Is Disney's Haunted Mansion Connected To Eddie Murphy's Movie?

Haunted Mansion and 2003's The Haunted Mansion might have more in common than their titles. We break down the sim

Summary

Haunted Mansion 2023 is a remake of Eddie Murphy's movie but takes a different narrative direction and is scarier than the original film.
The new film's storyline revolves around a group of strangers with different backgrounds who are connected to the haunted mansion and work together to free the ghosts.
The remake focuses on grief and explores more supernatural elements compared to the 2003 version, with changes in characters, their reasons for being at the mansion, and the antagonist's identity and motives.

They may share the same title, but is 2023’s Haunted Mansion actually connected to Eddie Murphy’s movie? When Murphy’s film was released in 2003, it was to a deluge of negative reviews. It garnered enough at the box office to be considered a success at the time. Justin Simien’s Haunted Mansion, his third directorial feature, comes two decades after Murphy’s film, this time to a higher critical score.

Haunted Mansion follows LaKeith Stanfield’s Ben, a paranormal tour guide in New Orleans who is roped into confirming the title residence is indeed full of ghosts. Ben is joined by a plethora of characters who wind up trapped inside the mansion, forced to reckon with what’s going on in a bid to exorcise the ghosts. The film initially had Guillermo del Toro attached to direct and write, but the reins were handed to Simien and screenwriter Katie Dippold. As the title suggests, Haunted Mansion and Murphy’s film share a common denominator, but there are stark differences between them, too.

Haunted Mansion 2023 Is A Remake Of Eddie Murphy's Movie

Haunted Mansion is a remake of Eddie Murphy’s movie, though both films are based on the Disney theme park ride, which sees visitors entering the haunted mansion and moving through different rooms, including the cemetery. Just as the various Haunted Mansion theme park attractions are the same, neither are the two films. They’re both adaptations of the same thing, with the 2003 film releasing a few months after Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the adventure fantasy that was also based on a Disney theme park ride.

Aside from the Haunted Mansion films being connected through the ride itself, they don’t share all that much in common when it comes to the actual story. Simien and Dippold take a different narrative direction from the 2003 iteration, but since the new Haunted Mansion is indeed a remake, many of the ride’s features and characters, including Madame Leota, find their way into both films. Gracey’s character, once the owner of the mansion, also appears in both versions of Haunted Mansion.

How Haunted Mansion 2023 Is Different From The Original Movie

Although Simien’s version of the film is a retelling of the haunted mansion story, it deviates greatly from Murphy’s iteration. The 2003 film focused primarily on Murphy’s Jim Evers and his family, and Edward Gracey’s attempts to be reunited with his love, who bears a striking resemblance to Jim’s wife Sara. Whereas 2023’s Haunted Mansion is about a group of people, each with a different skill, who are tied to the house upon entering, and who work together to free the ghosts from what’s keeping them there. In the remake, the characters each have a different backstory, and they’re strangers who are connected by way of a supernatural experience.

What’s more, Haunted Mansion is also scarier than the 2003 version of the film, and the antagonist’s identity and motives are also wildly disparate. And although Gracey remains a character with a similar backstory to his 2003 counterpart, 2023’s Haunted Mansion changes his name from Edward to William while turning him into a supporting character who assists Stanfield’s Ben and his friends. The remake’s main characters are also changed, as is their reason for being at the mansion, and the ghosts themselves never appear in human form. In 2023’s Haunted Mansion, grief is a huge focus, which sets it apart from the original movie since it goes beyond Gracey’s tragedy.