ReviewHaunted Mansion movie review: paranormal comedy inspired by Disney theme park ride is a family-friendly tale that doesn’t know when to stop

There is something of a Ghostbusters vibe about Haunted Mansion, a family-friendly supernatural comedy that has plenty of ghouls but no real scares

Look out for notable names Jamie Lee Curtis, Danny DeVito and Winona Ryder, who round off a decent cast. It is just a shame the film runs on slightly too long

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Chase Dillon (left) as Travis and Rosario Dawson as Gabbie in a still from “Haunted Mansion” (category TBC), directed by Justin Simien. LaKeith Stanfield and Jamie Lee Curtis co-star. Photo: Disney

Published: 5:00am, 26 Jul 2023Updated: 5:12am, 26 Jul 2023

3/5 stars

“Ghosts don’t exist,” yells LaKeith Stanfield’s cynical paranormal tour guide Ben in Haunted Mansion – a statement he will soon come to regret.

Inspired by the Disney theme park ride – and arriving two decades after a much maligned earlier film featuring Eddie Murphy – this lively, if rather limited, supernatural comedy, set in New Orleans in the American South, has plenty of ghosts and ghouls, as you would expect.

There is something of a Ghostbusters vibe about it, without the talents of Bill Murray et al, of course.

Ben is enticed by a priest, Father Kent (Owen Wilson), to visit a giant, isolated mansion, into which single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) have moved. Like a spectral purgatory, this huge residence is chock full of restless spirits.