Haunted House (2023) by Justin Simien

In Haunted House, Disney tries for the second time to adapt the amusement park attraction of the same name, this time grafting the concept onto the haunting backdrop of New Orleans. However, a slightly used backdrop for a film that is content to transpose (without much verve) the basic idea of ​​attraction, without a compelling script to glue it all together.

“There’s a house in New Orleans…”

In addition to the ubiquitous remakes of its classic animated films, in recent years Disney has seemingly come back to relying on films inspired by its amusement park landmarks for productions more explicitly aimed at family audiences. A practice that seems to have been abandoned after the success of the first Pirates of the Caribbean (named in Italy). Curse of the First Moon) and after a contemporary, the first and less fortunate ghost house dated 2003, directed by Rob Minkoff and starring Eddie Murphy. Now after good results Jungle Cruise (the likely start of a new franchise) Mickey’s House brought the idea of ​​his 1969 Haunted Mansion to the screen for the second time, re-setting its foundations in the context of contemporary New Orleans. Idea for a new version ghost house

, which the studio has actually been nurturing since 2010 and which for a while even seemed to see Guillermo del Toro as director. However, given the very slightly dark version of this film directed by Justin Simien (a director belonging to a black comedy, obviously not in the spirit of this operation), it becomes quite clear why the director Pinocchio AND Kunstkamera was unable to complete my project. Some authors, perhaps (see Tim Burton and his experience with Alice in Wonderland AND Dumbo) cannot be included in a certain logic without distorting itself.

spiritual mission

In the center of the plot is the character Ben Mathias (LaKeith Stanfield) a former astrophysicist who, after the death of his beloved wife Alice, took her place as a tour guide to places supposedly inhabited by supernatural beings. A man who has developed a special camera to take pictures of ghosts is visited by exorcist priest Kent (Owen Wilson), with the task of photographing creatures that supposedly live in a large mansion where single mother Gabby has just moved in (Rosario Dawson) and his son Travis. Expert Medium Harriet (Tiffany Haddish) and college professor Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito).

Incoherent story

It seems curious how, despite the abundance of names that make up this ghost house (The film also counts on the presence of Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto as two otherworldly spirits, as well as a cameo appearance by Winona Ryder) Among the most obvious shortcomings of the film is the poor cohesion of the translation team. A limitation that seems to be especially due to the dubious choice of LaKeith Stanfield as the protagonist, whose apparently black humor seems hard to match with the tone the director was trying to give the film – between fantastical divertissement and mild outbursts of fear. and a hint of melody, both in the recitative register of the other actors. An issue that seems to be due in part to poor coherence of the script: in an attempt to make the film a choral experiment, the screenplay by Kathy Dippold (to her credit, an underrated female remake of Ghostbusters) ultimately forces everyone to act on their own through various proposed plots – starting with those of the protagonist and the family that occupies the house – conveying to the viewer an inevitable sense of poor narrative coherence. A feeling that is already felt from the first minutes of the film, in which it seems that you see two different incipits, as if we are watching two different and parallel films.

Simple (small) screening

If the idea of ​​the production was not bad ghost house in the enigmatic New Orleans – a place, in the director’s words, both “scary and hilarious” – it must be said that Justin Simien’s film does little to adapt the story concept to this setting, which remains a kind of foreign body to the plot. The film’s main problem is probably that it wanted to offer nothing more than a permutation of the attraction of the same name on the screen, with its various steps (shrinking room, flickering pictures, hall with ghosts, etc.) reproduced without much imagination. By failing to give a truly cinematic structure to a plot that flows in fits and starts, in an uneven rhythm, and also seems overblown, the film inevitably falls short of the amusement parks’ Haunted Mansion, which at least allowed for a direct experience. We weren’t looking for genuine tremors of fear or god knows what scares in Simien’s film, given that the operation is claimed to be a family operation: but the problem is that even as an adventure film dedicated to the smallest or regarded as a simple comedy, it is a scarce and not very effective product. . Even the little ones at Anno Domini 2023 have probably raised the bar for their needs, and the film’s not-so-impressive box office in its first week of US programming seems to prove it. Perhaps the perfect place for ghost house it would be a Disney+ Halloween event where his playful nature could be more appreciated. Who knows, perhaps closer to October 31, the film will be able to survive the unpredictable second youth in this guise.

poster

Gallery

Form

Original name: House with the ghosts
Director: Justin Simien
Country/year: USA / 2023
Duration: 123′
Type: Horror, Comedy, Fantasy
Throw: Owen Wilson, Jared Leto, Jamie Lee Curtis, Lakeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Gralen Bryant Banks, Terence Rosemore, Chase Dillon, Danny DeVito, Erica Coleman, Tiffany Haddish, Antonino Paone, Ben Bladon, Charity Jordan, Christopher Winchester, Creek Wilson, Fedor Steer, JR Duchi, Joe Coy, Lindsey Lamb, Mike Benitez
Screenplay: Katie Dippold
Photo: Geoffrey Waldron
Assembly: Philip J. Bartell
Music: Chris Bowers
Director: Dan Lin, Jonathan Eirich
Production house: Walt Disney Pictures, Rideback
Distribution: Walt Disney Films

Release date: 08/23/2023

Trailer

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