Haunted Mansion(2023)

Plot Summary

• During a New Year's party, Ben Matthias, an astrophysicist developing a camera to detect dark matter, meets ghost tour guide Alyssa and becomes entranced with her belief in the supernatural. Ben marries Alyssa, who later dies in a car crash. Distraught, Ben gives up his career and continues to run her ghost tour. Ben searches famous haunted places looking for signs of his wife, but eventually becomes despondent and depressed after finding no evidence of ghosts. Years later, widowed doctor Gabbie and her son Travis move from New York into Gracey Manor to turn it into a bed and breakfast, only to discover that it is infested with ghosts.Ben is visited by exorcist priest Father Kent, who hires him to photograph Gracey Manor's ghosts. Incredulous, Ben returns home and is haunted by a ghost of a mariner, forcing him to return to the mansion. Ben learns that Gabbie, Travis and Kent have also fallen victim to hauntings, forcing them to return to the mansion. Ben and Kent recruit Harriet, a psychic, and steal blueprints to the mansion from historian Professor Bruce Davis. The group finds a hidden séance room. Harriet manages to contact the spirit of William Gracey, who writes a message instructing them to talk to the legendary medium Madame Leota. However, before they can continue, an entity forces Harriet out of the house. Bruce arrives later and becomes haunted as well.The group stays at the mansion and proceed to look for Leota. Ben goes into the attic, runs afoul of ghostly bride Constance Hatchaway and finds a locked trunk. Examining the contents, they find a crystal ball which houses Leota, who reveals that William Gracey bought the place and recruited her in an attempt to contact the spirit of his late wife every night for an entire year, resulting in the mansion's ghosts taking up residence. A malevolent spirit later surfaced as it tricked Gracey into committing suicide and trapped Leota inside her crystal ball. Harriet attempts to perform an astral projection for more answers but ends up sending Ben out of his body. He soon meets Gracey's ghost before having an encounter with the malevolent spirit, a ghost of a man dressed in a top hat and cloak whose head disappears from his body and disembodily reappears within a hatbox he carries.The next morning, Bruce takes Ben to get a sketch artist at the local police station to draw up the ghost, identifying him as Alistair Crump, a wealthy heir who was abused by his overbearing father after his mother's death and eventually expelled from their family home. Upon reaching adulthood after his father died from undisclosed causes, he reacquired their home and threw parties over the years to lure his fellow socialites to their deaths out of revenge for society's shunning against him while developing an obsession with the occult, before he was later assassinated by his much-abused staff. Crump then attempts to deter the group by locking the mansion down, but Ben, Kent and Travis manage to escape. They arrive at Crump Manor, which has become a historical site, and learn from the Mariner, who followed them, that Crump has acquired nine hundred ninety-nine souls and now seeks to gain one more in order to escape the mansion and exact the revenge he promised before his assassination on the living world. Travis finds Crump's hat, which they can use as part of a ritual to banish Crump back to the netherworld from whence he came.The trio make it back to Gracey Manor where Ben and Kent, who reveals he is actually a conman, rescue Gabbie, Harriet and Bruce, but Crump incinerates his hat. Having been impersonating Travis' late father, Crump plots to exploit the former's grief and make him his final soul. Ben finds Travis and convinces him to let go of his father as they and Gabbie confront Crump in the graveyard. Kent rallies the ghosts to rebel against Crump and side with them. Meanwhile, Bruce delivers the remnants of the hat to Harriet, who starts the banishment ritual. When Crump attempts to get Ben to die willingly to see Alyssa again, he reveals he has made peace with losing her as the ritual is complete and Crump is sent back to the netherworld.Many ghosts decide to stay at the mansion, now in harmony with Gabbie and Travis. Ben goes back to teaching and, upon leaving his apartment, pets the cat who has been hanging out by his door, discovering its name is Tater Tot, a nod to his wife's love for the food of the same name. The group reunites on Halloween for a party at the mansion. Harriet regains confidence in her psychic abilities, Kent becomes an actual priest, Travis is voted to his school's student council, Gabbie becomes the newest member of New Orleans General and Bruce maintains his newfound friendships.

Storyline

• In this frighteningly fun adventure inspired by the classic theme parks attraction, a doctor and her nine-year-old son, looking to start a new life, move into a strangely affordable mansion in New Orleans, only to discover that the place is much more than they bargained for. Desperate for help, they enlist a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid their home of supernatural squatters, including a priest, a widowed scientist-turned failed-paranormal expert, a French Quarter psychic, and a crotchety professor. — Disney+ Eager to make a fresh start, single mum Gabbie and her young son Travis move into the Gracey Manor, a creepy antebellum mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana. But new beginnings are always challenging, especially when pesky ghosts haunting the new dwelling refuse to leave. So, with spine-chilling occurrences making coexistence impossible, Gabbie enlists the help of a mismatched team of paranormal experts to rid the home of the spooky otherworldly intruders. Of course, this is easier said than done; long-buried secrets stand in the way of a better future. And now, there is no turning back. What happens if you mess with the supernatural? Has anyone entered the haunted mansion and lived to tell the tale? — Nick Riganas