With attendance apparently down at Disney’s theme parks since Sept. 11, 2001, the resourceful Mouse has started to send out movie versions of its attractions.

First came The Country Bears, which flopped. Next came Pirates of the Caribbean, which didn’t.

Now along comes The Haunted Mansion, which certainly deserves to.

The theme-park version of Disney’s Haunted Mansion is a hoot because it takes the horror-movie cliche of “the old haunted house” and plays it for laughs — plus a few cheap thrills.

The movie version, which opens today, tries to do the same. But the laughs are so pale that they seem like the ghosts of laughs.

Eddie Murphy stars as Jim Evers, a New Orleans real-estate go-getter whose latest prospect is a fixer-upper of a mansion.

Actually, it’s Sara Evers, Jim’s wife and business partner, who has a shot at the listing. But when Sara goes to meet the owner, Jim and their two kids tag along.

The owner is the dashing-but-creepy Edward Gracey. He and his butler, the just-plain-creepy Ramsley, have ulterior motives that the Everses only discover after torrential rains force them to spend the night at the mansion.

Directed by Rob Minkoff (Stuart Little) from a script by David Berenbaum (the much-superior Elf), The Haunted Mansion incorporates a lot of gimmicks from the attraction. These include the crystal ball with a gypsy’s head inside and the attraction’s most beautiful effect, the sight of ghostly partiers waltzing.

But these effects don’t translate well to film; or, rather, they look just like the special effects in every other movie.

The PG-rated The Haunted Mansion is obviously aimed at grade-schoolers: There’s a corny, overstated message here about conquering your fears, a message that focuses attention on the younger Evers child.

But like Pirates of the Caribbean this past summer, the new film contains material that, while tame by adult standards, is inappropriate for younger children.

The Haunted Mansion is disappointing in just about every way.

The Orlando Sentinel is a Tribune Co. newspaper.

MOVIE REVIEW

** (out of four stars) The Haunted Mansion — With Eddie Murphy, Marsha Thomason, Terrence Stamp. Directed by Rob Minkoff. Running time: 98 minutes. Rated PG: Frightening images, thematic elements and language.