I watched the first Haunted Mansion movie when I was much younger, so when I saw this movie advertised, I was immediately interested in seeing it…although I didn’t know if it was supposed to be a remake, or a sequel, or an entirely new storyline.
Although this movie does share some similarities to the first Haunted Mansion movie (such as a disembodied head in a crystal ball), it is also clearly an entirely new storyline. The movie starts out with a very sweet scene between Ben and Alyssa, with them meeting for the first time…although there was a very obvious goof, where Alyssa’s drink changes obviously from the beginning of their conversation to the end (she isn’t shown getting a new drink at all). And…while things did work out well between them…her accepting a drink someone had already bought did make me cringe.
Considering how Ben was in his initial appearance, it was very obvious that something bad had happened from the opening scene to the present day, although it was good that the movie didn’t immediately show what had happened with Alyssa and let that be revealed gradually.
I liked the fact that Gabbie didn’t follow the normal horror movie main character trope and was actually prepared to take Travis and leave the first moment she saw something supernatural. It did confuse me about why they were back in the house when Ben arrived there, but that was explained later in a way that made sense.
I really liked the secondary characters in this movie. Kent and Harriet were both really interesting characters, and I felt that they both had a lot of depth to them. I didn’t really get to know Bruce to the same level, but I thought he was still a good character…and it was fun to see him trying to take the lead and do dangerous things, even though Ben was trying to protect him.
I liked the fact that this movie was darker in tone, even while it had some elements of humour in places. However, I was disappointed in the fact that most of the ghosts just looked almost cartoonish. The effects used in this movie didn’t really mate the feel of the rest of the movie, so I think that was one thing this movie fell really short on.
On the whole, I did enjoy this movie. There were really good moments of tension along with the humour. I also really cared about the characters and the situation they were in. If you enjoy Disney movies with some darker themes and don’t mind more cartoonish special effects, I would recommend watching this movie.
Ink of Blood 