After conceding that it was’so weird’ that a New Orleans-based eerie structure wouldn’t feature any Black ghosts, Haunted Mansion filmmaker Justin Simien made care to diversity the spirits that appear in his film.
The new film is based on the enduringly famous Disney theme park attraction, which initially premiered on August 9, 1969, at the company’s first Disneyland resort in California.
Although it opened almost three years after Walt Disney’s death, it was a ride that he had worked on with a team of talented Imagineers – the name adopted by the company for the creators and developers of its attractions – in order to strike the perfect balance between scary and silly for a family audience.
The original Haunted Mansion can be seen in Disneyland’s New Orleans Square, where it towers in magnificently old style as a residence inspired by the city’s architecture. It is now duplicated in its own distinct variants in four other Disney parks around the world, including Tokyo and France.
However, while you may see a floating medium’s head in a crystal ball, a werecat woman, opera singers, and ghostly marble sculptures on the journey, meeting ghosts that authentically depict the people and culture of New Orleans is considerably more difficult.
Simien, 40, was determined to alter that with his film, which stars LaKeith Stanfield, Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Tiffany Haddish, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto.
‘I thought it was so strange that a house set in New Orleans, in Louisiana, really didn’t have any ghosts from Louisiana, from New Orleans!’ Simien said ahead of the movie’s UK release.
‘The reason why you set a haunted house movie in New Orleans is because it’s already such a spooky place – but not only is it spooky, there’s this amazing culture of allowing the darker elements of life [in] – the tragic, the scary, death – to live right side by side with joy and life and celebration.’
‘I believe you feel it with the second line marches that happen after funerals,’ he remarked, referring to the first sequence of his film, which puts people directly into the atmosphere of New Orleans. They call it the second queue because once the family leaves, it’s the partygoers who celebrate this person’s life in the streets.
‘I felt like if you do right by that place, you actually do right by the mansion, and you set something up that can actually make what was already established really come to life.’
Along with making welcome adjustments to his Haunted Mansion traditions, the Dear White People director is also keen to underline his affection for the original ride and how he has incorporated it into the film.
‘I always was so disappointed growing up when something from a fandom that I was a part of made it to the big screen, and some of those core details that made me love it – which I could see were so cinematic and perfect for a movie – don’t make it. That’s such a disappointment, it’s such a bummer.’
‘So, especially for fans of the ride, I want them to know that in this case, the ghost was inside the house the whole time!’ he quipped.
Simien, who has worked on Disney’s Haunted Mansion before, was strongly backed in his search by the film’s writer.
‘It started with Katie Dippold, who’s the screenwriter – it’s important to talk about her work because she can’t speak for it right now, she’s a part of a very important labour movement [the ongoing Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike] – but she is a nerd for this ride! And so much of the love for the ride, and how to weave it into a coherent sort of modern Hollywood story, began on the page.
‘Then, enter me: I grew up riding this ride all the time, I worked at Disneyland while I went to film school. I was already so obsessed with the ability of the Imagineers and Walt Disney to use meticulous production, light and sound design to create a feeling in their audiences.
‘That ride is so cinematic already, it would just be a shame to me to kind of sweep all those details off the table and start from scratch. There’s no need! So much incredible work had already been done.
‘So, if you’re a fan of the ride, you’re definitely going to feel that somebody that had that same love for it put this thing on the screen.’
The filmmaker also said that there is one sequence (among many) that he is very excited for fans to see in the film, and it almost didn’t make the cut.
‘I’m excited about the stretching room sequence and people seeing that. That was one that wasn’t necessarily there before, but it felt like while we were shooting, “oh God, we’ve really got to make a set piece out of the stretching room!” I mean, that is such an important piece,’ he revealed.
Visitors to the theme park Haunted Mansion are ushered into an octagonal portrait chamber, the walls of which appear to start growing higher in the so-called stretching room, for lovers of the attraction in many of its versions.
Simien enjoys all of the Haunted Mansion’s practical effects as well.
‘Obviously there’s a lot of digital wizardry going on, but there’s some sequences – particularly in the opening of the film – [where] it just hinges on in-camera, old-school horror moviemaking. That stuff to me is always so fun to see it continue to be effective with audiences.’
Haunted Mansion creeps into UK cinemas on Friday, August 11.
Source My Celebrity Life.
