Disneyland has a Haunted Mansion problem; here’s how to fix it
Disneyland has a Haunted Mansion problem. Another round of incremental changes will not fix it.
The regular version of Haunted Mansion reopened at Disneyland last week. Due to construction of a new queue for the ride and the timing of the annual holiday overlay, Disneyland fans had not been able to ride the regular version of Haunted Mansion since the summer of 2023.
That’s a long time to go without one of Disneyland’s more popular attractions. In the meantime, Disney’s Imagineers have tweaked some elements inside the ride, in addition to expanding the ride’s themed queue outside. Most notably, the bride in the attic is no longer a devious axe murderer.
Constance Hatchaway —as she is known by fans — has returned to her previous role as a mourning bride with a beating, bleeding heart. Disney has improved the projection technology used on the bride, as well. While Disney has pulled off some impressive work with these latest tweaks to the 55-year-old attraction, they do not address what has been the ride’s greatest ongoing challenge. There’s no coherent story to it.
Born from Disney Legend Rolly Crump’s concept for a “Museum of the Weird,” Haunted Mansion offered a vibe of Victorian-era spookiness rather than a linear narrative. Upsizing carnival haunted houses into a Haunted Mansion, Disney eliminated their gore and minimized the jump scares to make this haunted experience appealing to a wider range of fans.
Like its predecessor Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion sparked the imaginations of millions of Disneyland visitors. As more and more fans began creating their own stories to explain all the happenings inside the Mansion, Disney eventually obliged them by retconning the attraction to impose official story elements — one of which was the “bride as axe murderer” element that Disney now has reversed.
Perhaps Disney had been hoping that one of its failed attempts at launching a Haunted Mansion film franchise would provide the new narrative structure for the attraction that many seem to be craving. But the best Haunted Mansion-inspired story I have seen outside the parks has been former Imagineering President Bob Weis’ debut novel, “Ghost Dog.” Weis’ novel celebrates the unique spirit of the original Haunted Mansion ride while also honoring the culture of New Orleans that helped inspire its setting.
The novel also shows that Disney’s best chance for crafting an enduring narrative for Haunted Mansion lies within its story-telling community of Imagineers and not with hired screenwriters from outside the parks.
I would love to see Disney quit tinkering and instead order a full rewrite for the Mansion, like Imagineers did in changing Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure next door. Unleash them to craft a fresh narrative that better explains the ghosts while setting up a blend of classic and new visuals that will endear the Mansion to upcoming generations of fans.
Imagineers nailed that brief with Hong Kong Disneyland’s Mystic Manor, which I prefer to Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. The original Mansion deserves that level of ingenuity, too.