‘Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built’ Trailer: Helen Mirren Vs. 500 Ghosts
As someone with an unhealthy addiction to Travel Channel specials on America’s most famous haunted houses, I’ve been wondering for ages when someone would get around to making a movie based on the legend of the Winchester mansion. And here we are.
Winchester: The House That Ghosts Builttakes one of the more intriguing ghost stories of the past century or so and builds it into a movie. It certainly helps that the greatHelen Mirren, who seems to be discovering a Liam Neeson-esque love for genre fare at this stage of her career, is front-and-center as Sarah Winchester, the eccentric owner of a very famous “haunted” residence.Winchester: The House That Ghosts Builtis written and directed byMichael and Peter Spierig, the directors of the scrappy 2003 zombieUndead, the very clever 2009 vampire movieDaybreakers, and the very good and wildly under-appreciated 2014 sci-fi mind-benderPredestination. They’ve also been tasked with reviving theSawseries withJigsaw, which hits theaters this Friday. That’s two horror movies hitting theaters in the span of just a few months – these guys are keeping busy.
Winchester Trailer
And…it looks like a fairly standard haunted house movie, albeit a standard haunted house movie with a great location and some killer actors.
Located in San Jose, California, the “Winchester Mystery House” (as it has been called) has served as the inspiration for numerous horror stories. The mansion was built from the ground-up to be deliberately confusing, with doors opening to nothing and stairs going nowhere and other bizarre architectural choices. According to legends, this was because Sarah Winchester, the heiress to the Winchester firearm fortune, believed she was being haunted by the ghosts of everyone killed by the guns bearing her family name. Naturally, this meant building a house that would confuse the angry spirits and keep her safe.
This has since been debunked as an exaggeration (Sarah Winchester was an eccentric, not a woman at constant war with ghosts via remodeling), but it’s still one hell of a story and could make for one hell of a movie. The presence of Mirren as Winchester is a great start, but she’s backed up by the reliably greatJason Clarkeand the frequently underutilizedSarah Snook(who is so incredible in the Spierig Brothers’Predestination), making this one very strong ensemble for a haunted house movie.
Winchester: The House That Ghosts Builtis set to arrive onFebruary 2, 2018. Here’s the official synopsis:
