Remember Death: Disney's Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion is particularly popular during the month of October at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. The classic dark ride seeks to walk the line between truly scary and family-friendly fun.

On the one hand, the back-story premise of the house is rather dark: A woman who consecutively murders seven husbands, resulting in a house that is spiritually marked by bloodshed. Early in the ride there is a séance scene that makes me uncomfortable: I take the occult seriously enough not to want to be a part of it even in jest.

However, by the end of the ride the tone has turned much lighter. The un-entombed bodies in the graveyard are enjoying a party, not truly threatening anyone, and the over-dramatized narrator makes it clear that the whole effect is a tongue and cheek joke rather than a true experience of horror. By the time guests leave with a "hitchhiking ghost," any sense of evil has been replaced by playful fun.

The Haunted Mansion causes us to ask the question: Why are we so fascinated with death? Whether we are flirting with the dark side of our fears, or seeking to defuse those fears by turning them into a joke, we cannot escape the uncanniness of death. If humanity were a mere animal, all body and no spirit as some claim, our interest in death would make no sense. As it is, our sense of being both repulsed by death and drawn to it in creations like the Haunted Mansion teaches us two things.

First, we have a longing for justice. The whole concept of a "haunting" arises from our deep-down belief that some things are so evil—including murder—that they must be made right, even beyond the grave. We imagine the spirits of the dead haunting the land of the living, because our own spirits do not sit right with violence and bloodshed. In that sense, The Haunted Mansion points us toward the Final Judgment, when our faith assures us that the Judge of the Universe will punish the wrong and reward the right. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans, "And this is the message I proclaim—that the day is coming when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge everyone’s secret life." (Rom. 2:16) No one gets away with murder.

Second, we hope for not merely life after death, as disembodied spirits; we hope for the resurrection. The Church has often not done a good job of teaching this doctrine, but we confess together in the Apostle's Creed, "I believe in the resurrection of the body." The reason is simple: Jesus Christ himself has already pioneered the way for us. Jesus rose not as zombie, nor angel, nor spirit, but as a fully embodied, fully alive man, capable of enjoying food and touching those whom he loved. To be sure, his body was transformed and glorified, but his followers had no doubt the tomb was empty that first Easter morning. "But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died." (1 Cor. 15:20)

Outside the Haunted Mansion is a gift shop named with the classic Latin phrase, memento mori—"remember death." It is a truth of the Christian faith that all of us should be mindful of death in order to prepare our souls for the final judgment. However, the greater truth that this ride reminds us of is that, because of Jesus, we can have the last laugh when it comes to death. "Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
    O death, where is your sting?”
(1 Cor. 15:54-55)