Winchester

Parental Rating: PG-13

Contains: Violence    Drug Use    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens February 2, 2018

Runs 99 minutes

Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren) is the eccentric heiress to the Winchester Repeating Rifle fortune. She spends her days, her nights and her money continually renovating and adding on to her huge mansion. You see, she believes that she can commune with ghosts and that the ghosts of those killed by Winchester weapons need to be locked away in rooms of her haunted mansion. In 1906, the Board of the Winchester company hires Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) to stay with Sarah for a few days to assess her mental stabilty. They would like to see her removed as head of the company. Dr Price thinks this is all just a bunch of craziness and hopes to make a quick buck as he recovers from a tragedy of his own. Only, Dr. Price soon learns that Sarah is not crazy and maybe there really are ghosts haunting this mansion.

This movie is loosely based on true events. Sarah Winchester was the heiress of the Winchester fortune and she really did build a huge mansion, seven stories tall with hundreds of rooms, just outside of San Francisco. You can still visit it today and it is considered one of the most haunted houses in America. The rest of the film is built around that house. It is a very average movie. I thought Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke did fine jobs in their roles. I just thought the film was slow (not a good sign when the movie is only 99 minutes long to begin with) and not scary in the least. There are a few things that might make you jump. But, this is really a slow ghost story. I guess I wanted a little more scare for my buck. There is also a very heavy-handed jab at guns and the damage they can do. Nothing like a little poitical message in your ghost story. So, I would say skip this one. Maybe watch it at home one night when you have nothing else to do.

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