Trailer for Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built.
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 day 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.
Here is some history on the actual Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA:
Moving to California from New Haven, Connecticut, Sarah Winchester bought what was originally an eight-room farm house on 44 acres in 1884. She was heir to half the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. following the death of her husband, William Wirt Winchester, in 1881. They had one daughter who died as an infant in 1866.
The mansion has 160 rooms spanning 24,000 square feet. There are 47 fireplaces, 40 stairways, six kitchens and three elevators in the mansion. Many of the stairways feature short “easy riser” steps because Winchester’s arthritis only allowed her to lift her feet a few inches. The house had reached a height of 7 stories before the 1906 earthquake, which toppled the top three floors of the highest tower. Following the earthquake, Winchester is said to have ordered work stopped on the damaged portions of the house, which were boarded up. Sarah Winchester died Sept. 5, 1922, and the house was opened to the public in February 1923.
The Winchester House was added to the National Register of Historical Places and designated California Historical Landmark No. 868 in 1974.
I have been the actual Winchester Mystery House many times and it is absolutely fascinating. The history behind the landmark is amazing and the quirkiness blows me away each time I go there. I have also been on a night tour and there is something definitely spooky about the mansion...a great reason to make a horror film about the house.
So, the premise for the film strikes an accord for me. And then you add Jason Clarke and Helen Mirren as the actors and that looks to be a recipe for success.
My trepidation is going to be how the story develops throughout the film and if there will be enough to keep the film interesting. We have seen the haunted house idea time and time again, so with Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built there needs to be something different and ending that justifies making another haunted house film.