The first trailer for the latest family film inspired by Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride is finally here, and things are as comically creepy as ever. Directed by Dear White People‘s Justin Simien and with a script by Katie Dippold (The Heat, 2016’s Ghostbusters), this iteration stars Rosario Dawson as a single mother who moves into the malevolent mansion with her son, where they find a whole crowd of not-so-friendly ghosts ready to spook them at every turn.
Dawson’s Gabbie enlists the help of a rag-tag group of ghostbusters including Owen Wilson, LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, and Danny DeVito, who are all ready to flex their psychic and/or ax-wielding expertise to make the dead “deader,” as Wilson proclaims in the trailer. The film also stars Jared Leto as the attraction’s iconic Hatbox Ghost, with Jamie Lee Curtis playing Madame Leota — the floating head in that crystal ball (you know the one).
As an avid fan of the 2003 film starring Eddie Murphy, I was a bit skeptical about this new Haunted Mansion. But seeing the new crew hilariously muck about with ghosts on their trails has me thinking that maybe this was Danny DeVito’s calling all along.
Haunted Mansion premieres in theaters on July 28.
