Winchester: Based on a true story but this telling is rather embellished. Never mind, the additions make for a solid if
quotidian Horror Film. Psychiatrist Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is addicted to laudanum and living a dissolute lifestyle when he is offered a much needed job by the legal counsel for the Winchester Company. They want him to assess the sanity of Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren) who owns 51% of the company's shares. The Board will double his fee if he produces the "right" report. Sarah has been building a house for over 20 years, adding and demolishing rooms and wings, with construction teams working 24/7. That doesn't bother the Winchester Directors but Sarah is also forcing them to diversify from rifles into manufacturing roller blades.
Sarah believes that she and her house are haunted by the ghosts of victims of the Winchester repeating rifle. The rooms are for ghosts, when they finally find peace the rooms are demolished and the ghosts move on. But now a deadlier spirit (Eamon Farren) has arrived is possessing young Henry (Finn Scicluna-O'Prey), son of Marion Marriott (Sarah Snook), Sarah Winchester's niece and secretary. Eric finds that this won't such an easy job after all.
So the battle begins, this spirit is also a poltergeist and is talented at throwing people around. We get many of the usual nasty spirit tropes and a butler who resembles Lurch from The Addams Family. Acting is generally good but this isn't Mirren's most demanding role, Finn Scicluna-O'Prey does impress as Henry. The House is perhaps the real star with set design/decoration by Michael Bell/Vanessa Cerne. Superb makeup/prosthetics by Aracelli Frias/Samantha Lyttle on the deadly spirit and other ghosts. The cinematography (Ben Nott) and film editing (Mark Villa) is impressive but doesn't quite make up for the pedestrian direction by Michael & Peter Spierig. So just 7/10.
Sarah believes that she and her house are haunted by the ghosts of victims of the Winchester repeating rifle. The rooms are for ghosts, when they finally find peace the rooms are demolished and the ghosts move on. But now a deadlier spirit (Eamon Farren) has arrived is possessing young Henry (Finn Scicluna-O'Prey), son of Marion Marriott (Sarah Snook), Sarah Winchester's niece and secretary. Eric finds that this won't such an easy job after all.
So the battle begins, this spirit is also a poltergeist and is talented at throwing people around. We get many of the usual nasty spirit tropes and a butler who resembles Lurch from The Addams Family. Acting is generally good but this isn't Mirren's most demanding role, Finn Scicluna-O'Prey does impress as Henry. The House is perhaps the real star with set design/decoration by Michael Bell/Vanessa Cerne. Superb makeup/prosthetics by Aracelli Frias/Samantha Lyttle on the deadly spirit and other ghosts. The cinematography (Ben Nott) and film editing (Mark Villa) is impressive but doesn't quite make up for the pedestrian direction by Michael & Peter Spierig. So just 7/10.