Haunted Mansion director says he cut lots of ghosts and subplots from the final movie

gamesradar.com:

Haunted Mansion may be packed full of references to the beloved Disneyland ride that inspired it, but director Justin Simien tells GamesRadar+ that he had even more planned.

"It's about editing," the Dear White People director explains about making sure the Haunted Mansion Easter eggs didn’t overwhelm the story. "It's about having the courage to kill your darlings and there were quite a few. There were some ghosts that we had whole scenes with that I love and there were some subplots that were super fun. But, at the end of the day, you know, this is a really specific story about a group of people who are moving through a difficult experience that happens to be taking place in this wonderful Haunted Mansion that we know and love. If it didn't move the story forward, unfortunately, it had to go."

Indeed, the movie follows a different story than a straightforward narrative based on the theme park attraction. It begins with Ben Matthias (LaKeith Stanfield), an astrophysicist developing a camera that can detect the dead, who is struck by tragedy. Years later, having given up on his dream, he’s brought in by a mother (Rosario Dawson’s Gabbie) and her son (played by Chase W. Dillon) to help them identify some spooky goings-on in their new mansion.

To help save the family from one particularly gruesome ghoul, Ben recruits a team to help him defeat the ghosts. The motley crew consists of Owen Wilson as priest Father Kent, Danny DeVito as college professor Bruce Davis, Tiffany Haddish as psychic Harriet, and Jamie Lee Curtis as a helpful spirit called Madame Leota.

There are lots of spooks and scares to be had in the faithful reinvention of the classic ride, but as reviewers have pointed out, you may also be surprised by how