Film Review: Winchester
Genre: Biography, Fantasy, Horror
Cert: 15 cert
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Screenwriter: (re-writes) Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig, Tom Vaughan
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sarah Snook, Jason Clarke, Angus Sampson, Bruce Spence, Eamon Farren, Laura Brent, Tyler Coppin, Emma Wiseman, Thor Carlsson, Jeffrey W. Jenkins, Dawayne Jordan, Xavier Gouault, Alice Chaston, Homero Lopez, Finn Scicluna-O'Prey, Jeff Lipary,
Running time: 1h 39min
Parents advised reading before viewing the film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.
Sex & Nudity: A man and woman kiss and it is suggested that she is his mistress/call girl.
Violence & Gore: A child wields a rifle and fires it multiple times at an old woman as she cowers in fear and begs for her life. He shoots very close to her head. points it directly at her face and pulls the trigger but no bullet is fired.
Part of a building collapses as characters run for safety. A couple of people are hit and killed by falling debris. One dead man is seen with a distorted face.
A woman attempts to commit suicide by rifle to the head, a man interrupts her but he is shot in the chest, bullet hole shown but no blood. The woman commits suicide but it is not shown on screen.
A man shoots at several ghostly spirits that are attacking him in various ways, no impacts or blood is ever shown
Profanity: Very little to none.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Two characters are addicted to drugs, drug use (ingestion) is shown 2 or 3 times.
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Expected UK rating, 12a for moderate violence, bloody moments and moderate horror
Approximately a dozen jump scares including both ghosts and other humans, the ghosts will be disturbing to children under 12 but may be frightening to inexperienced teenagers as well.
Story: Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms.
To the outsider, it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman's madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters.
Likes: (Brief history) if you don't know about the mansion its self, The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester. Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd.
in San Jose, the Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size, its architectural curiosities, and its lack of any master building plan. It is a designated California historical landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is privately owned and serves as a tourist attraction.
But certain events while Sarah was alive it was believed that the spirits communicated to her to build certain rooms for each victim of the rifle, for this she was believed to be cursed by the ghost of the people that were shot and kill by the famous American rifle, one of which was meant to be a very angry demonic entity bent on vengeance.
Hence the reason most of the room was nailed shut with 13 nails, which is part of the holy trinity to protect the house and keep the ghost or entity in the rooms.
Winchester is inspired by these events during Sarah Winchester's life as we see from the event the Winchester company though she was losing her mind, so in order to call for her retirement from the company, they sent a doctor who clearly has his own demons.
It from here we learn and understand what going on with Sarah and the house, bare in mind that, what is shown in this film isn't quite what happened in real life, some scene are given more dramatic effect for the audience. This is so the film doesn't come off boring, but as a belief of the paranormal, I can honestly say the real events would have been more frightening because the demonic spirits don't mess around.
Having a dark spirit that hell-bent on revenge is no laughing matter, the film is good in places with Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke performance making the film just about watchable as some areas of the film we're a little bit of a letdown, although Sarah Snook has done her best with what she was given, I do feel her character could've been better used.
The special effects and lighting give the dark corners atmosphere which adds to the films spookiness, I wonder if they actually filmed on location at the house look just like the one still standing, so I bet if this is the fact, there have to be a few stories from the staff working on the film.
AS ive said this film isn't as bad as most people are making it be, ya its good but it, not a great film, probably worth waiting for it on DVD if im honest, but all in all it was a watchable film.
Dislikes: Film had a lot of potentials to be more than what we were given, I do feel there is some research gone into the story behind this film but I do feel there wasn't a lot.
The film does suffer the cheesy horror tropes with predictable jump scare moments that you can see coming, which doesnt make this a true horror because they've used cheap scare tactics with sound effect to scare the audience which lets this film down.
Overall: Good story, great performances, just slightly let down by cheap scare tactics
Rating: 4.3 out of 5 for Entertainment / 7.3 out of 10 for inspiring story
Cert: 15 cert
Director: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Screenwriter: (re-writes) Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig, Tom Vaughan
Starring: Helen Mirren, Sarah Snook, Jason Clarke, Angus Sampson, Bruce Spence, Eamon Farren, Laura Brent, Tyler Coppin, Emma Wiseman, Thor Carlsson, Jeffrey W. Jenkins, Dawayne Jordan, Xavier Gouault, Alice Chaston, Homero Lopez, Finn Scicluna-O'Prey, Jeff Lipary,
Running time: 1h 39min
Parents advised reading before viewing the film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.
Sex & Nudity: A man and woman kiss and it is suggested that she is his mistress/call girl.
Violence & Gore: A child wields a rifle and fires it multiple times at an old woman as she cowers in fear and begs for her life. He shoots very close to her head. points it directly at her face and pulls the trigger but no bullet is fired.
Part of a building collapses as characters run for safety. A couple of people are hit and killed by falling debris. One dead man is seen with a distorted face.
A woman attempts to commit suicide by rifle to the head, a man interrupts her but he is shot in the chest, bullet hole shown but no blood. The woman commits suicide but it is not shown on screen.
A man shoots at several ghostly spirits that are attacking him in various ways, no impacts or blood is ever shown
Profanity: Very little to none.
Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking: Two characters are addicted to drugs, drug use (ingestion) is shown 2 or 3 times.
Frightening/Intense Scenes: Expected UK rating, 12a for moderate violence, bloody moments and moderate horror
Approximately a dozen jump scares including both ghosts and other humans, the ghosts will be disturbing to children under 12 but may be frightening to inexperienced teenagers as well.
Story: Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven days a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms.
To the outsider, it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman's madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters.
Likes: (Brief history) if you don't know about the mansion its self, The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California, that was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester. Located at 525 South Winchester Blvd.
in San Jose, the Queen Anne Style Victorian mansion is renowned for its size, its architectural curiosities, and its lack of any master building plan. It is a designated California historical landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is privately owned and serves as a tourist attraction.
But certain events while Sarah was alive it was believed that the spirits communicated to her to build certain rooms for each victim of the rifle, for this she was believed to be cursed by the ghost of the people that were shot and kill by the famous American rifle, one of which was meant to be a very angry demonic entity bent on vengeance.
Hence the reason most of the room was nailed shut with 13 nails, which is part of the holy trinity to protect the house and keep the ghost or entity in the rooms.
Winchester is inspired by these events during Sarah Winchester's life as we see from the event the Winchester company though she was losing her mind, so in order to call for her retirement from the company, they sent a doctor who clearly has his own demons.
It from here we learn and understand what going on with Sarah and the house, bare in mind that, what is shown in this film isn't quite what happened in real life, some scene are given more dramatic effect for the audience. This is so the film doesn't come off boring, but as a belief of the paranormal, I can honestly say the real events would have been more frightening because the demonic spirits don't mess around.
Having a dark spirit that hell-bent on revenge is no laughing matter, the film is good in places with Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke performance making the film just about watchable as some areas of the film we're a little bit of a letdown, although Sarah Snook has done her best with what she was given, I do feel her character could've been better used.
The special effects and lighting give the dark corners atmosphere which adds to the films spookiness, I wonder if they actually filmed on location at the house look just like the one still standing, so I bet if this is the fact, there have to be a few stories from the staff working on the film.
AS ive said this film isn't as bad as most people are making it be, ya its good but it, not a great film, probably worth waiting for it on DVD if im honest, but all in all it was a watchable film.
Dislikes: Film had a lot of potentials to be more than what we were given, I do feel there is some research gone into the story behind this film but I do feel there wasn't a lot.
The film does suffer the cheesy horror tropes with predictable jump scare moments that you can see coming, which doesnt make this a true horror because they've used cheap scare tactics with sound effect to scare the audience which lets this film down.
Overall: Good story, great performances, just slightly let down by cheap scare tactics
Rating: 4.3 out of 5 for Entertainment / 7.3 out of 10 for inspiring story
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