Disney is inviting audiences on a scarily fun ride as Haunted Mansion comes to home shelves. The movie acts as the second adaptation of the Disneyland ride of the same name, centering on a disillusioned astrophysicist as he's recruited alongside a group of paranormal experts to help a single mom and her son rid the eponymous house of the various ghosts residing inside.

LaKeith Stanfield leads the ensemble Haunted Mansion cast alongside Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, Chase W. Dillon, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto. Dear White People director Justin Simien brings his prior experience working for Disney Parks and love of the ride to deliver an entertaining and Easter egg-filled adventure.

Related: 20 Haunted Mansion Easter Eggs & Disney Ride References

In honor of the movie's home media release, Screen Rant spoke exclusively with director Justin Simien to discuss Haunted Mansion, building his ensemble cast, the challenge of blending horror with comedy, and his candid feelings about the movie's poor critical reviews.

Justin Simien Talks Haunted Mansion

Screen Rant: Justin, I've been a big fan of your work since the original Dear White People. It's been such an interesting trajectory to get to see you go from that to Bad Hair to now Haunted Mansion. When you started with Dear White People, did you ever see yourself getting to direct a blockbuster production like Haunted Mansion?

Justin Simien: Yeah, I grew up on these things. I figured out I wanted to be a director watching these kinds of things, and when I say these kinds of things, I specifically mean Disney movies. I remember coming back from Beauty and the Beast, at like eight or nine, just blown away. I had just seen the most amazing thing, and I cannot draw at all, but I would sit at home, and I would try to redraw all of the scenes. I didn't have the language for it, but I was trying to figure out how to be a visual storyteller. I just love cinema, I love movies, I don't really have an internal distinction between how the industry divides it up, I just put on what I want to put on, and I gravitate to what I want to gravitate to.

So, it's not like I specifically have a trajectory, like, "My second film was going to be this, my third film is going to be that." I think when you're actually making a living as a filmmaker, you realize that trajectory thing is kind of a myth, and it really is only available to a very lucky few. The truth of it is that you're just constantly grinding, and there are so many potential things that could happen, and when something happens, it feels kind of random, if I'm being honest with you. [Laughs] What I thought would be my second film I haven't made yet, so you're sowing a lot of seeds, and you're doing a lot of gardening, you just kind of gotta wait to see which one's gonna sprout. But I did feel like a big movie was in me, and I felt like it was kind of a necessary part of my personal education, if that makes sense. As a filmmaker, I feel like the last 10 years have been me wanting to just try a lot of different things, and figure out exactly what lane I want to be in. So, this was quite an informative experience, in that regard.

I still remember seeing Bad Hair at Beyond Fest at the drive-in, and that was such a fun experience. When it came to developing this, what was it like trying to find the right balance between some of the big horror that you delivered in Bad Hair and some of the comedy that you delivered in Dear White People?

Justin Simien: It was exactly that, it felt like a combination of those two things. Reading the script, it honestly read like a Dear White People script. It was funny, it was an ensemble. I think all haunted house stories are really about somebody that is dealing with some aspect of themselves that they're having trouble integrating or accepting, and the role of everyone else in a haunted house movie is to sort of remind them of things of themselves that they really would rather forget.

The dynamic was really clear to me. You've got Ben, who is this kind of misanthropic protagonist who really doesn't want to be the protagonist of any movie, and you hear the exchange between him and Owen Wilson. He's like, "I don't want to be the hero actually," and yet he is surrounded by people who are kind of forcing him into the person that he's meant to be. I just think those kinds of stories are fun, I recognized that dynamic. It felt a lot like Clue to me, it felt a lot like the Ghostbusters movies, and so for me, it was just about getting into that frequency, and just really delivering on the promise of that screenplay.

I found it to be very entertaining, and therefore I was a little disappointed to see how critics were more lukewarm towards it. But audiences, of course, have been very receptive to the movie. What has that been like for you to see that divide between the two fields in their responses to the movie?

Justin Simien: It's a bummer, to be honest. It's a bummer to feel like people don't get something that you're doing, and that you've worked so hard on, but ultimately, it's usually been the other way around. [Laughs] Especially with Dear White People coming out of Sundance, where critics loved Dear White People, and audiences eventually loved it. But at first, it was incredibly divisive, and it was incredibly polarizing.

With this film, it was interesting. I went into it wanting to make a crowd pleaser, and kind of wanting to prove to myself that I could, that I knew how to bring an audience through a story. So, I'm glad that that part of it came to fruition, I'm glad I was able to accomplish that. I don't typically read my own reviews, I learned that lesson a while ago, especially when they're good. But on this one, I read a couple of them, and it felt like, I don't know, I wasn't quite sure what movie they were talking about all the time. It felt like there were some other things going on in those reviews, I gotta say, than just what was happening in the movie. And that kind of thing is just out of your control, you know?

I think, if anything, it was actually a really great lesson as a filmmaker, in terms of who you make your movies for, and why you make them, and what your own marker for success is. To me, I'd rather have the audience go on the journey I want them to go on than anything. So, I don't know, the rest is just kind of take it as you get it.

One thing that I especially find interesting about this film is just the sheer ensemble that you have for this movie, it is a huge cast, even with its cameos. I was surprised some of them didn't get bigger roles. I know Winona and Dan have a deleted scene on the home release, but is there anybody else who you either didn't get to have as much time with as you wanted, or who you maybe had to cut some extra time from?

Justin Simien: Oh, man, those would be the two, you know? Dan and Winona were incredible! [Laughs] I love that kind of movie where you've just got this crazy big comedy ensemble, so even the "small" roles, you get to find someone really special to bring something strange and unexpected to those so-called cameo roles. But yeah, those two, definitely, the stuff that hit the cutting room floor for those two I think is worth checking out.

Winona is so great with her dry humor in this movie, and the deleted scenes killed me even more. One of the elements of casting I found really interesting in this movie was Jared Leto as the Hatbox Ghost, because of the way that character is designed in the film. I almost don't recognize it as Leto. I'm curious about that casting process, and how involved he was in the physical side of the performance for that, or if it was just voiceover work for that role?

Justin Simien: It was mostly voiceover work for that role. Some of that was kind of like Disney is a massive place, and you never quite know for sure where what you're doing fits into their franchise plans and the puzzle that they're building. But, with Jared, it was like, "It will be Jared Leto." And I was quite pleased that he was so comfortable being collaborative, letting us sort of figure out some of the physicality while he really worked on this. Because for him, it's not just a voice, even when we were recording it, he's got the teeth in, and he's got the hat. He's fully dressed as what physically feels to him like Hatbox Ghost, and he's trying to find a physicality, and he's trying to find a complete character that we then sort of animate off of. Especially the facial features, it's not just voiceover, it's motion capture for his face, too.

But then that is combined with stunt work and CGI, and all of these different artists, but he was really wonderfully collaborative for that process. I appreciated that very much, and I thought what he did with the character was really interesting, and bizarre, and delightful and arch, you know, all of those things that need in a Disney villain. So, it was actually it was kind of a smooth process. Sometimes, you inherit a casting choice at a big studio, and it doesn't work out, but I thought Jared was great, I thought he was just great to work with.

Ahead of the movie's release, you were very enthusiastic about exploring more haunted mansions in this universe with these characters. Now, with it coming to Disney+, I know that can sometimes be a boost for studio confidence in producing a follow-up. How are you feeling on that front, have you had talks with them further since the movie came out about another Haunted Mansion?

Justin Simien: No, no talks. I have no idea what they want to do with the future of the franchise, if there is a franchise. I have no clue, but I certainly was really inspired by the experience. And I've been spending a lot of time in my strike sort of tending to my own garden with regard to writing, and I think you'll see the influence of this experience in the next things I do, no matter if it's another Haunted Mansion movie, or if it's something original that I write. We'll see what the future holds.

About Haunted Mansion's Home Release

Inspired by the classic theme park attraction, Haunted Mansion tells the story of Gabbie (Rosario Dawson), a single mom, who discovers that the home she and her son share is haunted by irksome ghosts. Hoping to restore domestic tranquility, Gabbie recruits a motley crew of so-called spiritual experts to help rid the house of the supernatural squatters. A non-stop blend of action, adventure and comedy featuring an all-star cast that includes LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Dan Levy, Jamie Lee Curtis and Jared Leto, Haunted Mansion was written by Katie Dippold and directed by Justin Simien. The film’s producers are Dan Lin and Jonathan Eirich, with Nick Reynolds and Tom Peitzman serving as executive producers.

Bonus Features

FEATURETTES:

1. Making Haunted Mansion (13:05) Hear from cast, crew and filmmakers about creating this grim grinning adventure based on the world-famous ride. See how the ghosts were "brought to life," what role new technology played, and how the wildly popular attraction inspired the film's design.
2. 999 Happy Haunts (7:05) There are 999 Happy Haunts inside the Disney Parks' attraction...but always room for one more! See all the Easter eggs (well, maybe not all of them) where characters big, small, alive, departed, human and otherwise appear in both the movie and the ride.

DELETED SCENES:

Take a look at some moments that passed on before the final version of The Haunted Mansion was finished.

1. Carol (0:45)
2. 1 Star (0:44)
3. Harriet’s House Of Intuition (3:11)
4. They Say The Place Is Haunted (1:16)
5. Between Realms (1:42)
6. Crump Manor (1:07)
7. Emergency Baptism (1:01)
8. A Good Head For Business (0:32)

GAG REEL:

• Who knew making a scary movie could be so funny.

Check out our previous Haunted Mansion interviews:

• Justin Simien (SDCC)
• Justin Simien (Theatrical Release)
• Rosario Dawson & LaKeith Stanfield
• Owen Wilson
• Jamie Lee Curtis & Tiffany Haddish
• Cinematographer Jeffrey Waldon

Haunted Mansion is now available on 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-ray and DVD and to stream on Disney+.

Source: Screen Rant Plus