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The Haunted Mansion

The ride was better, thank god there's not a book.

By Mae McCreeryPublished 4 years ago 3 min read
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Disney’s The Haunted Mansion

Terrible but nostalgic

There are great movies, bad movies, cult classics, and then there’s that strange category of terrible movies but you can watch again and not feel completely ashamed. I don’t think any other movie could properly define that category than The Haunted Mansion starring Eddie Murphy.

There’s nothing spectacular about this movie, it feels like a mad grab for Disney since Pirates of the Caribbean was such a huge hit.

This movie is about workaholic Jim Evers (Eddie Murphy, Mushu from Mulan) and the exhausted-by-his-bullshit-wife Sara Evers (Marsha Thomason, Victoria from the Black Knight), they’re real estate agents who get a mysterious call to come check out a potential listing. On their way to a family vacation with their two kids, they agree to check out the house and only spend “20 minutes tops” there. The true forbidden fruit of real estate agents - a mansion listing with a weird owner who lies about his age. They’re quickly swept up in a mystery that might cost them something more important than money.

Personally, spending the night at a haunted Victorian Mansion with a ghost gypsy is a dream of mine. So I don’t know what they’re complaining about.

If you enjoyed the original Disneyland ride for the Haunted Mansion, I think you’ll enjoy catching all the little Easter Eggs than the actual story. My favorite part of the ride is the Ballroom Dancing Ghosts, but in the movie I think the graveyard scene is done really well. You can catch all the usual gags that are on the ride, but enhanced with CGI.

Of course, who doesn’t love Madame Leota? In the movie, she plays a pretty significant role in helping the Evers family escape their supposed fates. Despite being stuck as a head inside a glass ball, which makes you wonder why that’s how she has to spend eternity when all the other dead people look like how they did when they were alive.

SPOILER ALERT!

Ramsley, the standard creepy butler that thank god is excluded from the ride, (played by Terrence Stamp, nemesis of Gorden Gekko in Wall Street) is the true villain of this film. But you can kinda see that coming a mile away to be perfectly honest with you. Creepy old white dude who can appear within seconds and whose voice sounds like a scratchy AF 1950s record that’s warped and plays all funky when you put it in the player.

The way that character is revealed through the film is really the scariest aspect of this movie. The owner of the house has trusted this man in life and death and to be betrayed by someone who was like a parent to you, you can see the heartbreak and it’s actually a very profound moment. Even with Eddie Murphy in the background heckling the butler, when clearly this was the moment to slip out of the damn house with your wife and children.

Mr. Gracey (Nathaniel Parker, Tristan’s dad in Stardust) is a surprising character, he reminds me of a Jane Austen character like Mr. Darcy; he’s so in love that once he loses the love of his life everything else fades away. Which isn’t even a profound or even original storyline, in fact it’s been told countless times. To me, there’s always something special about continuing a story after death, to feel something so deeply that even death is not an escape.

Fun Fact: Madame Leota, the medium whose head is enclosed in her crystal ball, was named for Imagineer Leota Toombs, who worked on numerous Disneyland projects in the 1960s.

Overall, this movie is not great but there are moments that do make it worth it. Plus it’s fun to spot all the things they throw in from the ride.

Psst! Look for a "special" message from Madame Leota at the end of the credit roll. It sounds deadly familiar to the ending of the Disneyland ride.

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About the Creator

Mae McCreery

I’m a 29 year old female that is going through a quarter life crisis. When my dream of Journalism was killed, I thought I was over writing forever. Turns out, I still have a lot to say.

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