August 2, 2023 – This Disney movie is the second one based on the haunted mansion Disneyland ride, following a 2003 film, “The Haunted Mansion,” starring Eddie Murphy. The story follows the same basic path of many other haunted house films (albeit for comic effect instead of horror) such as “The Legend of Hell House” (1973) in which a team of ghostbusters try to expel an evil spirit from a house.

This one is different than most haunted house movies in that some of the ghosts haunting Gracey Manor near New Orleans are not trying to scare visitors away. Instead, they are trying to prevent visitors from escaping by following them wherever they go and scaring them back to Gracey Manor.

Gabbie (Rosario Dawson of “Unstoppable”) and her son Travis (Chase Dillon) move into Gracey Manor with the idea of turning it into a bed and breakfast. They quickly find out the place is haunted, and try to escape, but are drawn back by ghosts. Their only hope of escape is to assemble a team of ghostbusters to kick out the ghosts.

With all the seriousness of an episode of Scooby Doo, a dour astrophysicist ghost tour operator, Ben Matthias (Lakeith Stanfield of “The Harder They Fall”) is recruited to document the ghost with his dark matter-detecting camera. He takes the $1,000 fee and pretends to take photos of ghosts, but is forced to return to Gracey Manor when the ghost of a sea captain haunts his home. There, he finds Gabbie, Travis, and a con man, Father Kent (Owen Wilson of “The French Dispatch”).

This would-be ghostbusting team is strengthened by a psychic, Harriet (Tiffany Haddish of “Girls Trip”) and a haunted house historian, Bruce Davis (Danny DeVito of “Jumanji: The Next Level”) after some seances and spirit possessions, the ghostbusters finally discover the identity of the evil spirit who is behind all this trouble. This is the first step in reversing the curse that is keeping everyone trapped at Gracey Manor.

Much of the story is taken up by the unwilling captives of Gracey Manor wandering around the house, or running in terror from nearly 1,000 ghosts. It turns out most of these ghosts are harmless, and some are even helpful. One of the more helpful ghosts is Madame Leota (Jamie Lee Curtis of “Everything Everywhere All at Once”).

The talented cast creates agreeable characters who seem to be having fun with the problem of ridding Gracey Manor of its evil spirit. The evil in Gracey Manor never seems all that evil, or threatening. Most of the ghosts just want to party and have fun. This is not a serious film, though it sometimes tries to be. It is just harmless, mildly amusing fun, for the most part, but while it is getting somewhat better reviews than the 2003 film, it is still nowhere near as good as any of the Ghostbusters movies. This film rates a C.

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