The cinematic bow of Haunted Mansion is just a few days away, and it’s high time we left the original 2003 film as a ghost of our past as we look ahead to a brighter tomorrow; indeed, judging by the trailers and early reactions to to Justin Simien’s turn in the Haunted Mansion director’s chair, the fun dials were cranked up to 11 with this one.
The film’s beefy ensemble features LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jared Leto, Winona Ryder, Hasan Minhaj, and Dan Levy; suffice to say that whoever was in charge of putting these heads together had better be raking in the dough on each and every paycheck, because we can’t begin to imagine what comedic formula must have sprung out of this union.
But in spite of its status as a Disney movie, it won’t be all light-hearted chuckles from Haunted Mansion. Dawson, who portrays the character Gabbie — a mother who moves into the eponymous mansion with her son and is the first to discover that it is, in fact, haunted — in the film, recently teased during an interview with D23 that there’s going to be plenty of goosebumps to go around, albeit admitting that they’re the sort of goosebumps you could only ever expect from a Disney film.
“I think it’s just really smart and very clever. And it’s definitely going to have some scary bits… There’s so much attention and care put into it because this is such a beloved property. You just feel it. There’s just something about it that feels really warm and fun and creepy at the same time — in a good way! It gives you those good spooky goosebumps.”
Indeed, it doesn’t quite sound like Haunted Mansion will shake us to our cores the way a proper horror movie might, but we’d venture that it won’t really have to in order for viewers to get mileage out of it; between the stellar production design and trippy set pieces, we’re sure there’s going to be a lot to love — and fear, in a way — about Haunted Mansion.
Haunted Mansion drops into theaters on July 28.