Horror is the one genre that Disney tends to stay away from, as it is the one that is the most difficult to make "family friendly." However, it's looking more and more like the new Haunted Mansion movie is going to provide some legitimate scares alongside a few laughs, as the new trailer includes more than a few moments that might make some viewers jump. Grim grinning ghosts these are not.
A new trailer for Disney's Haunted Mansion movie is here and while it drops a couple of solid one-liners, the focus is not on comedy but on action, and when action combines with ghosts trying to kill you, you're getting awfully close to a straight-up horror movie, even if this one will likely remain light on the blood. Check out the new trailer above.
Disney's Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom walks a fine line of balance between horror and comedy and it looks like the film will make a concerted effort to do very much the same. The trailer mainly focuses on LaKeith Stanfield's character among the incredible Haunted Mansion cast. He plays a paranormal investigator who is one of the people that Rosario Dawson brings in to help deal with her new haunted home.
He gets axes and harpoons thrown at his head, which is a bit more violent than anything you'll actually find on the Haunted Mansion ride. Those ghosts always seem like they would love to have you join them, but the choice is up to you. In this Haunted Mansion, the ghosts seem to be taking a more active hand in looking for the 1,000th to join the 999 happy haunts.
And speaking of the ride, the Haunted Mansion references just in the trailer are heavy. We see the Hatbox Ghost and the Bride, with the latter looking particularly terrifying. They appear to be the primary antagonists in the film. We also see the stretching room, complete with a snapping crocodile, that appears in one of the classic portraits, the dueling ghosts, and the organ. Even the chair that Tiffany Haddish is sitting in that goes flying down the hall and out the door resembles the classic Doom Buggy ride vehicle with its shape.
Haunted Mansion is the latest in a line of movies based on classic Disneyland and Disney World rides. It's also the first movie based on a ride to be a remake, as the first Haunted Mansion movie failed to excite viewers. Disney is likely looking for a successor franchise, at least until they figure out exactly what is going on with the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Disney's Jungle Cruise movie with Dwayne Johnson was a hit, and a sequel was given the green light, but we've heard little about it since then.
The Haunted Mansion could actually make for a decent franchise on its own. While the versions of the ride at Disneyland and Walt Disney World are basically the same, there are a few other Haunted Mansion-inspired attractions at international Disney Parks that would make for excellent sequels,
