Haunted Mansion Movie Reviews Materialize Online

The first Haunted Mansion reviews are beginning to materialize. Disney's second adaptation of its classic theme park attraction has screened for critics, who have rated the 2023 version (49%) higher than the 2003 version (14%) on Rotten Tomatoes. Reactions are mixed: professional reviewers are praising the ensemble cast — highlighting the performance of leading man LaKeith Stanfield, who plays a tour guide haunted by his wife's death — but criticizing the film for lacking the spirit of the theme park ride. So, is Haunted Mansion filled with ghoulish delight? Or is this re-do best left in regions beyond?

"Haunted Mansion finally gets the adaptation the beloved ride has always deserved — a fun, scary, and surprisingly emotional time at the movies," writes Charlie Ridgely in ComicBook's spoiler-free Haunted Mansion review. "It may not be a groundbreaking cinematic achievement like Gore Verbinski's first outing with Jack Sparrow [in Curse of the Black Pearl], but it's certainly Disney's best live-action movie since Pirates of the Caribbean wrapped up its initial trilogy."

Directed by Justin Simien (Dear White People), Haunted Mansion follows a single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) as the newest residents of the mansion filled with 999 happy haunts. With help from Ben (Stanfield), they consult a priest (Owen Wilson), a medium (Tiffany Haddish), and a historian (Danny DeVito) to rid their home of troublesome spirits — including the nefarious Hatbox Ghost (Jared Leto). See more review excerpts below.

The Associated Press: "This version is worlds better than the Eddie Murphy disaster, but it's not really fun, spooky or engaging enough to make much of an impression beyond the moment ... The main problem is that Haunted Mansion strains to make coherent sense out of the disparate parts of the ride — the paintings, the seance table, the dance hall, Madame Leota — while also trying to tell a sincere story about grief and catharsis. Wasn't the song about grim grinning ghosts coming out to socialize?" 

Rolling Stone: "A corporate I.P. Easter-egg hunt posing as a movie, this horror-comedy raids the House of Mouse's resident spoooooky ride's signature bits while nudging your ribs as aggressively as (in)humanly possible. Even for die-hard Disney fanatics, it's still about as fun as waiting endlessly in line for something permanently closed for repairs ... Haunted Mansion doesn't have one-tenth of the wit or imagination of that decades-old attraction. You will, however, definitely feel like you've been taken for a ride in the worst possible way."

Entertainment Weekly: "If Barbie, based on a doll, is a movie with powerful commentary on the patriarchy and existential dread, then Haunted Mansion, based on a Disney Parks attraction, is a meditation on the crippling power of grief and suicidal ideation. Or at least, it wants to be. But Disney tries to have its cake and eat it too, inducing tonal whiplash in Katie Dippold's otherwise emotionally resonant script. For every breakdown by Stanfield poised to move audiences to tears, there's a wry aside from Wilson or an intrusive one-liner from Haddish."

TheWrap: "Simien's Haunted Mansion is a wondrous blend of horror and comedy, tinged with emotional resonance in its story of grief and how we try to connect with those we've lost. Anchored by a phenomenal performance by LaKeith Stanfield and a solid ensemble, Haunted Mansion is a worthy take on the ride and a sleeper hit for families looking to find a fun summer film."

Empire Magazine: "Twenty years [after 2003's The Haunted Mansion], ignoring the warning bells sounded by big-ticket items like Tomorrowland and Jungle Cruise, Disney greenlit this Haunted Mansion, which is neither a sequel nor a remake but throws together the same set of ingredients. Talented cast, CGI phantasms all over the show, open-mouthed comedy, Easter eggs for theme-park obsessives, needlessly complicated supernatural mystery, and an air of being in too much of a hurry to deliver on a promise of shivers."

AV Club: "If a reference-fest is what you want, Muppets Haunted Mansion did it better. If it's a story with actual escalating tension you seek, the 2003 film has superior pacing. Haunted Mansion (2023) looks real pretty, with the best CG money can buy, but primarily feels like the most calculated of corporate products. Frequent Paul Feig collaborator Katie Dippold seems to have been ordered to shoehorn as many references as possible into the script—including weird plugs for the likes of CVS and Burger King—rather than telling a coherent tale."

Daily Beast: "Haunted Mansion is just as busy, corny, and predictable as its 2003 iteration—as well as destined to swiftly pass into the cinematic afterlife that is both convenience store bargain bins and cluttered streaming platform libraries. One week after Barbie demonstrated that established properties can be cleverly translated to the screen when auteurs take bold chances with their material, Haunted Mansion proves that such inspired efforts remain anomalies. Written by Katie Dippold with the same humorlessness as her 2016 Ghostbusters script, Justin Simien's horror-comedy bears no plot relation to its ancestor, which would be welcome news if not for the fact that the story it concocts is equally groan-worthy." 

Los Angeles Times: "Because no effort has been expended to make any of this even remotely scary -- there are only so many times you can watch Stanfield dodge a flying CGI axe -- you might at least hope for a belly laugh or two, or at least a few decent jokes."

Disney's Haunted Mansion opens in theaters July 28th.