‘Hatbox Ghost’ offers advice like ‘You know life has no meaning,’ ‘suffering is for the weak’<\/h2>\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/assets\/img\/icon\/chat-rect.svg\")
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<\/source><\/picture>Father Kent (Owen Wilson) is confronted by two spirits in “Haunted Mansion.”<\/span> | Screenshot: YouTube\/@DisneyMovieTrailers<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDALLAS, Texas \u2014 Let\u2019s get one thing clear right off the bat: I am a product of Disneyland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a Southern California kid, trips to the Magic Kingdom were transcendent, supernatural even, like stepping foot on foreign soil for the first time.<\/p>\n
It was a place repeatedly unknown and rediscovered, the scent of popcorn and white chocolate luring us past the sweat-soaked costumes of Mickey and Goofy and into the rush of Tomorrowland.<\/p>\n
Going to Disneyland was, appropriately enough, a ritual of sorts for kids where I lived, those who didn\u2019t need a plane to reach the Happiest Place on Earth \u2014 just a parent willing to brave the 5 Freeway at rush hour.<\/p>\n
That was all, of course, before I knew Heaven was much more than a fun park with gates and a sky-high price of admission.<\/p>\n
So when it came time to watch Disney\u2019s latest re-imagining of one of its most popular rides, I readily admit I didn\u2019t quite know how it would go.<\/p>\n
OK, well, maybe I knew a few things.<\/p>\n
Disney, once considered <\/a>the untouchable gold standard in family entertainment, is a brand on the decline, both culturally and fiscally. The company\u2019s seemingly insatiable obsession with promoting homosexuality is driving away<\/a> average Americans; and the house that Mouse built hasn\u2019t shied away from hiring actors and promoting messages that are openly satanic.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\nSo as a self-identified child of Disneyland, I was pleasantly surprised to find Disney\u2019s \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d<\/a> proved to be undeniably faithful to the theme park ride, even as I was completely unsurprised by the film\u2019s pervasive occult themes and general hostility toward a biblical worldview.<\/p>\n(Note: spoilers ahead)<\/em><\/p>\n\u201cHaunted Mansion,\u201d not to be confused with an entirely different 2003 movie <\/a>starring Eddie Murphy, boasts an A-list cast that includes Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis and even a virtually unrecognizable Jared Leto as the Hatbox Ghost.<\/p>\nThe movie centers on widow Gabbie (Dawson) and her son Travis, who decide to leave life in the big city for Gracey Manor, a French Colonial-style home in Louisiana. Upon moving in, however, the single mom and her son realize they have supernatural squatters and recruit a team of so-called \u201cspiritual experts\u201d to cleanse their home.<\/p>\n
In the real world, for the last 2,000-plus years, priests, pastors and other men of the cloth have been sought out for comfort, for counsel, and for prayer. They are fallen and sinful men, just like the rest of us, who have, for the most part, committed their lives, however imperfectly, to pointing people to the gift of God in Christ Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least, that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n
But in Disney World, the priest character, Father Kent \u2014 in this case played by Wilson in a dependably on-brand performance \u2014 is a hapless fraud, a swindler who wears a collar and comically oversized cross around his neck as a costume rather than a lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Far from being a righteous shepherd of the flock, Kent is a passive, almost apathetic figure, deferring on most matters to atheist freelance photographer Ben Mattias, played by LaKeith Stanfield, and Tiffany Haddish\u2019s psychic Harriet.<\/p>\n
Like much of today\u2019s contemporary preaching, Kent has an affinity for sounding more spiritual than he actually is \u2014 he tosses out nuggets of “Churchianity” like \u201cThe Lord works in mysterious ways\u201d and even quotes lyrics from \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n
In one scene, Kent tells an already-annoyed Ben that the \u201cBig Man upstairs is always watching. He keeps me on a short leash.\u201d<\/p>\n
“Not short enough,\u201d Ben replies.<\/p>\n
In another scene, before an overtly demonic \u201cseance\u201d session in which Harriett is possessed by a spirit, Kent offers a prayer that, ironically enough, mocks the whole point of prayer: \u201cGod, give us a break! We don\u2019t want to be haunted. There are so many bad people. Haunt them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not quite the same as \u201cforgive those who trespass against us,\u201d is it?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s only later that we learn Kent is not a priest, but rather a common fraud who works at a Halloween costume store, conveniently enough. While the others plan how they will take back the house from the spirit squatters, \u201cFather\u201d Kent helps himself to some booze and defers to the atheist and the psychic to figure things out.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/14\/99\/149997_w_760_381.png\")
<\/source><\/picture>Madame Leota (center) speaks from beyond the grave in “Haunted Mansion.”<\/span> | Screenshot\/YouTube\/@DisneyMovieTrailers<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nIn fact, it\u2019s during this seance session in which Harriet leads the others in prayers to the dead \u2014 a practice specifically forbidden in Scripture in Deuteronomy 18:11<\/a> and 1 Chronicles 10:13-14<\/a> \u2014 that \u201cMansion\u201d begins to take a noticeably more sinister turn.<\/p>\nAfter all, necromancy, or making contact with the dead, is at the heart of \u201cHaunted Mansion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Divination, rather than being condemned as it is in Leviticus 19:26<\/a> and elsewhere, is normalized; psychics, Harriett tells us, prefer to be called \u201cmediums,\u201d in an unexpected hat tip to transgender ideology and its preference <\/a>for language over scientific accuracy.\u00a0<\/p>\nLater in the film, we learn Ben’s wife, a spiritualist herself, died in a car accident. The property\u2019s late landowner who now haunts its halls reveals he held a seance every night for years in an attempt to contact his own dead wife \u2014 a practice which resulted in the arrival of unwanted spirits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had summoned a terrible evil,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Only after these repeated seances are the floodgates to \u201cthe other side\u201d opened, allowing in spirits like the Hatbox Ghost (Leto), a dead tycoon who offers advice such as \u201cYou know life has no meaning\u201d and \u201cSuffering is for the weak.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motivation behind Hatbox Ghost\u2019s haunting spree, it turns out, is that he\u2019s managed to trap 999 souls and is now working on securing number 1,000 by deceiving Travis into thinking he can communicate with his own dead father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For anyone who\u2019s been on the Haunted Mansion ride<\/a>, the number 999 \u2014\u00a0 which, just saying, does happen to be an upside-down 666 \u2014 evokes the ride\u2019s \u201chappy haunts\u201d song, which always finishes with the Ghost Host\u2019s invitation: “We have 999 happy haunts here, but there’s room for a thousand. Any volunteers?\u201d<\/p>\nPretty dark stuff for a movie inspired by a kid\u2019s theme park ride at the Happiest Place on Earth.<\/p>\n
And maybe, despite all the darkness, that\u2019s where \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d buys itself a bit of goodwill with its audience: apart from the cast and plot, the film is careful to correspond to the Haunted Mansion ride itself, including details down to the same vertically-striped wallpaper from the Stretching Room at Gracey Manor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are allusions to the ride\u2019s \u201cdoom buggy\u201d seating, the Mansion\u2019s three hitchhiking ghosts, Ezra Beane, Professor Phineas Plump and Gus, and the crystal ball head of Madame Leota (Curtis). Such details for products of Disneyland, for ones like myself, carry with them a sort of recognizable comfort that doesn’t quite fit with the film\u2019s otherwise unsettling and dimly-lit narrative.<\/p>\n
And while there might be enough references for some parents to wax nostalgic about the old days at Disneyland, I\u2019m not sure younger people who have never been to one of the Disney parks will necessarily connect with the movie beyond a few sight gags.<\/p>\n
Then again, as the culture loves to tell the Church, “who am I to judge?”<\/p>\n
So what if, prior to the film, a preview for another occult-themed film, \u201cA Haunting In Venice,\u201d is shown alongside a “Paw Patrol” trailer?<\/p>\n
So what if crucifixes and crosses permeate \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d from the first frame to the last in an obvious glorification of death and a mockery of the cross of Christ, the only One to ever triumph over death?<\/p>\n
So what if the film\u2019s plot hinges on an unholy ghost antagonist who seeks to claim the soul of a widow\u2019s only child?\u00a0<\/p>\n
So what if experiencing a taste of nostalgia means exposing your kids to crude Christian mockery?\u00a0<\/p>\n
These are just a few of the questions you may want to ask yourself \u2014 and the Holy Ghost \u2014 before buying a ticket to \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nIan M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of\u00a0BACKWARDS DAD: a children’s book for grownups<\/a><\/em>. He can be reached at:\u00a0ian.giatti@christianpost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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<\/source><\/picture>DALLAS, Texas \u2014 Let\u2019s get one thing clear right off the bat: I am a product of Disneyland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a Southern California kid, trips to the Magic Kingdom were transcendent, supernatural even, like stepping foot on foreign soil for the first time.<\/p>\n
It was a place repeatedly unknown and rediscovered, the scent of popcorn and white chocolate luring us past the sweat-soaked costumes of Mickey and Goofy and into the rush of Tomorrowland.<\/p>\n
Going to Disneyland was, appropriately enough, a ritual of sorts for kids where I lived, those who didn\u2019t need a plane to reach the Happiest Place on Earth \u2014 just a parent willing to brave the 5 Freeway at rush hour.<\/p>\n
That was all, of course, before I knew Heaven was much more than a fun park with gates and a sky-high price of admission.<\/p>\n
So when it came time to watch Disney\u2019s latest re-imagining of one of its most popular rides, I readily admit I didn\u2019t quite know how it would go.<\/p>\n
OK, well, maybe I knew a few things.<\/p>\n
Disney, once considered <\/a>the untouchable gold standard in family entertainment, is a brand on the decline, both culturally and fiscally. The company\u2019s seemingly insatiable obsession with promoting homosexuality is driving away<\/a> average Americans; and the house that Mouse built hasn\u2019t shied away from hiring actors and promoting messages that are openly satanic.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n So as a self-identified child of Disneyland, I was pleasantly surprised to find Disney\u2019s \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d<\/a> proved to be undeniably faithful to the theme park ride, even as I was completely unsurprised by the film\u2019s pervasive occult themes and general hostility toward a biblical worldview.<\/p>\n (Note: spoilers ahead)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHaunted Mansion,\u201d not to be confused with an entirely different 2003 movie <\/a>starring Eddie Murphy, boasts an A-list cast that includes Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, Rosario Dawson, Jamie Lee Curtis and even a virtually unrecognizable Jared Leto as the Hatbox Ghost.<\/p>\n The movie centers on widow Gabbie (Dawson) and her son Travis, who decide to leave life in the big city for Gracey Manor, a French Colonial-style home in Louisiana. Upon moving in, however, the single mom and her son realize they have supernatural squatters and recruit a team of so-called \u201cspiritual experts\u201d to cleanse their home.<\/p>\n In the real world, for the last 2,000-plus years, priests, pastors and other men of the cloth have been sought out for comfort, for counsel, and for prayer. They are fallen and sinful men, just like the rest of us, who have, for the most part, committed their lives, however imperfectly, to pointing people to the gift of God in Christ Jesus.\u00a0<\/p>\n At least, that\u2019s how it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n But in Disney World, the priest character, Father Kent \u2014 in this case played by Wilson in a dependably on-brand performance \u2014 is a hapless fraud, a swindler who wears a collar and comically oversized cross around his neck as a costume rather than a lifestyle.\u00a0<\/p>\n Far from being a righteous shepherd of the flock, Kent is a passive, almost apathetic figure, deferring on most matters to atheist freelance photographer Ben Mattias, played by LaKeith Stanfield, and Tiffany Haddish\u2019s psychic Harriet.<\/p>\n Like much of today\u2019s contemporary preaching, Kent has an affinity for sounding more spiritual than he actually is \u2014 he tosses out nuggets of “Churchianity” like \u201cThe Lord works in mysterious ways\u201d and even quotes lyrics from \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n In one scene, Kent tells an already-annoyed Ben that the \u201cBig Man upstairs is always watching. He keeps me on a short leash.\u201d<\/p>\n “Not short enough,\u201d Ben replies.<\/p>\n In another scene, before an overtly demonic \u201cseance\u201d session in which Harriett is possessed by a spirit, Kent offers a prayer that, ironically enough, mocks the whole point of prayer: \u201cGod, give us a break! We don\u2019t want to be haunted. There are so many bad people. Haunt them.\u201d<\/p>\n Not quite the same as \u201cforgive those who trespass against us,\u201d is it?<\/p>\n It\u2019s only later that we learn Kent is not a priest, but rather a common fraud who works at a Halloween costume store, conveniently enough. While the others plan how they will take back the house from the spirit squatters, \u201cFather\u201d Kent helps himself to some booze and defers to the atheist and the psychic to figure things out.<\/p>\n In fact, it\u2019s during this seance session in which Harriet leads the others in prayers to the dead \u2014 a practice specifically forbidden in Scripture in Deuteronomy 18:11<\/a> and 1 Chronicles 10:13-14<\/a> \u2014 that \u201cMansion\u201d begins to take a noticeably more sinister turn.<\/p>\n After all, necromancy, or making contact with the dead, is at the heart of \u201cHaunted Mansion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Divination, rather than being condemned as it is in Leviticus 19:26<\/a> and elsewhere, is normalized; psychics, Harriett tells us, prefer to be called \u201cmediums,\u201d in an unexpected hat tip to transgender ideology and its preference <\/a>for language over scientific accuracy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Later in the film, we learn Ben’s wife, a spiritualist herself, died in a car accident. The property\u2019s late landowner who now haunts its halls reveals he held a seance every night for years in an attempt to contact his own dead wife \u2014 a practice which resulted in the arrival of unwanted spirits.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had summoned a terrible evil,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Only after these repeated seances are the floodgates to \u201cthe other side\u201d opened, allowing in spirits like the Hatbox Ghost (Leto), a dead tycoon who offers advice such as \u201cYou know life has no meaning\u201d and \u201cSuffering is for the weak.\u201d<\/p>\n The motivation behind Hatbox Ghost\u2019s haunting spree, it turns out, is that he\u2019s managed to trap 999 souls and is now working on securing number 1,000 by deceiving Travis into thinking he can communicate with his own dead father.\u00a0<\/p>\n For anyone who\u2019s been on the Haunted Mansion ride<\/a>, the number 999 \u2014\u00a0 which, just saying, does happen to be an upside-down 666 \u2014 evokes the ride\u2019s \u201chappy haunts\u201d song, which always finishes with the Ghost Host\u2019s invitation: “We have 999 happy haunts here, but there’s room for a thousand. Any volunteers?\u201d<\/p>\n Pretty dark stuff for a movie inspired by a kid\u2019s theme park ride at the Happiest Place on Earth.<\/p>\n And maybe, despite all the darkness, that\u2019s where \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d buys itself a bit of goodwill with its audience: apart from the cast and plot, the film is careful to correspond to the Haunted Mansion ride itself, including details down to the same vertically-striped wallpaper from the Stretching Room at Gracey Manor.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are allusions to the ride\u2019s \u201cdoom buggy\u201d seating, the Mansion\u2019s three hitchhiking ghosts, Ezra Beane, Professor Phineas Plump and Gus, and the crystal ball head of Madame Leota (Curtis). Such details for products of Disneyland, for ones like myself, carry with them a sort of recognizable comfort that doesn’t quite fit with the film\u2019s otherwise unsettling and dimly-lit narrative.<\/p>\n And while there might be enough references for some parents to wax nostalgic about the old days at Disneyland, I\u2019m not sure younger people who have never been to one of the Disney parks will necessarily connect with the movie beyond a few sight gags.<\/p>\n Then again, as the culture loves to tell the Church, “who am I to judge?”<\/p>\n So what if, prior to the film, a preview for another occult-themed film, \u201cA Haunting In Venice,\u201d is shown alongside a “Paw Patrol” trailer?<\/p>\n So what if crucifixes and crosses permeate \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d from the first frame to the last in an obvious glorification of death and a mockery of the cross of Christ, the only One to ever triumph over death?<\/p>\n So what if the film\u2019s plot hinges on an unholy ghost antagonist who seeks to claim the soul of a widow\u2019s only child?\u00a0<\/p>\n So what if experiencing a taste of nostalgia means exposing your kids to crude Christian mockery?\u00a0<\/p>\n These are just a few of the questions you may want to ask yourself \u2014 and the Holy Ghost \u2014 before buying a ticket to \u201cHaunted Mansion\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of\u00a0BACKWARDS DAD: a children’s book for grownups<\/a><\/em>. He can be reached at:\u00a0ian.giatti@christianpost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.christianpost.com\/images\/cache\/image\/14\/99\/149997_w_760_381.webp\")
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