Disney’s new “Haunted Ride” film adaptation fails to move the spirit

Perhaps in 2043, Disney will make a top-notch movie based on its Haunted Mansion theme park ride.

Powered by a typically engaging performance by its star, Eddie Murphy, 2003’s “The Haunted Mansion” performed pretty well at the box office, but it is a rather meandering affair.

The second “Haunted Mansion” — in theaters this week, a few months shy of 20 years later — weaves a mostly different tale but is a similarly slightly scary-meets-family-friendly romp boasting a highly appealing ensemble led by Rosario Dawson, LaKeith Stanfield, Tiffany Haddish and Owen Wilson.

It’s also similarly ho-hum.

That’s disappointing given not only its cast — which also features Danny DeVito, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Jared Leto — but also its flavorful New Orleans setting and its director, Justin Simien, who wrote and directed 2014’s “Dear White People,” as well as episodes of the TV series of the same name.

Things start out well enough, with our introduction to Ben (Stanfield), an astrophysicist, who, in a bar on New Year’s Eve, meets Alyssa (Charity Jordan), who leads ghost tours. They bond over how each, in his or her own way, strives to see the unseen.

Simien then cuts to Ben perched on a barstool, waking up from a booze-fueled nap year later. He proceeds to lead his late wife’s former endeavor, calling it a “historical walking tour” and grumpily telling those taking part there will be “no ghost stories.”

We then meet widowed doctor Gabbie (Dawson), relocating to The Big Easy — “a paranormal place … where death is not an ending but a new beginning,” as a narrator informs us — with 9-year-old son Travis (Chase W. Dillon) to open a bed and breakfast in a history-rich mansion. It quickly becomes apparent to them they are not alone in the vacant house, causing her to abandon her plans and leave with Travis.

Only temporarily, however.

Ben is recruited by a concerned priest, Father Kent (Wilson), to visit with Gabbie in the house and to use a camera he’d developed that theoretically should be able to capture images of any spirits lingering about the place.

Taking the gig for its sizeable payday, Ben is greeted by Maddie at the front door, the woman calmly warning him about the dangers that come with entering the house, concerns the nonbeliever dismisses. He takes his duties here less than seriously and assures Gabbie she and her son simply are victims of the power of suggestion.