Review: Winchester's Spirits Serve Up Small Scares

What Wickedness Awaits Us in Winchester?!

The lore and legends surrounding the Winchester Mystery House in California is a paranormal enthusiasts catnip. Is the mansion the masterpiece of a mad woman? Or is it really the product of spirits? Is it made from the final demands of the souls who had their lives snuffed out by the ubiquitous Winchester rifles?

Ok so, confession: paranormal and supernatural goings on are my jam. I’m hooked on Halloween and I go gaga over ghosts and I’m totally transparent about my love for ”true”stories about hauntings (I have over a dozen books in my own collection, just saying) and ghost hunting reality tv is my guilty pleasure.

My expectations for Winchester were HIGH. As is my threshold for horror.On this blog alone I wrote about Winchester no less than two separate times. Now that I’ve got that out of the way, aaaalllll aboard the review train!!

Winchester is a period film crossed with a paranormal thriller. It’s the turn of the century, 1906 to be exact, when Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is dispatched to San Jose, California to gauge the sanity of the Winchester matriarch. Her business partners are more than a little wary that the eccentric heiresses fascination with the occult and Spiritualism could put the company in jeopardy.

Winchester follows the blueprint set by horror movies that have come before it: jump scares and CGI creations abound. Some are just visceral enough to make us squeal and clap our hands up to cover our eyes. But most of them, aside from bumping our hearts up a notch in that single moment, have a very short shelf life. This is not a slow-burn horror like the atmospheric Crimson Peak or the eerie oscar ‘nom Get Out.

The plot, while sturdy enough to keep the movie upright, isn’t particularly elaborate. It’s the whale bone corset of a Victorian woman’s wardrobe: functional but not some impressive masterpiece of say, a ball gown. Visually, it’s the design of the Winchester Mystery House and the attention to detail in the period clothing that keeps our eyes glued to the screen.

The antiquated furniture, posh parlours and  the  maze of corridors with severe staircases slashed left and right at harsh angles conjure up a frightful aesthetic. The outside of the house as well, a sprawling jigsaw of climbing stories and rooms jutting out kicks up our discomfort and unease. It’s the condemned conservatory room though, with its frosted glass and dilapidated structure that is one of the most disturbing and unnerving things about the Winchester house.

The filmmakers and writers don’t let the opportunity to feature this room in all its freakish glory slip by. One of the scariest scenes takes place here and it’s glorious! It brings to light a part of Price we never expected and brings the narrative full circle. It’s one of the most carefully crafted and purposefully plotted moments, it shines like a beacon through the horror movie white noise. If only more of Winchester’s narrative was like this scene!

Winchester is first and foremost Sarah and Price’s story.  Moments after meeting Sarah, garbed in lacy and frilly widow blacks, white-blond hair carefully curled and tucked in sweeping lengths of a black veil, Price is forced to admit to himself the eloquent, finely dressed and articulate Sarah Winchester is a far cry from a wild-eyed mad woman her business partners fear she is becoming.

But the good doctor, skeptic thought he may be, is plagued by his own demons. Heartache and the numbing embrace of drink and Laudanum keep the the reality of his life blurry and deepens the intrigue of the sprawling Winchester manor. Are the horrific visions Price sees once he arrives merely delusions and distortions from his foggy and drugged up brain? Or is something far more sinister behind it?

Both of the other main characters Henry (Finn Scicluna O’Prey) and his mother Marion (Sarah Snook) are more like props than actual protagonists. They’re subjected to the whims of the paranormal and we’re given the most bare bones of explanations about them. Marion is Sarah’s daughter-in-law, and she and Henry and Sarah’s last living relatives. But for the people most precious to her, this mother-son duo is mostly window dressing.

We get a few blood curdling scenes where Henry, face obscured by a ratty burlap sack, trudges around the mansion when the clock strikes midnight. His body manipulated like a marionette. As far as child actors go Henry has that uncanny, precocious quality that other Hollywood “haunted” kids have had, think: Danny Torrance in The Shining and Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense. Unlike those boys Henry’s performance is decidedly diluted. He’s the obligatory creepy child role on the horror movie checklist, it’s predictable at best, lazy writing at worst.  And don’t get me started on the misfortune Henry has of wearing a very obvious ginger wig.

All things considered Winchester’s storyline is rather skeletal. Although the visual narrative is aesthetically pleasing, so many opportunities to showcase the eccentric architecture and the eeriness of the dark estate are missed. Some of the creepiest curiosities like the spider designs in the glass window panes don’t even make an appearance. We do see some of the chilling and peculiar corridors. But the rest of the house with its secret seance rooms, stairs to nowhere and doors that open onto walls are totally ignored or only appear for a wink. The opportunity to make the mystery house as much of a character as the people who reside in it is missed.

One of the greatest missteps of the movie is how the filmmakers  magnify the violence and rage of one malevolent spirit: a Confederate soldier (Eamon Farren) with a chip on his shoulder. It blurs out what could be a more complex tapestry of backstories and antagonists only to show us just a single, tiny corner of the fabric. Instead of getting tripped up in trying to do too much at once, Winchester’s fatal flaw is how it latches onto a single concept. Another misstep? A wonky shift in the tone from eerie ambiance to straight up absurd. Example: possessions scenes. Movies with possessions can scare the crap out of many of us (The Exorcist, anyone?) but when voice changers (think the ones criminals use on phones to hide their identity in the dime dozen police procedural cable tv) come into the mix and are used as the vehicle, a moment that could be hair raising instead becomes hilarious. And for a movie like Winchester which takes itself so seriously this can only be described as the final nail in the coffin.

Winchester has potential to push the limits of horror and scare us out of our wits. But instead, it rushes. It serves us up a tidily packaged conclusion, ignoring the many questions swarming around our head. And unlike some of the other more enduring horror flicks there’s a distinct whiff of expiration that hangs about Winchester. It’s not going to go the distance as a classic, but instead will most likely be cast off, gathering dust. Will it achieve cult favourite status? Ehh. Not likely.

The cross over that never was!

So those high expectations I had? Shattered. Like a sledgehammer to an ankle. Winchester, oh how you Annie Wilkes-ed me! The horror! So when it comes down to it, do I regret going to see it? Actually, no. I don’t. I caught a bargain screening of Winchester on a rainy Sunday afternoon  with my sister and fellow horror aficionado, Rachel. It definitely didn’t blow my mind (or Rach’s either) but, my Misery reference aside, this escapist story was an enjoyable reprieve from an otherwise damp and gloomy day.It however doesn’t NEED to be seen on the big screen. Unless you’re especially tempted by a tepid thriller you’re better off waiting for its release on Netflix & DVD, watching the spirits and the manor’s mayhem on the small screen.

Photos from IMDB, aside from last one from movieweb