Every Haunted Mansion ride reference in the new Haunted Mansion movie
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Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for Haunted Mansion.
Former Disneyland employee (and current Hollywood director) Justin Simien made sure every crypt door creaked and every tombstone quaked in Haunted Mansion, his spirited movie adaptation of the beloved Disney parks attractions operating at several resorts around the world.
While he tells an original story that sees a single mother (Rosario Dawson) tapping a team of supernatural experts (LaKeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis) to help rid her New Orleans manor of grim, grinning ghosts, Simien's happily haunted big-screen outing hones in on numerous references to the original California-based resort's version of the ride — the last major attraction Walt Disney oversaw development of before his death in 1966.
Jalen Marlowe/disney Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Haunted Mansion'
"We got down to the point where we were obsessing over the angle you first see the mansion when you walk onto the ride in Disneyland — when we see it through the gates and we see the pillars, that angle has to hit. That's how specific we were," Simien previously told EW. "When you first glide through the dining hall and you see the waltzing dancers, that angle had to be right, because that's the one where you gasp on the ride."
From the iconic stretching room and floating candelabras down to the decor on the walls inside the titular mansion — and the hitchhiking ghosts dotting the graveyard outside — you might spot a scary amount of Easter eggs making the jump from ride-to-screen for the film, but, in case you missed them, EW has compiled a list below of every Haunted Mansion ride reference in Simien's Haunted Mansion movie, now playing in theaters nationwide.
Disney Every Haunted Mansion ride Easter egg in the new Disney movie.
Every Haunted Mansion ride Easter egg in the new Disney movie:
1 - The film opens with Madame Leota (Curtis) greeting us with the ride's familiar opening: "Welcome, foolish mortals," she says, accompanied by a ghostly, organ-driven version of the ride's classic theme song, Buddy Baker and X Atencio's "Grim Grinning Ghosts."
Disney Justin Simien's 'Haunted Mansion'
2 - Dripping in historical New Orleans-inspired architecture, Simien's version of the building is modeled closely after the Disneyland version of the ride, from the tall entry columns to the emblem and insignia on the brick perimeter gate at the entryway. Soon after moving into their new home, Gabbie (Dawson) and Travis (Chase W. Dillon) encounter the first of many happy haunts infesting the manor: a menacing knight, who chases them out on their first evening. A haunted knight figure is one of the first elements riders see when entering the spooky hallway at the start of the ride. Oddly enough, Disney used to employ scare actors who would wear the suit of armor and provide live thrills to guests of the attractions, though that was ultimately phased out.
Disney A knight in 'Haunted Mansion'
3 - While Gabbie and Travis run from the mansion, Alistair Crump (Jared Leto) — also known as Hatbox Ghost on the California edition of the ride — repeats, "You'll be baaack, you'll be baaack," drawing out the last word of the sentence just as the Ghostess (affectionately dubbed "Little Leota") does while riders exit the attraction.
4 - Covering the walls of the estate are various portraits, with some being virtual copies of those that appear inside the ride, such as the image of the "Werecat Lady," a seemingly human woman reclining on a chaise lounge whose body morphs into that of a tiger when light touches it.
5 - The library is also lined with white busts that recall the Watchful Busts that seemingly swivel to maintain their gaze on guests as they pass by.
Disney 'Haunted Mansion' busts in the new movie.
6 - Following Ben's initial visit to Gabbie's home, he's haunted by paranormal activity overnight and returns to the house to investigate further. After arriving, he sees a floating candelabra at the end of the hallway, mirroring one of the first scenes riders encounter on the ride.
7 - William Gracey, an iconic character from the attractions, is introduced with a full backstory that's somewhat present — but not explicitly spelled out — within the rides. More on that later, but it's important to note that some Haunted Mansion ride lore combines the stories of Gracey and the Hatchet Man (also known as the Ghost Host narrator, who's seen hanging from the rafters at the top of the stretching room), though the attraction itself presents them as two different people.
8 - Similarly, Crump's backstory involves the prior collection of 999 ghosts (or "999 happy haunts," as the Ghost Host calls them in the ride's narration) within the walls of the mansion. His goal, however, is to reach 1,000. "There's always room for one more," he says in the film, a direct reference to one of the attractions' fan-favorite lines.
9 - Local psychic Harriet (Haddish) teams up with Madame Leota (Curtis) midway through the film. The Oscar-winning actress' head appears inside a crystal ball, just as it does in the rides, while she explains key elements of Gracey's story to the group. She reveals that, years prior, Gracey killed himself when a dark spirit took hold of his grief over the loss of his wife — a plot point that seemingly combines Gracey's story with that of the Ghost Host's suicide at the beginning of the Disney ride. Attendees see the Ghost Host's lifeless body hanging from the ceiling of the stretching room after the lights go out in a thunderstorm.
Disney Tiffany Haddish's doom buggy in 'Haunted Mansion'
10 - After Harriet's initial seance, an evil force possesses the high-backed chair she sits in for the ceremony, and pushes her through the house and out into the yard. This visual gag recalls the look and feel of the rides' "doom buggies," similarly high-backed carts that travel through the mansion.
11 - Shortly thereafter, Ben rushes outside and sees the ghost of a man with a quivering dog by his side, a scene modeled after the lone human (and canine companion) who riders see when entering the graveyard musical scene near the end of the attraction. Also during this scene, Ben sees three hitchhiking ghosts that look similar to the ones that appear in riders' doom buggies at the experience's finale.
Disney Hitchhiking ghosts in 'Haunted Mansion'
12 - Elsewhere in the mansion, we see the iconic organist — who also appears in the ride — tinkering away at the keys on his instrument.
Disney 'Haunted Mansion' organist
13 - While searching for Leota's crystal ball, Ben goes into the attic of the manor, where he comes face-to-face with an axe-wielding ghost bride, whose dwelling is dotted with photos of her and several of her ex-husbands — all of whom were decapitated by her weapon, as indicated by their heads that disappear from the images while the camera floats by. A similar effect occurs in the men's photos in the ride's attic scene.
14 - While she speaks, Curtis recites Leota's lines from the ride, including her call for the spirits to "open a bridge to a region beyond."
Disney Hatchet bride in 'Haunted Mansion'
15 - In a subsequent scene of astral projection, Ben finds the ghost of a high-pitched, opera-singing woman, who can also be found in the graveyard scene of the ride.
16 - Ben happens upon a recurring pair of ghost brothers who shot each other in a standoff, echoing the Duelists' dual deaths that first appeared in portrait form in the ride.
Disney LaKeith Stanfield and the Duelists in 'Haunted Mansion'
17 - Ben also witnesses a ghost swinging from the chandelier of the dining room similar to the one riders can see in the wedding party scene of the attraction.
18 - While astral projecting, Ben meets Crump, who summons his own head into the hatbox in his hand, just like he does on the California version of the ride.
19 - After Ben and Travis uncover the truth behind Crump's motivations, they enter the iconic stretching room that can be found in most iterations of the Haunted Mansion ride. Simien previously told EW that his is a replica of Disneyland's stretching room, and includes recreations of the same paintings on the wall that "stretch" to reveal sinister fates for the images' subjects, including an alligator waiting beneath a ballerina on a tightrope and dynamite underneath another man. Ben and Travis climb up the room to reach the highest point of the mansion, which illuminates amid a lightning strike to reveal the same rafters riders see while the Ghost Host narrates the introductory scene in the Haunted Mansion ride's queue — minus, however, the narrator's dead body hanging from a beam.
20 - Dan Levy and Winona Ryder make small cameos as tour guides at Crump Manor, where Ben's investigation leads him in search of Crump's hat, a vital piece in their plot to vanquish him with an incantation. Levy's character, the more theatrical of the pair, dresses in old-school detective attire while telling his audience about the grisly murder of a butler within the walls of Crump Manor. This is seemingly a light nod to initial conceptions for the Haunted Mansion ride, which wouldn't have been a ride at all, but rather a much darker walkthrough experience called Gore Mansion that would've featured a live actor portraying a butler during the narrative.
Disney Stretching room in 'Haunted Mansion'
21 - Though it's not a Haunted Mansion reference, as Ben sneaks past a party room at Crump Manor, Levy's tour guide can be heard playing "It's a Small World" — the Sherman Brothers' 1964 song written for Disney's It's a Small World boat ride — on the piano.
22 - In search of Crump's hat, Travis enters a crawlspace beneath the house to get the hat needed to complete their spell. There, he encounters multiple graves marking the final resting places of Crump's victims — and each headstone has comical puns on them, just like they do in the queue line at Disney World and Disneyland.
23 - During the film's climax, Ben races through the mansion's twisting hallways to find Gracey, but Crump turns the corridors into an indecipherable maze. One of the doors Ben opens in search of a way out leads to a room peppered with staircases — some upside-down, some right-side up, mimicking the Endless Staircase scene that was added to the Magic Kingdom's ride in 2007.
Disney Ghosts in the ballroom in 'Haunted Mansion'
24 - After Crump is vanquished and the haunts can live happily at the manor once again, the ghosts can be seen celebrating in the dining room, with the organist's eerie music wafting throughout the space, just as it does during the spirits' wedding banquet scene in the ride.
25 - The final scene sees Ben visiting Gabbie and Travis at Halloween. The mother-son duo has apparently been busy, as the carved pumpkins outside bear the same images of Medusa and a ghostly pair of eyes that appear on the wallpaper in the ride's corridors.
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