Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, Chase Dillon, Jared Leto, J.R. Adduci, Creek Wilson, Ben Bladon, Lindsay Lamb, Charity Jordan, Fedor Steer, Terence Rosemore, Mike Benitez, Erika Coleman, Hasan Minhaj.
A good ghost story will lead you to a place where the heart embraces the spectacular and appreciate the fine line between the living and the dead.
It is almost impossible to spoil a tale of spectral mornings and phantoms of the night, no matter how you view the paranormal presence of those who have passed us by, the apparitions of those who cannot or will move on to the next ethereal plane, we all feel at times the chill of a draught where none should be forthcoming, and in that we can allow our imaginations to wander and believe that we are being contacted by a presence passing on its love, a message, or the ill will of a phantasm out to do great harm.
That presence introduces itself with comical fair and intriguing proposition in Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion, and with an enjoyable script from Katie Dippold, the payoff for the film lover is one that makes the most of a second outing for the idea based on a theme ride in the USA, and gives LaKeith Stanfield the lead role he deserves, and one that duly suits his winning personality and charm to the nth degree.
A good ghost story does not need to be brutal, it does not need to assault the senses, it can be fun, scary yes, daunting and creepy absolutely, but it never requires to be dipped in carnage to offer a thrill to the fan.
Haunted Mansion is playful and yet also stern with its underlying message of loss and abandonment, of the fear of being stuck in a place for eternity with no chance of ever escaping its grip.
Whilst the cast, which includes the talented Rosario Dawson, the devilishly superb Danny DeVito, and Chase Dillon in a decently envisioned break out role as the young boy Travis whose own father haunts his mind, it is to the postproduction of the film in which the ghosts, including turning Jared Leto into one of the finest villains to grace such a genre as the makers behind it alter his appearance to one that one not be out of place in Ghostbusters, or, and with sincerity, as a character from a much loved episode of Scooby Doo.
Haunted Mansion is a joy of a film, melancholic, wistful, nostalgic for the prize of animation techniques, but also willing to draw out the laughs through the interaction between the cast and the setting. ghost stories always need to be more than moody and full of neglect, and Haunted Mansion is the aspiring content a film lover needs to be involved in.
Ian D. Hall