Winchester (2018)

The story of the Winchester house is quite famous and likely ripe for a good scary movie to be made about it. Unfortunately this one isn’t it. The main problem is the story. I think there is likely a good story in this legend somewhere I’m just not sure this film finds it.

The tale of bringing in a doctor with his own issues to evaluate the famous Ms. Winchester’s sanity in the wake of her never ending renovations to her mansion is a good starting place that does not go anywhere, like much of her house. Soon into the staged gothic set up the film becomes fairly standard PG-13 ghost story fare. There are a lot of loud noises and jump scares that lead to nothing, a possessed child, and a fairly safe predicatable conclusion. It has all been seen before.

I think the film is on to something though. The idea of those profiting off violence being haunted by the spirits of the victims of that violence is fascinating. The film basically uses this for set up and never explores the implications of this. Perhaps that would have been truly scary.

Winchester
Starring: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke
Directors: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Writers: Tom Vaughn, Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig