Haunted Mansion

Haunted Mansion is a 2023 American supernatural horror comedy film directed by Justin Simien from a screenplay by Katie Dippold. It stars LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Rideback, it is the second theatrical film adaptation of Walt Disney's theme park attraction The Haunted Mansion, following the 2003 film of the same name. In the film, Gabbie (Dawson) and Travis (Chase W. Dillon) enlist the aid of a team (Stanfield, Haddish, Wilson, and DeVito) to help exorcise the ghosts around them. Plans for the reboot adaptation based on the Haunted Mansion began in July 2010, when Guillermo del Toro, who intended to write and produce, stated the project would take place in a heightened reality rather than in a real-world setting. Del Toro was no longer attached as the project's director in July 2013. After years in development hell, Disney officially announced Haunted Mansion in August 2020, with Dippold signed on to write a new screenplay. Simien negotiated to direct the film by April 2021, and was officially confirmed three months later. The primary cast was confirmed from July to October, and additional cast was announced the following year. Principal photography took place from mid-October 2021 to late-February 2022 on a $150 million budget. Haunted Mansion premiered at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, on July 15, 2023, and was released in the United States on July 28 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $117 million worldwide. Plot During a New Year's party, Ben Matthias, an astrophysicist developing a camera to detect dark matter, meets Alyssa, a ghost tour guide, and becomes entranced with her belief in the supernatural. Ben marries Alyssa, but she dies in a car crash, so he gives up his career and continues to run her ghost tour. Ben searches famous haunted places looking for signs of his wife, but he eventually becomes despondent and depressed when he finds no evidence of ghosts.