (Danny DeVito).
They will be helped by the ghost of the powerful medium Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis), also present in the 2003 film, in which, however, she was alive and played by Jennifer Tilly.
‹‹Haunted Mansion›› really feels like a timeless movie in story and style, a harmless classic (ghosts aren’t really that scary) a “family” movie from yesteryear, the very presence of Danny DeVito, stars in many films between the eighties and the nineties, it proves (and even Jamie Lee Curtis, although always famous and this year’s Oscar winner, certainly not the first hair).
The only element that makes it look like a 2023 movie (same special effects, just fair) and not a decade old movie is the fact that all the main characters (Cabbie, Ben and Travis) are African American, while most character actors are white (in the 80s or 90s it would probably have been the other way around).
Curiously, little Travis plays with action figures of Marvel characters, and among them is a figure of Lord Arlantis Namor: this is a comic book character, not a version of him. The ruler of the Mayan style appeared in the recent movie Black Panther. : Wakanda forever ››.
The evil ghost (the rest are generally “good”) is called Alistair Crump (this name refers to the famous occultist Aleister Crowley with sulfur fame, the surname is probably Donald Trump, who is still considered the main villain in Hollywood). animated version voiced by Jared Leto.
The leader of the rock group “Thirty Seconds to Mars” is an eternal sex symbol (born in 1971, it seems, was born in the late eighties), but as an actor he has recently signed up for failures (“Morbius, beauty” ‹Blade Runner 2049>>), and probably this movie will be too.
But despite the obvious limitations (he definitely won’t create a franchise like the first one), overall he doesn’t deserve it.