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Soulless song 201612/9/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() The dueling brothers from the portraits turn into plot points ditto the bride with the many decapitated husbands. The “hits” keep on coming: Characters are ejected from the house via speeding-backward chairs that are dead ringers for the ride’s “doom buggies.” The descending art gallery turns into an escape room, complete with quicksand and hungry alligators. jokes as well.Īlso See K-Drama Flashback: 'Secret Garden' The bad guy is already in possession of 999 souls, but hey, there’s always room for one more - which we’re pretty sure is the same operating procedure regarding reaction shots after D.O.A. He’s in search of one last soul, which will allow him to roam free in our world. Along with Madame Leota ( Jamie Lee Curtis), a disembodied spirit trapped in a crystal ball, this second-tier Scooby gang determine that the ghost of a horrible man named Crump, who keeps his head in a hatbox (and is played by… Jared Leto?), wants to gather everyone in the house. Soon, Ben, Father Kent and the family are joined by Harriet the psychic ( Tiffany Haddish) and Professor Davis ( Danny DeVito), an expert in haunted dwellings. ![]() Then he goes home and finds that the ghost of a sea captain - yup, the same one from the ride - has followed him. Ben goes, pretends to snap some shots, and declares the place free of malevolent spirits. They say it’s haunted, and will pay him to take pictures of whoever or whatever is lurking about. A priest, Father Kent ( Owen Wilson), informs him that a New Yorker named Gabbie ( Rosario Dawson) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) have just moved into the manor outside of town. She believed in ghosts and gave tours of haunted locales. That’s one of the more subtle allusions.Ī scientist and a skeptic, Ben once met a young woman at a bar in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. The name appears on a tombstone next to the outside line-up queue it’s also a tribute to the mansion’s co-creator, Yale Gracey. We don’t care how, just do it, stat! Which is why Ben Matthias ( Lakeith Stanfield), a quantum physicist who developed a camera capable of photographing the spectral realm, is recruited for a paranormal “dream team” at Gracey Manor. from the ride - now reverse-imagineer all that shit into a blockbuster. Judging by what’s onscreen in this 2023 cash-in, the mandate handed down to director Justin Simien ( Dear White People) and screenwriter Katie Dippold ( the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot) was apparently: Here’s a bunch of names, gags, etc. There’s still a throwback charm to the park’s Gothic-lite attraction, one which doesn’t require a rethinking of gender politics or racial stereotypes (unlike, ahem, some other Disneyland landmarks.) parks still rely on a lot of the smoke-and-mirrors stage tricks, old-school animatronics, and pitch-black humor that characterized the Nixon-era original. ![]() The ride itself has been around since 1969, designed as Disneyland’s family-friendly take on the macabre the updated versions at both U.S. We’ve been on this tour before, back in 2003 when Mouse Inc. mined those same supernatural thrills and chills for an Eddie Murphy star vehicle and released it roughly five months after its first Pirates of the Caribbean became a smash hit. Even for die-hard Disney fanatics, it’s still about as fun as waiting endlessly in line for something permanently closed for repairs. 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. But there will inevitably be something about Haunted Mansion, Disney’s latest attempt to spin amusement park memories into box-office gold, that qualifies as a dealbreaker. Or the in-joke nod to Beetlejuice, a comparative reference which does this movie zero favors. Or the blatant product placement for Burger King jalapeño poppers. Or the woozy sensation of being subjected to two hours of cut-rate CGI effects apparently purchased in a bulk deal. Maybe it’s the cumulative effect of watching so much top-notch talent being wasted. ![]()
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