The Haunted Mansion (film)

The Haunted Mansion is a 2003 American supernatural horror comedy film based on the Disney theme park attraction of the same name. Directed by Rob Minkoff, the film is written by David Berenbaum and stars Eddie Murphy, Terence Stamp, Nathaniel Parker, Marsha Thomason, Jennifer Tilly, and Dina Spybey.

The film was theatrically released in the United States on November 26, 2003 and is Disney's fifth film based on an attraction at one of its theme parks, following the television film Tower of Terror (1997), Mission to Mars (2000), The Country Bears (2002), and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). The film grossed $182.3 million worldwide on a $90 million budget and received negative reviews from critics, citing lack of scares and humour.

Plot
Over one-hundred years ago, wealthy landowner Edward Gracey falls in love with Elizabeth Henshaw, a servant in his grand manor. However, he receives a letter that she spurned him, and that her death by poison was suicide, he hangs himself in despair.

In the present, Jim (Eddie Murphy) and Sara Evers (Marsha Thomason) are successful realtors with two children, Megan (Aree Davis) and arachnophobic Michael (Marc John Jefferies). A workaholic with little time for his family, Jim misses his wedding anniversary and tries to make amends by suggesting a vacation to a nearby lake. Sara is contacted by the occupants of Gracey Manor in the Louisiana bayou; Jim, eager to make a deal after learning where the mansion is, takes Sara and the children to the mansion, meeting its owner Edward Gracey (Nathaniel Parker), his butler Ramsley (Terence Stamp), maid Emma (Dina Spybey), and footman Ezra (Wallace Shawn).

When a storm floods the nearby river, Gracey allows the Evers family to stay the night. Ramsley takes Jim to discuss the deal with Gracey, but Jim becomes trapped in a secret passage. Gracey gives Sara a tour of the mansion, discussing his past and his grandfather's death after the suicide of his lover, Elizabeth. Megan and Michael follow a spectral orb to the attic, where they find a portrait of a woman that bears an almost identical resemblance to Sara. Emma and Ezra identify this woman as Elizabeth.

Jim, meanwhile, encounters Madame Leota, a Romani ghost whose head is encased in a crystal ball. He runs into Emma, Ezra, and his children, and returns to Madame Leota for answers about Elizabeth's likeness to Sara. It is then revealed that the mansion’s inhabitants are ghosts, cursed a century ago by Gracey and Elizabeth's suicides, and can only enter the afterlife when the lovers are reunited; Gracey, therefore, believes Sara is Elizabeth's reincarnation. Madame Leota then sends the Evers to the mansion's cemetery to find a key that will reveal the truth behind Elizabeth's death. In a crypt beneath a mausoleum, Jim and Megan find the key, but inadvertently disturb its undead residents. However, they escape with help from Michael, who overcomes his arachnophobia in the process.

Madame Leota leads them to a trunk in the attic, which Jim unlocks to find a letter from Elizabeth to Gracey, revealing she truly loved him and wanted to marry him, indicating that she was murdered. Ramsley then appears and reveals he killed Elizabeth to prevent Gracey from abandoning his heritage, as he believed their relationship was an unacceptable one due to Elizabeth being a mixed-race woman. Trapping the children in a trunk, Ramsley throws Jim out of the house, and then enchants the mansion so Jim cannot re-enter.

As Gracey and Sara rendezvous in the ballroom, she is confused when he asks if she recognizes him, and he insists she is his beloved Elizabeth. The room fills with dancing ghosts, and Gracey reveals his ghostly self, but Sara insists she is not Elizabeth. This gives Gracey second thoughts, but Ramsley insists they have found Elizabeth and, in time, she will remember. Ramsley blackmails Sara into marrying Gracey in exchange for her children's safety.

Encouraged by Madame Leota, Jim drives his car through the mansion's conservatory, rescues his children, and stops Sara and Gracey's wedding. He gives Elizabeth's letter to Gracey, revealing the truth about her death and Ramsley’s lies. Gracey angrilly confronts Ramsley, who rages at his master's apparent selfishness for loving Elizabeth and summons vengeful ghosts. However, a fiery dragon emerges from the ballroom fireplace and attacks Ramsley, who attempts to take Jim with him, but Gracey saves Jim as the butler is dragged down to Hell to face eternal damnation for his sin.

Sara collapses, having been poisoned by Ramsley, but the spectral orb appears and, possessing Sara, is revealed to be Elizabeth's ghost. Elizabeth and Gracey reunite, and Sara is subsequently revived. With the curse finally lifted, Gracey gives the Evers the deed to the mansion and departs to Heaven with Elizabeth, Emma, Ezra, and the other ghosts.

The Evers drive across the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway for a proper vacation, accompanied by Madame Leota, and four singing busts strapped to the back of their car. In a post-credits scene, Madame Leota bids farewell to the audience, inviting them to join the dead using dialogue from the Disneyland attraction.

Cast

 * Eddie Murphy as Jim Evers, a successful yet workaholic real estate agent who is often late for family gatherings, but tries his best to make up for it.
 * Terence Stamp as Ramsley, the mysterious butler of Gracey Manor who serves as a fatherly figure to Master Gracey. He is later revealed to be Elizabeth's murderer.
 * Nathaniel Parker as Master Edward Gracey, the polite and friendly owner of Gracey Manor who longs for his lost love Elizabeth to return to him after her apparent suicide.
 * Marsha Thomason as Sara Evers, Jim's supporting wife who is also a realtor. Thomason also portrays Elizabeth Henshaw, Master Gracey's mixed-race lover.
 * Jennifer Tilly as Madame Leota, a gypsy woman whose spirit is encased in a crystal ball as a head shrouded by green mist. She speaks in cryptic riddles.
 * Wallace Shawn as Ezra, a ghost of a bumbling footman who worries about getting into trouble.
 * Dina Spybey as Emma, a ghost of a nervous but helpful maid who seems terrified of Ramsley.
 * Marc John Jefferies as Michael Evers, Jim and Sara's arachnophobic 10-year-old son. For the role, Jefferies based his character's fear of spiders on Ron Weasley from the Harry Potter series.
 * Aree Davis as Megan Evers, Jim and Sara's 13-year-old daughter who is impatient and stroppy.
 * The Dapper Dans as The Singing Busts.
 * Deep Roy, Jeremy Howard as the Hitchhiking Ghosts.
 * Corey Burton as The Ghost Host (voice)

Production
The mansion scenes were filmed at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita, California. The main building was constructed over a period of weeks while the cupola and chimneys on the top of the mansion were computer-generated. The rest of film was shot in New Orleans and surrounding areas. The paperboy in the opening scene is the nephew of the director, Rob Minkoff. The mansion's exterior design is a mix of the attraction's exteriors in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, with the iron/glass conservatory being a nod to the latter.

Three Hidden Mickeys are seen; one being the padlock at the gates, another when an executioner's axe nearly hits Jim and a third which is briefly seen when Ramsley pours the poison in the goblet of wine during the wedding. Before leaving the mansion via ghost carriage to find the mausoleum, Ezra exclaims "there's always my way," a pivotal line of dialogue from the pre-show from the Disney theme park ride.

The costume and special effects designers wanted the ghost characters to become "more dead" the farther they were from the mansion. While Ezra and Emma look human in the house, their leaving it causes them to become blue and transparent. The zombies in the mausoleum were described as the "deadest as they are farthest away". Rick Baker, the chief costume designer, did the prosthetic makeup for the zombies in the mausoleum, using skull heads for the zombie design. He also designed one of the zombies as an old man in order not to frighten viewers.

This was the first film to air on Disney Channel to contain any profanity besides "hell" or "damn". It also contained the phrase "Big ass termites!", uttered by Murphy.

In the opening scene of the film, Nathaniel Parker had great difficulty trying to carry Elizabeth up the staircase, which is shown on the expressions of his face. This was due to her slippery silk dress.

Release
The teaser trailer debuted in October 2002 with Tuck Everlasting and on VHS in February 2003.

Box office
According to Box Office Mojo, The Haunted Mansion grossed $24,278,410 on its opening weekend with an average of $7,776 per theatre in the United States. With the domestic gross at $75,847,266, the film gained more than a quarter of the earnings of its theme-ride predecessor Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The film achieved better in other markets, with an international total of $106,443,000.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 13% based on 137 reviews with an average rating of 4.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Neither scary nor funny, The Haunted Mansion is as lifeless as the ghosts in the movie." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.

Jeremy Wheeler of allmovie gave the film his below average star rating and described it as a terribly flawed fantastical comedy that neither entertains nor creeps.

Home media
The film was released on VHS and DVD on April 20, 2004. The DVD release came with several special features, including a behind-the-scenes look at the film's production, describing how the zombies were created, and how certain visual effects were performed or produced; a scene anatomy of the graveyard; a virtual interactive ride of the film's Haunted Mansion with Emma and Ezra as hosts; a single deleted scene; an outtake reel; and a minute and a half long video about the attractions. The film was released on Blu-Ray disc on October 17, 2006.

Reboot
It was announced on July 22, 2010 at San Diego Comic-Con International that a new film based on Disney's The Haunted Mansion was in development with Guillermo del Toro writing and producing. Del Toro saw the 2003 film with his daughters; when asked about his involvement in the new project, he said, "The thing I want to do is remake it." Elaborating, he commented, "The movie I see in my head of Haunted Mansion is not, I believe, what everyone is imagining it to be. It's not just a regular world with a haunted mansion plopped in the middle. I really am thinking of a movie that has a heightened reality." Del Toro said that Hatbox Ghost would be the main haunting and added, "We are not making it a comedy. We are making it scary and fun at the same time, but the scary will be scary." It is to be filmed in live-action 3D. To help make a respectful adaptation, del Toro has contacted Walt Disney World Imagineer Jason Surrell, author of The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies, to act as a possible consultant for the film. Del Toro has also announced he is aiming for a PG-13 rating for The Haunted Mansion. On August 7, 2012, Del Toro mentioned in an interview with Collider that he had submitted his final draft to Disney, and that "they like the screenplay" because "their reaction to the draft was good". Del Toro revealed that he will co-write the film, but will not direct it. On April 9, 2015, Variety reported that Ryan Gosling is in talks to star in the film and D.V. DeVincentis will work on the film's script. On September 4, 2016, Brigham Taylor signed on to co-produce the film. In August 2019, del Toro admitted that he was unsure if the film would be produced though he had a good feeling about the scripts. "My gauging of interest is moot but I would love to see a “Haunted Mansion” movie by someone who loves it."

In July 2014 it was announced that a separate film project, a cartoon special based on the attraction and animated by Gris Grimly, was being developed in honor of the 45th anniversary. It is to be aired on the Disney Channel and Disney XD.