“When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls. Whenever candlelights flicker where the air is deathly still. That is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!

Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion!” 

…This famous dialogue by a Ghost Host that eerily echoes as you enter Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction brings both chills and huge smiles of nostalgic delight to all. So engrained in the American culture, the beloved Haunted Mansion is regarded as much more than a mere amusement park attraction, but an American institution. And because of its treasured status, it is no surprise to anyone that Hollywood would revisit the attraction’s themes for Disney’s newest movie, HAUNTED MANSION. While the iconic attraction and newest movie brings to life the imaginations of its creators, the real world of ghosts, disembodied spirits and hauntings that inspire them is more popular than ever. 

Disney’s New Haunted Mansion Movie …

The air is rife with whispers about Disney’s latest movie, “HAUNTED MANSION”. As with every Disney production, anticipation runs high. The thrill intensifies as this movie draws its roots not from an age-old fairy tale or from a super-hero comic, but from an in-park attraction that has been chilling and thrilling visitors for decades.

The Disneyland Haunted Mansion attraction, located amidst the winding paths of New Orleans Square, first opened its creaky doors to curious visitors in 1969. The eerie colonial-style mansion, with its atmosphere of ‘gloominess’ yet ‘whimsical spookiness’, quickly became a crowd favorite. It stands as a testament to Walt Disney’s innovative Imagineering, seamlessly blending storytelling, technology, and old-fashioned scare tactics to provide an immersive and eerie experience. This alluring backdrop sets the stage for the upcoming movie.

Disney’s foray into adapting park attractions into cinematic experiences isn’t novel. The highly successful “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise is proof positive. Initially met with skepticism, the first film’s release in 2003 quickly dispelled any doubts. The series went on to garner global applause and box-office success, proving that Disney could translate the magic of park attractions to the big screen, infusing them with a broader narrative and universal appeal.

Walt Disney’s fascination with ghost stories and hauntings is well-documented. The founder of the ‘happiest place on earth’ had a penchant for tales that thrilled and chilled in equal measure. This fascination found expression in the early shorts like “The Skeleton Dance” (1929) and transcended into attractions like the Haunted Mansion, a captivating blend of ‘spooky fun’ that continues to enchant audiences. Disney’s upcoming movie represents another homage to this enduring love for the spectral and eerie, promising to deliver chills and thrills to a new generation of viewers.

“This chamber has no windows and no doors, which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Of course there’s always my way.” 

Ghost Stories and Hauntings in History

Ghost stories are as old as civilization itself. Even in the earliest records of human society, there are mentions of spirits, supernatural entities, and hauntings. From the apparitions appearing in the pages of the Bible, like the ghost of Samuel summoned by the Witch of Endor, to the hauntings foretold by Shakespeare’s witches in Macbeth, our cultural history is steeped in tales of spectral beings. The image of Hamlet conversing with his murdered father’s ghost remains one of the most iconic supernatural scenes in literature. These ancient narratives capture an elemental human curiosity about the afterlife and the unseen, reflecting our primal fears, the struggle with mortality, and the desire to understand the incomprehensible.

This fascination with the spectral world has always been a global phenomena. Take for instance China’s Ghost Festival, also known as Zhongyuan Jie or Yu Lan Pen Festival. This is a traditional Buddhist and Taoist festival where the supernatural lower realm is believed to open, allowing spirits and ghosts to roam among the living. Families offer food and other sacrifices to their deceased ancestors, burn joss paper, and engage in various practices to appease these wandering spirits. And in Mexico and other Latin American countries, Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is celebrated annually where families welcome back the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends for a brief, but festive reunion, including the food, drinks and music that are the favorites of those visiting spirits. These culturally significant festivals signify the belief in life after death and the impact of the supernatural on the lives of the living.

Ghosts in the Modern Era

The advent of the industrial age, with its scientific advancements and rational thinking, did not dampen our fascination with the supernatural. If anything, it only added a new dimension to our understanding of the paranormal. The progress in science and technology did not dispel the belief in the existence of ghosts but instead sparked debates, either using science to prove the validity of these phenomena or fuel attempts to rationalize and explain them away.

This is evident in the rise of spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a movement characterized by the belief that the spirits of the dead can communicate with the living. Séances, mediums, and spiritual readings were all commonplace practices during this era. While often criticized and controversial, spiritualism reflected the enduring human quest to interact with the spectral world. As we moved further into the 20th century and now into the 21st, the study of these phenomena has taken a more academic turn, giving birth to parapsychology. Parapsychologists seek to investigate phenomena like telepathy, reincarnation, and indeed, ghosts and hauntings, attempting to shed light on age-old beliefs with scientific methodology.

Intriguingly, despite our diverse backgrounds, cultures, and belief systems, the concept of ghosts and hauntings is universally acknowledged. From the spectral tales told in the American heartland to the haunting lore in the ancient temples of India, from the djinns of Middle Eastern mythology to the Yokai spirits of Japan, our collective consciousness seems to agree on the existence of an ethereal realm beyond human comprehension. It transcends age, nationality, religion, and time, further affirming that the allure of the unknown and the supernatural is a shared human experience, an enigma that continues to captivate our collective imagination.

The World’s Top Expert on Ghosts and Hauntings

In reaching out to multiple parapsychological, scientific and anthropological authorities around the world seeking the top credible expert on ghosts and hauntings, all pointed to one name: Parapsychologist, Anomalist and Supernatural/Occult Expert, Christopher Chacon. With over four decades of experience in investigating and researching all manner of paranormal phenomena, Chacon is recognized as one of the leading authorities in the field. He has worked on thousands of cases worldwide, each more baffling than the last, further solidifying his standing as on of the world’s top experts. His professional journey, fueled by an insatiable curiosity about the extraordinary and unexplained, has led him to confront some of the most perplexing mysteries of the supernatural world.

One of the many aspects of Chacon that sets him apart in the realm of paranormal investigation is his incomparable hybrid methodology. At his disposal is a huge variety of investigative and research models, techniques and procedures that he can utilize depending on the phenomena and the circumstances. By utilizing one or more of these techniques he has been able to obtain an unparalleled comprehensive perspective on the mysteries of the paranormal. From cutting-edge new scientific assessments using state-of-the-art scientific technology to ancient obscure occult/metaphysical methods; Chacon is able to apply the appropriate investigative technique when dealing with phenomena to obtain the best possible understanding of what the phenomena is and how to deal with it. Because of this unique multidisciplinary approach, coupled with his vast experience, it is no surprise that he is so greatly in demand around the world, making Chacon as fascinating as the phenomena he deals with.  

Chacon has investigated thousands upon thousands of haunting and poltergeist cases around the world that are both publicly known and private. In reaching out to several of these confidential clients, I was given intriguing insights into how Chacon discreetly and meticulously explored and investigated each reported phenomena; spending anywhere from several days to weeks and even months at each location. For the publicly known phenomena; he’s been to practically every known haunted location, from Italy’s Poveglia Island to China’s Fengdu Ghost City, from the RMS Queen Mary Ship in a California harbor to Japan’s Aokigahara Forest. For the confidential/privately-located phenomena; he’s investigated even more of those, from a family in a mansion in Bulgaria to an older couple in an Argentinian village, from tech-workers at a corporate industrial complex in Taiwan to a fishing community in South Africa. Without any doubt Chacon has investigated and researched more haunted locations than any living paranormal investigator/researcher. But Chacon’s prowess isn’t limited to only ghosts and hauntings; he has investigated and researched every phenomena imaginable, including UFO and alien close encounters, possessions and miracles, every type of of psychic phenomena, encounters with unknown creatures and all manner of supernatural/occult phenomena.  

“There are several prominent ghosts who have retired here from creepy old crypts from all over the world. Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here, but there’s room for a thousand. Any volunteers?”

Real-life Experiences of Ghosts and Hauntings

The belief, fascination and fear of the supernatural has been documented by researchers for many years with the latest research polls, studies, and surveys indicating a significant increase in such beliefs. In the U.S. alone, according to a 2019 survey conducted by YouGov, around 45% of Americans believe in ghosts. Furthermore, a sizeable number of the population claimed to have experienced something they couldn’t explain, implying possible encounters with the supernatural. These trends are reflected globally, with countries as diverse as Canada, Australia, the UK, and India all recording an even high level of belief in the supernatural, with many reporting personal experiences of hauntings and other ghostly encounters. Chacon further notes psychosociological data that confirms these numbers are actually quite low, with much higher percentages around the world believing and claiming to have had supernatural experiences. 

The countless experiences with ghosts come from men, women and children of every age, from all walks of life; business men and women, farmers, school students, blue-collar workers, doctors and scientists and even the clergy, ranging from one-time experiences to ongoing ghostly encounters. These otherworldly haunt experiences might include hearing disembodied footsteps, voices and conversations, even singing; seeing apparitions, from those that are translucent floating forms to normal-looking people (until they walk through something or disappear entirely). The more physically active phenomena, sometimes referred to poltergeist activity, might include flickering lights, opening and closing doors and cabinets, objects breaking and inexplicably propelling across rooms. 

All of Chacon’s clients must go through a rigorous evaluation process that includes psychological and physiological assessments, among others; Chacon pointing out that some 70% to 80% of all reported paranormal experiences are explainable. In interviewing clients from a half dozen of Chacon’s private confidential cases, that included not just your average workers and family members, but also a doctor, a police officer and a mathematician, I was given vivid descriptions of extraordinary paranormal phenomena that rivaled anything depicted in typical ghost/haunt movies. Ghostly apparitions that looked as real as anyone walking through homes, thousands of pounds of furniture moving about as if it were toys, spontaneous transformations of structures/rooms into warped-twisted settings like an Escher painting and massive phantom-like shadows materializing that can shake a home as if it were an earthquake. In all these confidential cases I interviewed Chacon was able to deal with these phenomena, assisting all those clients in one way or another and never charging a penny. Chacon emphasized that extremely active haunt/poltergeist cases like these are very rare, with the majority of haunt phenomena being passive and benign, most people either completely ignoring the ghostly presence or recognizing it as a novelty, even to some making it a fascinating conversation piece.

In the HAUNTED MANSION, a team of charismatic characters try to help in dealing with an onslaught of supernatural manifestations. When asked about how he deals with individuals or families who are experiencing real ongoing encounters with ghosts, Chacon emphasized that, like with any individual or family seeking some manner of outside assistance with a problem, there are multiple factors that come into play when determining the appropriate course of action that would best help them. As every person, family, and phenomenon they are encountering, is different, along with the uniqueness of the circumstances, it’s imperative to first determine the best approach in dealing with each situation.

“We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat. Every room has wall-to-wall creeps, and hot and cold running chills. Shhh, listen! All our ghosts have been dying to meet you! This one can hardly contain himself!”

Ghost Stories in Entertainment

On the subject of why belief in ghosts, hauntings, and communicating with the dead is so prevalent around the world, across every age group, nationality, and religious belief, Chacon pointed to a wide array of psychosocial factors, cultural, religious and personal belief systems, many that might stem from actual experiences. It only makes sense therefore that the entertainment and media industries would capitalize on this ever-growing allure by creating content that meets the demand. 

The fascination with hauntings, ghosts and poltergeists has found a substantial and consistent audience in TV, Films, and literature. This popularity can be traced to four factors. First, the overwhelming belief in these phenomena, as previously noted, and how those beliefs are passed on within families, thereby ensuring a loyal fan-base. Second, these stories tap into our primal fear of the unknown. Ghosts and hauntings exist at the edge of human understanding, a place where the familiar logic of the physical world seems to break down. As such, they naturally arouse our curiosity and apprehension. Third, ghost stories often serve as moral or cautionary tales. Ghosts are frequently depicted as souls who are unable to move on due to unresolved issues from their lives, or they may be seeking justice for wrongs done to them. Ghost stories allow storytellers to explore themes of regret, guilt, retribution, and forgiveness in compelling ways. Fourth, the inherent mystery associated with supernatural topics provides a broad canvas for creative storytelling. It offers limitless possibilities in terms of characters, settings, and plot twists, making it a fertile ground for narrative innovation. Ghost stories can be told in countless ways, ranging from horror and suspense to drama and even comedy, providing entertainment for a wide array of audience tastes.

Chacon himself noted, the sheer amount of information available on the Internet, as well as the opportunity to share personal accounts and theories to the world, likely contributes to the ever-growing demand for stories involving ghosts and hauntings. This ease of access to a plethora of supernatural tales only fuels the human fascination with the afterlife and what might lie beyond the veil of death, thereby perpetuating the demand for ghost stories in literature, films and TV.

With the unlimited imaginations of Hollywood at work one must ask how similar are the depictions of the supernatural in movies and TV to that of real encounters around the world. Shockingly enough, Chacon stated that many of the depictions in movies and TV mirrors that of the thousands of reports and descriptions of phenomena being encountered around the world, the majority of experiences being reported long before the movies or TV shows are released. Considering depictions in some of the more scarier horror movies, that fact is very unsettling. Chacon emphasizes that those are only reports however and cannot confirm the validity of the phenomena in each report. When asked about the difference between Hollywood’s portrayal of investigating ghosts and hauntings and real life, Chacon noted that the actual investigative and research process of assessing and dealing with phenomena typically takes much longer than depicted in any movies or TV shows. He added that many cases do not reach a definitive conclusion with confirmed reasons of cause and effect, in contrast to the narrative in most films and TV shows, which not only deal with and resolve the phenomena quickly but also find a clear-cut explanation of what it is and its origins. Chacon further pointed out that most movies and TV shows are created for one purpose, to entertain, and therefore we shouldn’t be surprised with the use of dramatic license, especially in depictions of investigating or researching phenomena. 

“Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat; call in the spirits, wherever they’re at.
Rap on a table; it’s time to respond. Send us a message from somewhere beyond.
Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween. Awaken the spirits with your tambourine.
Creepies and crawlies, toads in a pond; let there be music, from regions beyond!”

Revisiting Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion

Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction, opening in 1969, has captured the imaginations of park-goers for over half a century. With its eerie gothic exterior, the Mansion promises and delivers on chills and thrills for guests. Once inside, visitors encounter ghostly inhabitants in various forms of unrest, from spectral dancers in a grand ballroom to a bride with a sinister past in the attic, and a lively celebration in a cemetery filled with singing specters. The Mansion cleverly blends the eerie and whimsical, creating an immersive experience that is both spooky and fun.

Interestingly enough, the original plans for the Haunted Mansion envisioned a much scarier ride; Walt Disney and his Imagineers getting inspiration for the look and design of the attraction from the infamous Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California; a monstrous mansion that was continuously being built in the late 1800’s by Sarah Winchester who was trying to confuse and keep away vengeful spirits killed by Winchester rifles. Coincidentally enough, Chacon was brought in by management of the Winchester property in the early 1990’s to conduct a scientific investigation of the ongoing ghostly phenomena being experienced at the property.

So beloved is the Haunted Mansion that in 2003 Disneyland Imagineers created a Christmas holiday version of the attraction combining the haunted setting with characters and music from the hit movie, “A Nightmare Before Christmas”. So popular is this adaptation that Disneyland has been doing it ever since with guests making special trips to the Disneyland park for Halloween and/or the holidays to experience this version of the attraction. In 2019, Disneyland had a birthday/anniversary party celebrating 50 years of the Haunted Mansion with hauntingly fun-filled park events all paying homage to spooky attraction. Titled, “The Haunted Mansion: Celebrating 50 Years of Retirement Unliving”, the park went all out with all manner of spirited events and merchandise to commemorate the 50 years it has been haunting the park and inviting guests to stay-on as the 1000th tenant. 

Even with the popularity and demand of the paranormal and the fascination with ghosts and hauntings, it is no wonder that the Haunted Mansion is among the most beloved attractions at Disneyland, inspiring two movies now and only time will tell what other other-worldly creations will be sprung from its euphoric chilling experience.  

“There’s a little matter I forgot to mention. Beware of hitchhiking ghosts! They have selected you to fill our quota, and they’ll haunt you until you return!” 

Inside the New Haunted Mansion Movie

Disney previously adapted the Haunted Mansion into a film in 2003, starring Eddie Murphy. Though the film offered a blend of horror and comedy, it did not live up to box office expectations. Critics suggested it struggled to find a balance between being a family-friendly comedy and honoring the spookier elements of the original attraction.

The new HAUNTED MANSION movie, on the other hand, promises a fresh take on the iconic Disneyland attraction. This new horror-comedy adaptation is expected to delve deeper into the ghostly narrative, playing up the chilling elements that have thrilled Disneyland visitors for generations.

Directed by Justin Simien and written by Katie Dippold (who also brought us the 2016 all-female-cast of “Ghostbusters”); The story follows a single mom, Gabbie, played by Rosario Dawson, and her 9-year-old son, Travis, played by Chase W. Dillon, as they move into a New Orleans mansion that possesses more than its share of other-worldly spirits. In an attempt to clean the mansion of the supernatural inhabitants, Gabbie hires a team-of-sorts of so-called supernatural experts to help. This light horror-comedy interfuses humorous personalities and situations to counter the ghostly forces that manifest aiming to make it just as supernaturally delightful as the iconic attraction. The movie also stars Lakeith Stanfield, Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish and Danny Devito. 

When asked about supernatural depictions in HAUNTED MANSION, Chacon said there are some similarities between phenomena depicted in the film and real reports, however depictions in the film should be expected to be more amplified and enhanced, especially with music and how characters react, for dramatic effect, as it should be; adding that the movie brilliantly brings to life the supernatural elements depicted in the Disneyland attraction. Chacon adds that anytime a movie or TV show can interfuse the supernatural with a lighter, even comedic tone, that can benefit everyone by creating a more open and inviting dialogue to discuss these phenomena instead of blindly fearing them.  

The Immortal Haunted Mansion…

The HAUNTED MANSION’s potential success hinges not only on its own creation (the writing, directing, acting, etc.) but also on its adherence or the degree of homage to the beloved Disneyland attraction, as well as the public’s enduring fascination with the supernatural. Considering the impressive talents involved with its production and the widespread fascination in hauntings, it seems likely the film will find a ready audience eager for a deeper exploration of the Mansion’s mysteries. Because this type of light horror-comedy film appeals to a much wider audience than most, its release could potentially spark a surge in interest in real-life hauntings and supernatural phenomena. 

One thing is for sure, no matter how well received this latest movie adaptation is, Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction will live on for generations and generations, outliving each of us, or shall I say, UNLIVING each of us. So if you happen to be grappling with your own real-life haunting and larger-than-unlife ghosts, and Chacon is unavailable in some corner of the world already help others with supernatural turmoil, may I suggest taking a break from your ghostly situation and escape to see the HAUNTED MANSION movie, or even better, visit the Disneyland attraction, where their 999 spirits will certainly make you feel right at home. 

“Hurry back! Hurry back! Be sure to bring your death certificate, if you decide to join us. Make final arrangements now! We’ve been dying to have you!”