Haunted Mansion director reveals ride references in the movie, from the stretching room to 'Grim Grinning Ghosts'
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Just when you thought more ride references couldn't fit into Disney's new Haunted Mansion movie, director Justin Simien would regularly find room for one more among his roster of 999 happy haunts.
The director exclusively tells EW he was meticulous about adapting elements from the classic rides (operating domestically at California's Disneyland and Disney World in Florida). "You really do meet the mansion the way you would as a guest at the park," Simien explains. "You meet it through the eyes of a new cast exploring the lore along with you."
The film stars Rosario Dawson as a single mother who enlists the help of several paranormal experts (Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, LaKeith Stanfield) to help rid her New Orleans manor of ghosts. The Dear White People creator elaborates on how he translated memorable scenes, characters, and even musical cues into the movie, which hits theaters on July 28.
The stretching room
Disney The stretching room in Justin Simien's 'Haunted Mansion' movie
Simien says that Katie Dippold's original script didn't contain a scene set inside the iconic stretching room, the popular chamber of visual trickery that sets riders off into their Haunted Mansion journey at both Disney World and Disneyland.
"We have this set piece in the middle of the movie that was really cool and we're trying all these things, and I'm like, 'Stretching room. That's the candy. That's the thing we're all looking for,' " Simien says of insisting that the film include the scene, which he modeled closely after the Disneyland version. That includes fine portraits that expand to reveal grim fates awaiting the paintings' subjects as the room around them stretches.
"It was about taking that effect and figuring out how to work it into the story," he continues. "As we all know, there's 999 haunts in this house, and they have slightly different objectives. As the cast figures out if the hauntings are for good or for ill, who's working for who, and who's helping us and who wants us to stay here, the stretching room becomes a missing piece of that puzzle. They start to figure out exactly who it is that's after them and who's with them. The other thing was about how do we make it cinematic? It's a cool effect when you're sitting in that elevator and moving from floor to floor [on the ride], but how do we make that adventure and escapism? How do we take some of the ideas in those paintings and expand them into a real set piece that feels satisfying?"
"Grim Grinning Ghosts"
Disney Disney's 'Haunted Mansion' organist.
Though "Grim Grinning Ghosts" didn't appear in the film's first teaser trailer, the time-tested 1969 tune by Buddy Baker and Xavier Atencio — which plays throughout both Haunted Mansion rides in the U.S. — is interpolated into a recognizable yet fresh soundscape throughout Simien's movie.
"There are other musical cues, too, but you're hearing all these interpolations of 'Grim Grinning Ghosts.' Our composer, Kris Bowers, turned those simple phrases into one of the most lush, exciting movie scores I've heard," Simien observes, adding that the song goes through multiple renditions in the film, "extrapolating it through classical music, jazz age, and second line band" during the narrative.
"We don't do it any short shrift," he teases. "I promise you that."
Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride exterior
Walter Leporati/Getty Images; Disney Disneyland's Haunted Mansion ride and Justin Simien's 'Haunted Mansion' movie.
Simien consulted a physical "bible" that Disney created for reference, containing everything from aesthetic foundations to backstories for characters to scenes riders experience along their Haunted Mansion journey. Of all the elements to choose from, he felt it was most important to avoid "CGI soup" and construct as many physical sets and employ as many practical effects as possible — starting with the titular house. Simien promises "extremely direct influence," including chairs, doorknobs, and paintings lifted right out of the ride.
"The script firmly plants it in the New Orleans mansion. That's not to say there are not other mansions in the movie, I'll just say that," he says. "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, wanting to get just the angle right, when we see it through the gates and we see the pillars, that angle has to hit. That's how specific we were. 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."
There's still a more poignant reason for using Disneyland's New Orleans Square theming versus Disney World's colonial-inspired abode.
"There's a lot of Black people in New Orleans. Let's embrace the New Orleans of it all. If you do New Orleans justice and do justice to the culture clash that historically has always been there, you already have the tone right for the movie," he explains. "In New Orleans, there's mourning and celebration side by side, and on that ride you're laughing, you're a little scared. It's about death, but the plates are always thrown up."
Jared Leto as Hatbox Ghost
MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images; Walt Disney Studios Jared Leto as Hatbox Ghost in 'Haunted Mansion'
"It's very surprising. You'd be shocked to know who it was until you're told," Simien says of Jared Leto's Hatbox Ghost.
The fan-favorite character exists only in Disneyland's version of the ride. His head disappears from his shoulders and re-appears inside a box in his hand. "It's part digital, part physical performance. We're trying to go for something scary that feels like it could exist physically in the real world, on the ride, but pushes the scare a lot further than the ride does. He knocked it out of the park, he's very menacing and terrifying."
"A lot of that is voice performance," Simien continues. "A lot of that is voice capture. It's a little bit of a different animal, but it gave us time to craft it and gave us quiet moments between the performance."
Hitchhiking ghosts, a floating candelabra, and a doom buggy!
Disney Hitchhiking ghosts in 'Haunted Mansion' trailer
The new trailer for Haunted Mansion introduces even more gleeful terror inspired by the rides. That includes a shot of the hitchhiking ghosts that accompany riders out of the attraction in the experience's final moments, an expanded look at the stretching room sequence, a floating candelabra similar to the one riders pass by at the beginning of the ride, and a hilarious bit that sees Haddish rolling through the mansion's halls in a high-backed chair that looks eerily similar to the "doom buggy" vehicles guests sit in while navigating the ride's course.
Walt Disney Studios Floating candelabra in 'Haunted Mansion'
Walt Disney Studios Tiffany Haddish rides a 'Doom Buggy' in 'Haunted Mansion'
Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota's head inside a crystal ball
Disney Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota in 'Haunted Mansion.'
Seeing Jamie Lee Curtis' head inside a crystal ball rang a bell of nostalgia for Simien, a lifelong "Disneyhead" himself. He used to work as an employee at Disney's California Adventure, as well as a child choir singer at Disney World. But Curtis brought something surprising to the table, too.
"Madame Leota is the great expert," he says. "First, it's Jamie Lee Curtis, so it's a little subversive, it's a little funny, but it also has all the gravitas you'd expect from Madame Leota. She starts off as one of the relics, one of the items, one of the aspects of the house that has to be discovered but becomes a really functional character and a useful ally in the film."
Simien gives the award for most surprising duo to Curtis and Tiffany Haddish. "Tiffany Haddish plays this modern-day New Orleans medium who's on Craigslist," he says. "There are a few moments between the two that are chef's kiss."
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
