Comparably, it is better than the 2003 original. It has all of the fun plus more, but what really ends up hurting this movie in the end is how long it is.

There was a considerable amount of excitement leading up to this. Between the talent in front and behind the camera, this felt like the right hit that Disney was looking for. In ways, it does feel like a hit even if it is not doing commercially well. If it was released during the spooky season, this would have done far better.

The stacked cast was an exciting aspect for this film. Lakeith Stanfield was the perfect choice for this role and he nails it. This may even be one of his best roles as it requires him to get to some mature and dark places for his character. It was quite surprising and fresh to see how dedicated he was to his character as he probably didn’t need to. That’s how much of a dedicated and underrated actor he is. Everyone else is fantastic and plays off of one another quite well. The son, played by newcomer Chase W. Dillon plays his role very well too. This can only be the beginning of a promising future for the young actor.

Perhaps what stands out the most here compared to the original is within its themes. It is far darker than anything Disney has done in the past. It is mostly dark due to the nature of the grief surrounding the characters. This is mostly thanks to director Justin Simien. Simien has had a strong voice in filmmaking since his directorial debut Dear White People. His strong sense of characters and themes are directly applied here and makes for a meaningful watch that takes the viewers on a personal journey with these characters. On a side note, it is disappointing that he found out that he essentially got let go from the Lando series the same time as this film was not doing well critically and commercially.

One negative aspect that stands out the most is the runtime. The runtime of 122 minutes was a bit concerning to begin with. The 2003 original was about 90 minutes, which had a fairly steady pace to make up for how short it is. Here, it almost can make the film deflate at times. While the runtime here felt like it went by, there was potential to trim it to avoid unnecessary scenes. For example, Dan Levy pops up out of the blue in the midway point and barely has any screentime to constitute for being amongst the top billing, especially when someone cameo’s in this particular scene and had far more screentime. There is also a ridiculous amount of references to stores, like Amazon and some others. It was unclear if this was intentional to point out its time or part of the contract to have the name said to get the film financed.

Lastly, there are some plot holes throughout that don’t make much sense. It is established early on that characters will become haunted if they leave the mansion; however, this doesn’t always apply, so it can become a bit of a cheap plot tool. Between that and the lengthy climax, the film could have trimmed about 20 minutes to make it far more enticing to viewers.

Another small issue to point out is trying to understand what Disney is trying to attempt to do here. It never manages to set itself up for a potential franchise, so is Disney going to try to reboot this every 20 years? The film manages to tie itself up quite nicely. With this being the case, there was potential for a connection between this and the 2003 original. That would have even gotten more people excited to revisit those characters. Also, there’s a dance sequence at the end that felt unnecessary.

Overall, it has all of the ingredients of a great movie. The talent happens to give remarkable performances and the film had a welcoming change to it that allowed it stand on its own, even if at least 20 minutes could have been cut.

VERDICT: 3.5/5 (Pretty Good)