Wrought iron gate in front of a Victorian-style house with signs for "Stand-by Entry" and "Lightning Lane.

UPDATE: Disney Still Looking to Remove Hanging Corpse from Haunted Mansion’s Stretching Room, Just Not Yet

Shannen Ace

The hanging corpse in The Haunted Mansion’s stretching room at Disneyland will still be hanging when the ride reopens on Saturday, January 18 — but Walt Disney Imagineering is still thinking about removing the figure.

Disney Still Looking to Remove Hanging Corpse from Stretching Room

A three-story mansion is illuminated at night, featuring intricate wrought-iron balconies, tall columns, and surrounded by trees. Moonlight is visible in the cloudy sky.

Disney has been discussing removing or changing the potentially triggering moment since at least 2021. During this most recent closure of The Haunted Mansion, there were once again rumors they would change the scene. A new story about updates to The Haunted Mansion by the Los Angeles Times confirms it hasn’t been changed yet.

The LA Times writes:

And there may still be more work to do inside the Mansion. When Imagineering last made updates to the attraction in 2021, Irvine’s team spoke of potentially removing the hanging corpse in the stretching room, noting such an image could be triggering for some guests. “We’re still looking at that,” Irvine says. “That one is complicated, structurally … One thing at a time.”

kim-irvine-muppets-haunted-mansion

The quoted Imagineer is creative director Kim Irvine. She’s referencing the difficulties of actually removing the figure, not to mention changing the scene’s ending entirely, which suggests the Ghost Host committed suicide by hanging to escape the stretching room. The “ceiling” of the stretching room is a scrim, with lighting effects revealing the body hanging from the real ceiling’s rafters at the climax of the pre-show.

A Jack Skellington puppet from "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is seen from above, with a dark background.

When The Haunted Mansion becomes the Haunted Mansion Holiday during the holiday season, the hanging corpse scene is covered by a tarp and projections. Rumors suggested Disney was considering leaving the tarp and adding new projections for the regular version of the ride.

In 2023, most nooses were removed from Phantom Manor, the Disneyland Paris version of The Haunted Mansion.

This conversation has been happening since at least 2021, when Michele Hobbs, who managed the attraction’s refurbishment that year, told the LA Times that the change has “been discussed for sure” and is “definitely something that we’re thinking about.

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