Haunted Mansion (2023)

31 Days Of Horror 13

Disney’s Haunted Mansion (2023)

First of three trailers

Twenty years after the 2003 film with Eddie Murphy a few months after Pirates Of The Caribbean working (for the first film anyway) and two years after the Muppets took it on (and thirteen years after Guillermo Del Toro added it to his list of unmade films) we have another shot at Haunted Mansion for Disney’s 100th anniversary. Released in cinemas this summer it arrived on Disney+ in time to be a big part of its Halloween collection.

A mother (Rosario Dawson) and son (Chase W. Dillon) move into an incredibly creepy looking old house and see a ghost pretty much right away, and with no number for Ghostbusters they call an exorcist (Owen Wilson, and there may be a callback to the 1999 version of The Haunting as a result) recruiting a ragtag group of experts and seers (Danny DeVito, Tiffany Haddish, and LaKeith Stanfield as our reluctant hero) who find that the house has ghosts in triple figures.

It has some emotional weight, about grief and what you can do about it.

That many ghosts with backstories in place would be a great setup for a series, wouldn’t it? Ghosts got years out of just a handful. See also The Gatekeeper Trilogy of Buffy books and, again, Friday The 13th: The Series.

In the meantime this is a fair Hocus Pocus kind of Thir13en Ghosts thing with some nice gags as well as some pathos, while being an odd fit for the Addams-y vibe of the Haunted Mansion in itself.

Content note for suicide, which seems a bit off too. And product placement.

Gameability: Sorta competent ghost hunters? Yes.

31 Days Of Horror 13

31 Days Of Horror 13 all of it on ye RPGnet thread.

1: The Relic (1997) (here)

2: Relic (2020) (here)

3: Ghosts Of War (2020)

4: Death Trench (2017)

5: The Prophecy (1995) (here)

6: Prophecy (1979) leading to a story about a paper mill union showing it

7: The Vault (2017) (here)

8: The Turning (2020)

9: Daylight Rules (2022)

10: Slice (2018) (here)

11: Interview With The Vampire (1994) (here)

12: The Omen (6/6/1976) (here)

13: Friday The 13th: The Series 1.01: The Inheritance (1987) (here)

14: Boys From County Hell (2020) (here)

15: The Vanishing (2018)

16: Cam (2018)

17: Horror In The High Desert (2022)

18: A Quiet Place (2018)

19: A Quiet Place Part II (2021)

20: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Hush (1999)

21: Hellraiser (1987) (here)

22: Hellraiser (2022)

23: Dark Harvest (2021) (here)

24: Totally Killer (2023) (here)

25: Lord Of Tears (2013) (here)

26: Censor (2021)

27: No One Will Save You (2023)

28: Escape Room (2019) and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021) (here)

29: We Have A Ghost (2023) (here)

30: Doctor Jekyll (2023) (here)

31: Haunted Mansion (2023) (here)

23 new to me, one A and B to make up for one turning out to be fourteen minutes long, 9 with Gameability sections which I mostly also put here (and which led to some others adding that), two very different “modern family moves into a demonstrably haunted house” family comedies in the last couple of days, an actual trip to the cinema...

New highlights for me: Totally Killer, Censor, Escape Room: Tournament of Champions back to back with the original.

And as a leap year in 2024, it’s only 366 days to Halloween!

The Killer (2023)

The Killer (2023)

Previous post with trailer

Stick to your plan.

A reminder that Michael Fassbender as Bond was shown to be a good shout around X-Men: First Class.

I do feel like with the buildup of his expertise it might have helped to have a prologue showing a normal hit.

I was the only person in a quiet screening to laugh at the joke in the lockup. And it wasn’t an especially dark joke. I don’t think. (Then again, nobody laughed at the incongruous TV show playing in one of the target’s homes either.)

Content warning: The Smiths.

WODtober 2023

WODtober 2023

0. WODtober 2023 prompts with Month of Darkness.

1. The Monster In Me

2. City By Night

3. Bloodlines

4. Taste Of The Moon

5. In The Shadows

6. Underground

7. Rage Against The System

8. Rivals

9. Eyes Of A Monster

10. It’s Lonely On The Top

11. Cursed

12. Tension Between Us

13. Haven, Sweet Haven

14. Lines Drawn In Blood

15. Dark Schemes

16. Animal Instincts

17. Object Of Desire

18. Weapon Of Choice

19. Companion

20. Night Road

21. First Bite Tastes Best

22. Heart Of The Forest

23. Things I've Left Behind

24. Blood-Stained Love

25. Justice

26. Let The Streets Run Red

27. Midnight Kiss

28. Unveiled

29. Before The Darkness

30. Heritage

31. Redemption

Some pictures I’m mostly happy with, some not so much. Mostly vampires. Some nice ideas, I think. A little bit of Actual Play in there too.

Finding song lyrics to fit every day was touch and go at times too.

And I got in the World Of Darkness News community spotlight a couple times, which seems absurd considering some of the other art out there but still nice!

WODtober 2023 31. Redemption

WODtober 2023 31. Redemption

“Do not touch them!”

Won’t you help to sing

These songs of freedom?

’Cause all I ever have

Redemption songs

Bob Marley & The Wailers, Redemption Song

Cold City and Hot War

Handiwork Games bringing new editions of Cold City and Hot War, coming soon.

Mickey And Friends: Trick Or Treats

Mickey And Friends: Trick Or Treats (trailer) is a new twenty-minute Disney special for the season, complete with several short cheesy songs, based on the old turn-into-your-costume plot. The oddest thing about it and the previous Mickey Saves Christmas, which is very nice, is that it’s done in stop motion.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Please to help the guisers and we’ll sing you a bonnie wee song...

Doctor Jekyll (2023)

31 Days Of Horror 13

Doctor Jekyll (2023)

Trailer

Hammer is back! Again.

(If the 2010-2019 run was Hammer Has Risen From The Grave, this must be Taste The Blood Of Hammer.)

And it’s a somewhat more auspicious return than Beyond The Rave, at least.

Classic Hammer tried a direct adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde but The Two Faces Of Dr. Jekyll wasn’t very close - The Ugly Duckling a year earlier was a comedy and the genderfuck Dr. Jekyll And Sister Hyde was played more seriously than the pun title suggests. (Amicus did a pretty close version with I, Monster starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing in 1971.)

And this isn’t a close adaptation either, effectively a sequel instead.

Eddie Izzard plays Nina Jekyll, a reclusive big pharma billionaire in need of a home help, with Scott Chambers as Rob Stevenson (yes...) getting a chance, and quickly discovering some major downsides to the opportunity. Izzard plays a very controlled Jekyll and a more “this is why you cast Eddie Izzard” Hyde. Most of the scares come from LOUD NOISES and the score often provides them, but there’s a decent atmosphere and Izzard provides some fun.

Also amusing casting gag: a cameo as Henry Jekyll played by... Jonathan Hyde.

WODtober 2023 30. Heritage

WODtober 2023 30. Heritage

The family crypt seemed like a good place to look for... a connection.

This is the song of my heritage

Iggy Pop, Cold Metal

We Have A Ghost

31 Days of Horror 13

We Have A Ghost (2023)

Trailer

A 12-certificate so almost family-friendly (apart from a gloomy central bit) supernatural comedy where a family moves into a haunted house - and get a video of the ghost and it goes viral.

How much would a truly proven ghost sighting change the world? I’ve wondered that since the Amityville nonsense and this covers some of the likely results.

And the going viral happens half an hour in, in a two hour run time. The opening easing in could have been shorter, and other bits could have been trimmed as well - I for one did not need the car chase. But it’s amiable if highly uneven.

Written and directed by Christopher Landon, director of Happy Death Day and Freaky, showing he can do other things at least.

The medium: Netflix

Gameability: How would regular secret supernatural investigations deal with being on the news?

Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions

31 Days Of Horror 31

A rewatch and a realising I never got round to watching the sequel.

28a: Escape Room (2019)

Trailer which has more prize money than in the film

I watched this back in 31 Horror Films 2019 when it was new to streaming. This PG-13 take on killer escape rooms is pretty goofy fun, with the standout sequence being the upside-down room over a fifteen storey drop.

28b: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)

Trailer which answers the first puzzle a lot faster than the film does and a different person says the subtitle than in the version I saw

A direct sequel with the survivors from the original and a recap before the credits, before getting to the stuck-escaping with new characters who also know what’s up. It has the most brutal death of both films (not shown clearly) but none of the rooms are as wild as that first highlight.

Netflix has the theatrical version, while the “extended cut” is only six minutes longer at the beginning and end but that’s included in twenty-five minutes of changed material, eliminating one character and introducing a couple of others. I might take a look sometime, as it sounds like it provides a different kind of closure.

One thing I like about the series overall is that just about everybody does the right thing and helps once they know they’re in real danger.

The medium: Netflix

Gameability: A small group of characters in a series of trap-filled rooms? Hmm... ;)

WODtober 2023 29. Before The Darkness

WODtober 2023 29. Before The Darkness

At Halloween the kids dare each other to run past Old Man Milliner’s house before he gets up at nightfall.

Well if she wants to see me

You can tell her that I’m easily found

Tell her there’s a spot out ’neath Abram's Bridge

And tell her there’s a darkness on the edge of town

Bruce Springsteen, Darkness On The Edge Of Town

Matthew Perry

Damn.

“When I die, as far as my so-called accomplishments go, it would be nice if Friends were listed far behind the things I did to help other people. I know it won’t happen, but it would be nice.”

Matthew Perry on his work with addiction support.

WODtober 2023 28. Unveiled

WODtober 2023 28. Unveiled

It’s a masterpiece. You made the Herald cry. They’ll never forgive you.

Pull back the veil

Let your eyes meet this world

Bloc Party, The Love Within

Lisa Frankenstein

Lisa Frankenstein, out for Valentine’s 2024. Diablo Cody follows Jennifer’s Body with a different teen resurrection, directed by Zelda Willaims, starring Cole Sprouse as the corpse and Kathryn Newton in a very 80s Madonna-Goth hybrid look.

WODtober 2023 27. Midnight Kiss

WODtober 2023 27. Midnight Kiss

“She means it more than he does.”

“Enough to take him?”

One more kiss, dear, one more sigh

Only this dear, is goodbye

Vangelis, One More Kiss, Dear

WODtober 2023 26. Let The Streets Run Red

WODtober 2023 26. Let The Streets Run Red

“We’re all monsters tonight. Will you join the parade?”

Walking like each other’s ghosts around these silent streets

Thursday, Jet Black New Year

Lord Of Tears

31 Days Of Horror 13

Lord Of Tears aka The Owlman (2013)

Trailer

A man inherits a country house from his estranged mother with a letter telling him never to go there. The alternative-titular Owlman appears early on, a threatening presence in long shots and some sudden closeups with a tendency to ominous poetry. But the man stays to investigate anyway, helped by the house’s caretaker.

Making good use of a location and a monster costume, this close to zero budget video feature still runs a bit long and overuses “waking from a nightmare but not really” jumps, and there are a couple of characters who could have been integrated better so I wasn’t waiting for them to show why they were there. But the creepy bits are effectively creepy.

Director Lawrie Brewster and his group Hex Films have done a fair few features since, and they just completed a Kickstarter for an anthology film reviving the UK horror brand Amicus Studios, and I can see a shorter format working and fitting this kind of feel. Seeing this feels quite Amicus-y in its style already.

And he’s revisited the Owlman a couple of times too - and the Owlman also just came out as an action figure which may have cost more to produce than the film did (and which comes with an accessory based on an implied but never shown spoiler).

The medium: streaming free with ads here and there.

WODtober 2023 25. Justice

WODtober 2023 25. Justice

“When you get to Hell, say hi for me.”

But what sense is a census

When they just miss us

But enlist us to fight for their justice

Public Enemy, Truth Decay