A positive Look At, yay!
I…suck
at being current, what I’m gonna Look At today was posted in 2012 and I found
out about it less than a month ago. Missing in the Mansion is a short found
footage film (don’t look like that, some found footage films are great) made by
a couple of lads called The Daws Brothers (not the Doobie Brothers) who are
internet filmmakers. It’s up on YouTube and it’s pretty damn good. What enticed
me to view it is it’s actually based around an alleged real haunting and a real
urban legend for The Haunted Mansion – which is my favourite theme park ride
and one of my favourite things ever – and a macabre Disney fact that really
no-one should be surprised about; the fact is that people spread ashes in
Disneyland, with the Haunted Mansion being a prime location for such activities
because, well, it’s a fucking haunted house, the urban legend/real haunting
relates to ghostly phenomena surrounded a child, usually said to be a little
boy, which has been witnessed by numerous Cast Members. I am a confirmed and unashamed believer in
ghosts and as such I think there’s very little chance that the Disney Parks
don’t have a few spooks floating around – no matter what criteria you subscribe
to when it comes to making a ghost Disney’s got it covered – from sudden deaths
to places that’s important to the deceased to last resting places to imprints
of strong emotions – it’s all at Disneyland. I am however a bit sceptical of
ghost sightings in the Haunted Mansion; it just seems a bit suspicious that
real ghosts have been seen in a place filled with pretend ones by people who
spend their entire shift immersed in a pretend-haunted environment usually
after hours when an already creepy ride is at its creepiest. The counter
argument being that it IS a fan favourite and a preferred place to illicitly
scatter ashes so while any ‘experiences’ could be put down to the mind playing
tricks due to the environment (as I just did, being a dick) there’s also a much
bigger chance of it being haunted than many other attractions. Oh and I don’t
know of any incidents of anyone dying on the Haunted Mansion (or Phantom Manor)
but people have had heart attacks all over the parks so I would be very
surprised if someone hasn’t croaked on one or more versions of the ride.
Anyway,
Everyone neat an’ pretty? Then ooooon with
the show are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin
Quick Summary: On July 6,
2012 three friends went missing. They were last seen at Disneyland Resort in
Anaheim, California. A Cast Member working in Lost & Found discovered a
camera that belonged to them containing the following footage. It has not been
altered in any way.
Kevin Randall is filming his
brother Scott’s proposal to his girlfriend Jess when Jaws pops outta the water at Disneyland. He proposes at the
entrance to Sleeping Beauty’s castle and she says yes. They go on the Mad Tea
Party, it’s a small world, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and
its all fun and games, until Scott suggests going on the Haunted Mansion. Jess,
a Cast Member, doesn’t want to go, in fact two of her co-workers took the day
off just so they didn’t have to work the Mansion, as they queue Jess and Kevin
explain that today is the anniversary of the death of a little boy called
Joshua, who died of Leukemia and who’s mum spread his ashes on the ride about
36 years ago, he is supposed to appear every year – today. Scott doesn’t take things seriously but Jess
REALLY does, and is not pleased with his teasing and calling for Joshua. When
the lights go out in the Stretching room so the Ghost Host can show you his way
out Scott screams, Jess berates him for being
dick, but when the light go back on, Kevin can’t find him, Jess is too
pissed off to care and rides in the same Doom Buggy as her
soon-to-be-brother-in-law instead.
Jess swears she sees Joshua
in the endless corridor and then they both hear Scott’s voice coming from the
coffin in the conservatory – and the camera picks it up, then they hear a
little boy’s voice from behind the doors of the Corridor of Doors, one jump
scare later and the layout of Madame Leota’s Séance Circle reveals all the
other Doom Buggies are empty, by now the two are scared. It only gets
worse for them – in the Grand Ballroom the swinging wake has an extra guest –
Joshua; then in Constance’s wedding photographs in The Attic, there’s Scott,
next to the black widow bride, this does for Jess, she needs to get off the
ride; the ride obliges and an unseen THING pulls her from the Doom Buggy
despite Kevin’s best efforts, as the ride moves through the Graveyard she calls
to him from amidst the socialising happy haunts. Kevin turns and finds Josha
beside him, “what did you do with her?” he asks, Joshua only points ahead; from
the buggy in front comes the Hatbox Ghost, with Jess head in his hatbox, he
lunges at the camera. The ride comes to an end and a Ride Operator finds the
camera.
On
a partially related note: I hate the way people show off engagement rings, with
their fingers together like they’re going to backhand someone and sometimes
they wiggle their fingers? That really pisses me off and I have no idea why. On
a completely related note, that summary shows just how in-depth (read: sad) my
Haunted Mansion knowledge is; I didn’t have to look up a single name or
location.
To
get it out the way first the acting is good but not always brilliant however
while they have a great production values and I’m guessing everyone attended
stage and/or film school this is still an amateur production so you’d have to
be a bit of a bastard to complain about that, especially as the acting never
sinks to a quality you could call ‘bad’ and doesn’t come close to matching the
lack of skill displayed in most classic B-Movies – or the whole of Twilight.
The actors also get an additional kudos because the brothers didn’t actually
have permission to film on Disney property (technically everyone has permission
to film on Disney property but only home video shit and not always in rides)
and thus any on-location scenes were being filmed surreptitiously over around 3
days – a set-up not lending itself to multiple retakes.
 |
| Redheads are always the answer. |
Dialogue
also stays at the decent level, managing to sound natural and spontaneous
pretty much throughout; nothing is a bigger deal breaker in a found footage
film than being able to notice that someone wrote and rehearsed what you’re
seeing and avoiding anything sounding or feeling like it isn’t happening to
everyone for the first time is the first thing you should be doing when making
an entry into the sub-genre. There are just two instances that stood out – one
is Kevin’s exposition dump about Joshua while queuing, he knows exactly how
many years ago Joshua died etc, it feels exactly like what it is – an
exposition dump, a few extra ums and ahs, an additional ‘I think’ or ‘about’
here and there and it could have been avoided. The other is the mention of Club
33 – that just bugs me as someone who knows a fair bit about Club 33, the
waiting list is about 10 years, these people aren’t old enough to be on it yet
let alone be members, I get why it was used (it denotes a special occasional
and is easily recognisable) but it should have been replaced with something
less elite, there’s enough expensive restaurants in Disneyland to pick from.
Regardless of these two nitpicks the cast deserve a round of applause for
keeping things feeling so natural especially as they rehearsed the shit out of
everything before filming (due to the aforementioned filming without telling
Disney). While we’re patting the team on the back, the brothers deserve a big
ol’ whack for their screenplay, Joshua exposition notwithstanding there’s a
good few things that I’ve outright stated in the summary that are only hinting
at, or said without actually saying it, during the film but is still clear
enough; things like the boys being brothers and Jess being a Cast Member – no
character ever says ‘come on you’re brothers’ or ‘I/you work here and I/you
know’ because they probably wouldn’t. They know these things because they’ve
known each other for a long time, and it goes that extra step in making the
film feel real, in fact I feel kinda annoyed that I have to refer to things
like ‘actors’ and ‘scripts’ in this Look At because it means admitting that it
isn’t real.
On
the production side of things everything’s pretty much fantastic, especially
for what I’m taking to be a self-financed film; Joshua does look a little
special-effects-y when he’s in the Doom Buggy but he does look like he’s
actually in said buggy when the behind-the-scenes video shows he very much was
not. The Hatbox Ghost however is fantastic; professional standard prosthetic,
make-up and green-screen effects (they went to a proper place to do it) and the
comping of Scott’s head onto the wedding photo is seamless, Christ I wish the
last TMNT film had SFX this good. Actually to just nail my colours to the mast
as it were – practical effects all the way, computers should be used to
enhance, or when practical effects just can’t do what needs doing.
But
the film’s best quality is it’s perfect use of the ride to tell a ghost story;
now the boys were obviously lucky in that the ride itself is laid out very much
like a horror film (hell, pretty much all of Disney is laid out cinematically,
it was intentional and is one of the things that sets it apart from other theme
parks, even today) with everything becoming more overt as the ride progresses.
So it isn’t particularly difficult to take the ride’s progression and use it
for a basic ghost story plot, it is however difficult to do it this well and
tie it to a completely different plot this well: combining each story set piece
perfectly with a ride set piece so that even I can’t complain – and I can be an
obnoxious nitpicky bastard of a fan. It’s why I bothered to list where and when
things took place in the Mansion so specifically in the summary, I COULD go
through explaining why each is so well paired but that would take a lot of
words and this is already bloody long, if you’re a Haunted Mansion nut watching
the film (or reading my summary) you should get it, if not then just take the
word of a Haunted Mansion nut that they used the ride brilliantly and fitted it
with their story (or fitted their story with it) even better
I
know I’m talking to myself but all you imaginary fuckers go watch this now, but
hurry back and be sure to bring your death certificate (I am so sad).
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