Walt Disney Studios sure know how to cram a lot into 103 seconds.
May 16th saw the studio unleash their first look at the highly anticipated remake of their 2003 property The Haunted Mansion. Clearly not wanting to fall into that pesky trap of remakes seeming inferior to their original counterpart, Disney pulled out all the stops with this one, the cast being a who’s who of Hollywood including Ryan Gosling, Danny Devito and Jared Leto.
They’re all here in the trailer, and they’re all suitably zany. Tiffany Haddish puts in some hilarious frightened acting as she witnesses her newly acquired mansion come to life around her. Owen Wilson is clearly delighting in parodying Max Von Sydow in 1974’s The Exorcist, far from Von Sydow’s restrained dulcet tones, Wilson’s Padre Kent brandishes an axe and promises to make the pesky phantoms “deader.”
However, the one high profile casting we only get the briefest glimpse of is Jamie Lee Curtis, adding yet another jewel to her Scream Queen crown here. The Oscar winner takes on the mantel of the eccentric Madame Leota, a role previously performed by fellow Scream Queen Jennifer Tilly. Curtis can only be seen for a split second as she makes a grand entrance through the mansion’s front door… in suitably cooky attire.
With opulent visuals akin to The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunted Mansion looks to be the perfect melding of family comedy with Gothic horror hijinks. The trailer gives snippets of several visually stunning set pieces, assuring us no expense has been spared with this remake.
The Haunted Mansion is set to release on August 11th 2023, and will undoubtedly conquer the box-office. We will bring you news of the numbers following the film’s opening weekend. You can check out the teaser trailer below.
