Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A woman and her son enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.
The 2023 Haunted Mansion adaptation struggles with tonal inconsistency, trying to blend family-friendly comedy with genuine grief themes without fully committing to either. The plot is functional but formulaic, recycling familiar haunted house tropes with little surprise. The cast (LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito) brings charm and elevates material that doesn't always deserve it. Visually it captures the theme park aesthetic competently with decent effects work, though nothing cinematically distinctive. The grief subplot adds some emotional texture but the resolution feels rushed and unearned. As a second attempt at adapting the ride, it adds little new beyond the 2003 version conceptually, remaining a fairly by-the-numbers supernatural comedy.