An infamous haunted house gets the big screen treatment in Winchester, but can the film live up to the insanity of the legends?
The Winchester Mystery House, now a tourist attraction, was once the home of rifle heiress Sarah Winchester. The story goes that she had a mental breakdown after the deaths of her child, husband, and father-in-law, leaving her with a massive fortune and one bizarre delusion: that she was cursed by the ghosts of those who had died by Winchester rifles, and the only way to placate them was to build an endless, labyrinthine mansion.
The movie seems to be taking the legend as fact, throwing in a skeptical doctor and letting the horror machinations play out. There’s little reason to change the story; it’s hung around in popular culture for over a century, and its appeal shows no sign of waning.
They’ve still got to form the wispy tale into a narrative, though, otherwise the exciting premise will be wasted. The good news is that the project landed Helen Mirren to play the troubled heiress, so even if everything else goes wrong, you’ll still have Helen Mirren with a mansion full of scenery to chew.
Brothers Michael and Peter Spierig are helming the project, and with a background in genre films, it’s hard to imagine they’ll let this ripe setup go to waste.
Winchester is directed by Michael and Peter Spierig and stars Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, and Sarah Snook. It will be released in the U.S. and the U.K. on February 2nd, 2018. For international release dates, click here.
Do you think Winchester will be as good as the legends? Let us know in the comments!
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