YMMV / Haunted Mansion (2023)

• Awesome Music:
  • The teaser trailer is set to Roy Orbison's "House Without Windows", which sets the foreboding mood of the film. The windows actually vanish in the trailer.
  • The actual movie uses Buddy Baker's iconic score for the ride as a basis, with the tune of Grim Grinning Ghosts present throughout the soundtrack.
• Fridge Brilliance: When Professor Bruce Davis complains about Madame Leota's Comically Small Bribe, he's actually right about it being highway robbery. Madame Leota was alive during a time where prices were insanely low, and a dime or penny could be a month or years wage if you go back far enough.
• Genius Bonus: During the Dance Party Ending, the women are leading the men. This is exactly correct for the ballroom in the ride, in which the dancers dance this way because the passengers are seeing not the dancing figures, but mirror images of the figures.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The film underperformed everywhere in the world except for Japan, where it outperformed Barbie.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The cat who regularly appears on Ben's doorstep turns out to be named Tater Tot, presumably a ’ghost wink’ from Alyssa. By the time that the movie was released nationwide across the United States, a kitten with the same name became viral on the Internet throughout the world. This unfortunately doubles as Harsher in Hindsight as the kitten passed away on August 2 of that year, roughly a week after the film's release.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • Ben breaks down in front of the group, reminiscing about his dead wife Alyssa. He remembers her favorite activities, favorite foods, and his Parting-Words Regret on the day she died. Bruce breaks the tension with a joke about how Alyssa's cholesterol must've been terrible. Ben breaks down laughing and thanks him.
  • Over the course of the film, Ben and Travis become closer (with Travis clearly starting to latch on to Ben as a father-figure). Near the end of the film when Ben and Travis take the Mariner to the sea like they promised, Travis is wearing an outfit very similar to Ben's.
  • The concept of "ghost winks". Dead people who are at peace will send little reminders to the people they love. At the end of the movie, Ben realizes that the cat that's been pestering him throughout the whole movie is named Tater Tot, his late wife's favorite food.
  • The film ends with the main characters and all the ghosts having a party. If one looks closely, Gracey is sitting at the end of the table with Eleanore, hinting that, with the curse on the mansion lifted, he was finally able to reunite with his beloved wife.
• He Really Can Act: Despite this film's flaws, many have praised LaKeith Stanfield's performance as Ben, with some considering him one of the movie's highlights.
• Narm: The Baskin-Robbins Product Placement namedrop in the middle of Ben's tragic monologue has been regularly mocked. Potentially justified because he's still mourning his wife's death and may have forced himself to remember every detail involved in it.
• Nightmare Fuel: As par for a trailer for a ghost film, the ghosts at the mansion are a terrifying spectacle.
• So Okay, It's Average: The consensus around the film is that it's mostly an average film hitting basically every beat you'd expect, which is buoyed by its cast doing their best to make the movie entertaining.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Constance "The Hatchet Bride" Hatchaway is one of the most recognizable ghosts in the Haunted Mansion ride, with its lore tied directly to its origins. However, she only appears in a few scenes in the film, being overlooked in favor of the Hatbox Ghost, who plays second fiddle to her attic scene in the attraction. Reasons why is because the Hatbox Ghost's origin story is rushed and tacked onto the plot in a way that makes it more convoluted. Therefore, Constance Hatchaway should have been much more effective as the main antagonist and a lot more terrifying.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Gabbie, Travis, Kent, and Harriet's haunting experiences that drove them back to the house and Kent's recruitment to try and exorcise the ghosts sound interesting but are all only briefly mentioned and don't even get a flashback scene.

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