Review of Winchester

Rating: 6

Release Date: February 2, 2018

Director: The Spierig Brothers

Actors: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke and Sarah Snook

Country of origin: USA

1 hour 39 minutes

Summary (lots and lots of spoilers)

This movie is a suspense/ horror film that centers around the true story of Sarah Winchester, a rich gun making company owner, and the 7 story mansion she builds with the help of ghosts that were killed by her company's rifles. For every ghost that has unfinished business in this world Sarah recreates the room the ghost died in and helps them find peace. The ghosts that are inconsolable get locked away in their rooms like a naught 15 year old and have a wooden bar with 13 nails in it keeping them locked in until they are ready to play nice.

One day her company decides that she has gone over the deep end of crazy and contract a doctor to evaluate her state of mind in hopes of seizing control of her company. When the doctor arrives he steps into a whole lot of trouble, one of the ghosts whose room is in construction is pissed and is taking its anger out on Sarah's young nephew. The ghost mascarades as one of the servants and terrorizes the young boy and his family. The doctor watches on from the sidelines trying to decide if he himself is losing his mind or if the super natural actually do exist.

The doctor has a dark past of his own, his late wife who suffers from mental illness tried to kill herself with a Winchester rifle, she accidentally shoots the doctor and then succeeds in killing herself. The doctor is dead for 3 minutes but then ultimately survives the ordeal and lovingly restores the bullet that shot him and keeps it in his pocket like a weird little souvenir of his last moments with his late wife.

As the story moves on the doctor eventually comes to terms with the existence of the paranormal and even gets one last date with his dead wife where they relive the happy memory of her shooting him and then herself with a Winchester rifle. She then helps the doctor to get to Sarah as the ghost is attacking her and all of the residents of the house. The doctor and Sarah fight the ghost together discovering that the reason that the doctor can see the ghosts is because he himself was temporarily killed by a Winchester rifle and also discovers that the only way to destroy this pissed off ghost is to shoot it with the bullet that he had previously been shot with.

The ghost is dead the house pretty much destroyed and everyone is freaked out but Sarah sends all of the escaped ghosts back to their rooms and doesn't waste any time in starting the reconstruction of the house. The doctor gives Sarah a clean bill of health/ sanity and goes on his merry way.

Review

This movie was fun to watch even though I didn't find it particularly scary i did enjoy the fact that it was based of real people and a real haunted house. I thought that making the servant turn out to be the real ghost in the end was clever and that it was fun reflecting on the moments the ghost avoided serving the doctor a drink. Nonetheless it was a little predictable and there was a lack of suspense in the movie. The acting wasn't bad but the doctor (Jason Clarke) fell a little flat for me during this movie, I would have like to see a little more expression on his part. Sarah Winchester (Sarah Snook) did a lovely performance and did a nice portrayal of the cooky rich widow that hears ghosts. The story made sense and was easy to follow, I think they could have explained a little more about Sarah's family and their deaths. At the end of the day this movie is worth a watch and you will probably like it but you will be able to turn the lights off at night when you sleep and leave your leg hanging off the side of the bed.

Picture of the real Sarah Winchester

Picture of the actual Winchester Mansion located in San Jose, California

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