This year’s Haunted Mansion movie was Disney’s second attempt to turn one of its most popular theme park attractions into a hit movie. Unfortunately, the movie was not a success in that regard. It struggled both at the box office and among critics, but director Justin Simien is taking it all in stride. While he's certainly not happy with the critical response, he’s happy that the audience that did find the movie appears to have enjoyed it.
The Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy was a commercial and critical flop, so it seemed like there was nowhere to go but up. And to be fair, critics collectively do appear to have liked the new Haunted Mansion better than the old Haunted Mansion, but that’s not the same as saying they liked it overall. Speaking with ScreenRant, Simien admitted that it’s strange to be on this side of the response, as usually critics like his work more than audiences. He said…
It's a bummer, to be honest. It's a bummer to feel like people don't get something that you're doing, and that you've worked so hard on, but ultimately, it's usually been the other way around. Especially with Dear White People coming out of Sundance, where critics loved Dear White People, and audiences eventually loved it. But at first, it was incredibly divisive, and it was incredibly polarizing.
The one place where Haunted Mansion did succeed compared to its predecessor seems to be in the audience response. While the movie was not a box office hit, those who did see Haunted Mansion seemed to like it overall. Now that Haunted Mansion is on Disney+, there are a lot more people who can give it a chance and see what they missed, because Haunted Mansion actually is a pretty good movie.
As far as the movie itself goes, Justin Simien does seem to be very happy with the movie he made, even if not everybody is. The director says that he did read some of the reviews, something he rarely does, and he doesn’t necessarily agree with some of the critiques. He continued…
So, with this film, it was interesting, I went into it wanting to make a crowd pleaser, and kind of wanting to prove to myself that I could, that I knew how to bring an audience through a story. So, I'm glad that that part of it came to fruition, I'm glad I was able to accomplish that. I don't typically read my own reviews, I learned that lesson a while ago, especially when they're good. But on this one, I read a couple of them, and it felt like, I don't know, I wasn't quite sure what movie they were talking about all the time. It felt like there were some other things going on in those reviews, I gotta say, than just what was happening in the movie, and that kind of thing is just out of your control, you know? I think, if anything, it was actually a really great lesson as a filmmaker, in terms of who you make your movies for, and why you make them, and what your own marker for success is. To me, I'd rather have the audience go on the journey I want them to go on than anything. So, I don't know, the rest is just kind of take it as you get it.
Some movies get a harsh response from critics early on, only for the general consensus to change over time. We’ll have to see if that happens with Haunted Mansion, which I, for one, thought was a pretty good movie. The film had plenty of references to the ride for fans, but had a solid story and characters that could appeal to most audiences.
