Genre: Thriller/ Horror
Related Titles: Haunting of Winchester House, Shelter, Predestination
By Leanne Harragan
Lying just outside of San Francisco is 'the most haunted house in the world' built by heir to the Winchester company fortune Sarah Winchester. At over seven stories and with more than a hundred rooms, the ever-growing house is a mystery to everyone. Except Sarah herself who knows that it's home to hundreds of ghosts.
It has a hell of a trailer and a pretty big name actress (Helen Mirren) attached to it bit as a fully fledged, well developed thriller/scary film, it does miss the mark a little. It is scary and has a lot of jumpy moments but as the film goes on these become more and more predictable. The first few jumps are good because they draw your attention away from where you think the scare will be and get you elsewhere.
As a whole the film is decent, while I liked the plot, I did feel that it lost focus halfway through and took the audience down a slightly different route and then at the end remembered the original motive and worked it's way back. I particularly liked the anti-gun message the film has within the plot, given the gun crime rate in American this is definitely a worthy message to entwine in the film.
The acting from both leads Jason Clarke (Dr. Price) and Helen Mirren (Mrs. Winchester) carry this film and make it what it is because of the slightly more intricate nature to their characters. For a film like this they were a lot more developed than usual and had more to their character than meets the eye. Their co-stars also were good and the cast help make this film that little bit more scary.
As a story based on 'true events' you are always a little more on edge but the ending completely undermines this and basically cancels out the opening statement that it is based on a true story. It's not the best thriller film I've ever seen but it has well developed characters which makes a nice change for this genre.
Rating: 6.5/10
By Rebecca Mannick
While I generally don't like horror movies this was one of the better ones I've seen in recent. It was very well balanced in that it had a good enough storyline so that it didn't have to be carried by the horror and scare factor. It had you gripped so that the jump scares were fairly terrifying and in some cases quite unexpected. Knowing that the story was 'inspired by true events' just gives you the chills, but I am doubting how true that is - as to me it is quite unbelievable.
Without giving too much away it was interesting to see how Dr Price (Jason Clarke) intertwined into the plot. Although it was pretty obvious in why he was summoned to the Winchester estate it was good to see it all pan out. In my opinion Clarke really carried the story telling and his character was also complex and complicated which is such a bonus. I tend to find that most characters in horror films are very much one dimensional which does make it hard to engage.
While I've been praising this movie, I have still rated it a very average 6.5. While there are some jumpy moments, I wasn't shook to the cores or anything like that. I also didn't like that at the end they kind of made the supernatural element to the story redundant. If they wouldn't have said anything it would still leave the audience with something to think about rather than falsifying the story.
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