If you ask me, Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is the best ride in the park. Also if you ask me, while Disney’s first attempt at a Haunted Mansion movie is maybe a bit underrated, it’s not that great. Fans of the excellent attraction will get another chance to see it brought to the screen however, as a new Haunted Mansion movie is on the way, and now it has an official release date. Unfortunately, it’s almost a year away.
Today Disney Parks are celebrating Halfway to Halloween and as part of that, it was announced that the new Haunted Mansion film will be released on March 10, 2023. However, while we’ll have to wait a while before we actually get to see the new Haunted Mansion movie, which was directed by Dear White People’s Justin Simien and written by The Heat’s Kate Dippold, we now know more about what movie we’re waiting for.
The plot synopsis explains that the movie will star Rosario Dawson as a doctor who will go with her nine-year-old son, played by Chase Dillon, to live in a “strangely affordable” New Orleans Mansion. Once there they will discover, one assumes, their new home is inhabited by 999 happy haunts. The family will then turn to four different individuals for help, a priest, played by Owen Wilson, a psychic, played by Tiffany Haddish, a scientist turned paranormal investigator, played by LaKeith Stanfield, and a crotchety historian, played by Danny DeVito.
Disney’s first Haunted Mansion movie came out in 2003 and starred Eddie Murphy and while the movie isn’t without its high points, and plenty of references to the attraction, the film failed to impress at the box office. The lack of success hit especially hard considering the movie came out the same year as Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which became a massive hit and has since spawned four sequels.
Pirates, however, has largely been the exception to the rule as for a long time, it was the only film based on a Disney theme park attraction to be a real success. Last year Disney released Jungle Cruise with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt. Jungle Cruise 2 is now on the way, so Disney appears to have found success again in this area, one certainly hopes the new Haunted Mansion will be at least as good as the recent Muppets Haunted Mansion Disney+ special which was an excellent Muppets special while also including plenty of Haunted Mansion references for fans.
Based on the description, and the fact that the movie takes place in New Orleans, it seems the movie will be taking its primary inspiration from the Disneyland version of the attraction. While the inside of the ride is nearly identical to the Magic Kingdom version at Walt Disney World, the exterior is significantly different as the Haunted Mansion in Florida is located at Liberty Square, and thus fits in with the colonial era American aesthetic. Several international parks have significantly different versions of the attraction. There’s plenty of material there for potential sequels if this Haunted Mansion is a hit.
