Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion hits theaters next month and to get us in the mood for the family-friendly horror, Disney have today released a brand new featurette video, entitled Welcome, Foolish Mortals.
Inspired by the classic theme park attraction, Haunted Mansion is about “a woman and her son who enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters.” In the new featurette, Simien (Dear White People, Bad Hair) explains that for his third feature, he wanted to pay homage to Disney’s iconic ride:
I wanted everything to feel as if it came right off the ride […] What we wanted to do was preserve the details that fans remember and expand the universe around them.”
From what we’ve seen of Haunted Mansion, it certainly looks like Simien has nailed the tone, looking like tons of fun but also surprisingly intense for a movie that’s been rated PG-13 for “thematic elements and scary action.”
Some of Haunted Mansion‘s stars also make an appearance in the featurette, previewing the packed ensemble cast includes LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, Winona Ryder, Dan Levy and Hasan Minhaj, with Jamie Lee Curtis as Madame Leota and Jared Leto as the Hatbox Ghost.
Both Curtis and Dawson share how impressed they were with the “powerful” “level of detail”, with Stanfield adding that it “really feels haunted”. And then, of course, the ever-glorious Mr DeVito warns us that “death lurks around every corner” (we told you it was intense for a PG-13.)
Haunted Mansion hits theaters on July 28 – check out the featurette below while you wait!
