In New Orleans, astrophysicist Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), meets his future wife Alyssa, a ghost tour guide, and explains that he is developing a camera to detect dark matter. Flashing forward, Ben is now a drunken, depressed ghost tour guide himself. At the dark and spooky Gracey Manor, however, Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and her son, Travis (Chase W. Dillon) move in, where they are soon visited by a ghost.

The extremely successful Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) kicked off Disney’s plan to base a series of movies on their Disney World theme park rides. The unsuccessful Haunted Mansion (2003) led to plans of a reboot in 2010, before it entered development hell where several rewrites by several writers led to this underwhelming, bland, boring box-office bomb.

While the movie is jampacked with a star-studded ensemble cast, including name cameos, they are given very little to work with. Given the two-hour run time, this leads to a lethargic pace, leaving our cast of characters to spout reams of exposition to each other as opposed to organically investigating the mystery of the haunted house themselves.

The plot is unnecessarily complicated, convoluted, and incomprehensible, with our characters being placed in confusing situations and making questionable choices. All of this is such a shame considering the talent involved, the cost, and the excellent design of the mansion itself and its ghosts. A family adventure set within a haunted house should have been a sure thing.

Verdict:  A disappointing and puzzling waste of talent, money and time. 1 star.

Luke McWilliams, themovieclub.net.