SDCC 2023: Haunted Mansion Director On Drawing Inspiration From NOLA & Disney Parks (2024)

Based on the wildly popular Disney Parks ride, Haunted Mansion follows a mother and son whose new home is haunted by countless ghosts. Rallying a group of so-called paranormal experts, they work together to try and rid the house of these spirits. However, darker forces may be at play that will force the team to pull out all the stops if they want to stand a chance at not only succeeding but also surviving.

Haunted Mansion is directed by Justin Simien from a script penned by Katie Dippold. Haunted Mansion features a star-studded cast led by LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto. The movie is chock-full of fun Easter eggs from the ride for fans to be on the lookout for.

Related: Why Disney's Haunted Mansion Reboot Is Desperately Needed

While at San Diego Comic-Con, Screen Rant caught up with director Justin Simien about his Haunted Mansion. He shared how the ride's practical effects inspired him, and how touring the ride with the lights on helped as well. Simien also discussed how important it was for him to nail the tone and feel of New Orleans to do right by both the Haunted Mansion and the city. Note: This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and the movie covered here would not exist without the labor of the writers and actors in both unions.

Justin Simien Talks Haunted Mansion

Screen Rant: Haunted Mansion holds a special place in so many hearts. Can you talk about the process of crafting the story and bringing in the aesthetic from the ride?

Justin Simien: For the story, Katie Dippold figured a lot of things out. That's the screenwriter. And when I got the script, it was just such a surprise. It was a surprising read. I wasn't quite sure how she was going to take us into the Mansion, but I loved that she puts us in the shoes of people who are experiencing it for the first time because that's exactly how you experience it as a ride. I thought that was really smart.

And for me, I love the research part of a movie; it's my favorite part. With Haunted Mansion, there's so much there. The Imagineers at Walt Disney went through a very interesting process to arrive at the Haunted Mansion. It's been documented; it's right there, so to get my fingers on that stuff, to ride the ride, [was great].

There was a time when they turned all the lights on and walked us through it, and we literally got to look at each detail and discuss it. "Why is that there?" And there was always a great story as to why it was there. The job really was like, "Okay, what's the cinematic version of that detail? And how can we use that detail not just to do fan service, but to actually tell our story better?" One of the things that was really clear to me right away is that the reason why it's so enduring is that it is a practical effects ride.

Obviously, it was built in 1968, but even the newer iterations of it don't rely upon digital technology. It is actually smoke and actually mirrors. That's how they do it. Everything has a tactile physical quality to it. And out of that process, I just was like well, the first thing we want to do, we've got to build the mansion and we've got to figure out how to do all of these special effects practically. And obviously, we're going to have lots of digital wizardry and fun, but I want the ghost to be on the set. And I want to really drag Tiffany Haddish out of this house.

How many times did you ride this ride in order to get your research done?

Justin Simien: Countless. Because here's the thing, when I got the job, I'd already ridden it hundreds and hundreds of times when I worked at Disneyland. When you work at Disneyland, you got to ride – at least back in my day – whatever you wanted to. I think you got a ticket, and you go to the Fast Pass line. And Haunted Mansion was just one of those rides; I couldn't get enough of it. I didn't understand what it was at the time. I was working at Disneyland to pay my way through film school, but I knew that there was a relationship between what was happening on that ride and what I was trying to do as a filmmaker.

Ultimately, I realized it's the production design and the use of light and sound to guide your eye and tell a story. I was just obsessed with it. I would ride it over and over again. "How do I do this in my cinema? How do I incorporate this?" To actually, literally be given the chance to is pretty mind-blowing.

What's something that general audiences wouldn't necessarily know about Haunted Mansion that you are privy to now that you've explored and researched it so much?

Justin Simien: The Imagineers at Walt Disney themselves fought a lot about, “Should it be scary? Should it be funny? Should it be cute? Should it be musical?” These questions of tone was what they were gripped by. And they landed on something that was really, I think, subversive at the time and continues to be today.

It's really deceptively cute, because when you really peel back the layers of that ride, there's some dark stuff going on. There are some dark implications and there's some real adult humor happening. These ghosts are drunk, first of all, in the graveyard. If you look closely, these people are having a real good time. There's a lot going on this ride. And so some of that, it wasn't like I had to figure that out. That was the bar that was set. What we had to do is figure out how to do that as a movie.

The setting of this film takes place in New Orleans, and I feel like New Orleans has an energy like no other city in the United States. Why did you land on that decision? Can you talk to me about how the energy of that city helped Haunted Mansion?

Justin Simien: My mom's side of the family is from Louisiana. Lake Charles, that's where my mama’s folks be. I spent a lot of time in Louisiana growing up; a lot of time in Baton Rouge, a lot of time in Lake Charles, and a lot of time in a town called Welsh nobody knows about where my mom was born and raised.

One thing that was really important to me is that if we do right by New Orleans, we actually do right by the Mansion because New Orleans is where jazz comes from. We can go all the way back to the beginning of jazz. We can take a stop with Cab Calloway in the thirties who, with Louis Armstrong, invented spooky jazz. This is actually where the Mansion's tone comes from.

New Orleans is a very Black town, and the reason why it's so unique is that there was a time in New Orleans that was unlike any other place in the world where you had free people of color, you had the Spanish, you had the French, you had indigenous people. You had people who were not mixing and mingling anywhere else building a society, building wealth, and creating a world in which hoodoo and Catholicism can coexist. That's where you get jazz, that's where you get gumbo, that's where you get étouffée. That's why only in New Orleans do people have a street parade when somebody dies. It's mourning and celebration. And I felt like well, if we do right by that place, you believe in ghosts and you believe that joy and sadness and humor and scares all can coexist because they just do in that city.

What was your favorite ghost that you incorporated from the ride into the film?

Justin Simien: Mariner Ghost. I love the Mariner Ghost. I don't know what it is about him. It's the way he is painted; there's an expression on his face that has always drawn me in. And then I learned a little bit later that for ships and oceans and the sea, it's often used in art as a metaphor for emotion and for feeling and for wading through difficult feelings. I thought that is really profound. That's exactly what the protagonist of the movie Ben is going through. He's trying to move through some difficult things. And so I couldn't say why before I made the movie, but it oddly feels right. I was always drawn to that character.

You have such an incredible cast in this movie. We were talking about Tiffany Haddish earlier, she had me dying. And Danny DeVito, come on. Can you share any fun stories? Because these are all legends.

Justin Simien: They're all legends, first of all. They're all so incredible. They're all so wonderful. And I'm not just saying that because that's the thing you're supposed to say in interviews and stuff – they really are lovely, hardworking, generous people.

But what I loved about Danny DeVito is after we'd finish his takes or his scene or whatever, he would just hang out on set with me. He would just sit next to the camera because he's a filmmaker. This is a real storyteller. And never intrusive, but just always a friendly voice of encouragement by my side watching the movie come together. He would ask me questions like, "Are you doing that because of this?" And it was really wonderful, man. It was like I had a little guardian angel who looks like Danny DeVito, which is wild. I would've never thought that that'd be something that would happen to me.

There's so much to the Haunted Mansion and so many details on that ride. Is there anything that you wanted to include but maybe didn't quite fit?

Justin Simien: Yeah, there are certainly some paintings that I wanted to highlight more. There are some ghosts that had scenes and dialogue, and there were some different story threads that we were playing with that just at the end of the day didn't really tell this story as well as we needed to tell it, and so it had to go. But there was a lot, particularly with the headless knight and his executioner. Those guys were really, really fun. And we shot a scene that isn't in the movie, but maybe it'll come out somehow as a bonus or something. But it was a lot of fun.

There's a great twist halfway through the movie about the ghosts’ motivation. What inspired that twist, without giving anything away?

Justin Simien: There’s a few twists and turns, aren't there? All I can say is, when in doubt, Katie Dippold. She came up with it and wrote so many of these things. It's really difficult to talk around it. I'll say that it was really important to the studio, but it was also important to me and Katie that the ghosts be both frightening and somehow at some point be folks that you want to hang out with and be allies with it. They are friendly haunts. And so to figure out how go these ghosts could operate in both lanes was a big, big topic of discussion. I think I answered that question well without giving anything away.

You have a tremendous cast, and they play off of each other so well. What did they bring to the film that wasn't necessarily on the page?

Justin Simien: Oh, man, they bring life to it. It's the most fun about doing an ensemble. My first film is an ensemble; my series is an ensemble. I love when you get people in the roles [that are] both bringing to life what the intention is on the page, but also bringing something totally out of left field. That is my absolute favorite part of the process.

For some actors, that involves rewording and rewriting and getting it in their voice. Owen Wilson, by the way, is a genius at doing that and really making it his own and knowing what notes he can hit really well. And some of that just happens organically. Then there are some people like Tiffany Haddish, and you just let them go. You just let them go and conjure from the depths some brilliance, and you just help edit and guide it. But getting out of the way is the trick there.

The thing that I love about an ensemble is everyone has different notes to play. It's a question of when do you want harmony, and when do you want melody? When do you want a solo? But they all have a different distinctive area to play in how the narrative unfolds and how you enjoy the film. Those are so fun for me to work with.

I know that you worked at the parks, and you did such a great job with Haunted Mansion, is there any other ride you'd like to bring to life on the screen?

Justin Simien: Captain EO, let's go. Listen, I know it is out of commission, okay? I know that's not technically a ride, but I am ready. I need some singing and I need some dancing and I need some jerry curl juice in outer space immediately.

About Haunted Mansion

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.

Check out our other Haunted Mansion interviews here:

• Owen Wilson