Winchester (2018)

It has been a crazy few days as I have been spending quite a bit of time finding new items for The Ringmaster’s Realm and preparing for the Too Groovy Toy Show in May. I have found some awesome items recently and should have a wide variety of material available at the show. Fortunately, while I am working on things, I can usually find some time to squeeze in a movie or two. The next one up is the 2018 entry Winchester.

Plot/ 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, 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, 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.

When I first saw this was coming out, I was apprehensive. Not only didn’t the commercials really inspire me, the idea of what the storyline might be could go in many different directions. Both items that were show stoppers for me. Now that I have watched it, I have found that my initial feelings were justified. More of a supernatural drama, than horror movie, this one just seems to plod along at a snail’s pace. Honestly, it lacks any type of atmosphere and scares are non-existent. This one is more of a character study, focusing one the back-stories of the characters and how they are woven into the mysterious house and legend. Yes, the cast is good, and their performances are solid, but they do really nothing to bring this one to life in a truly entertaining manner. I will say that the cinematography and production values of this film is top notch, with a ton of effort put into the authentic nature of the period and the use of colors. Unfortunately, much like the performances, those positives are drowned out by the slow storyline and the overall lack of pace. In the end, I am sure that you can find a much better selection to suffer through. Sure, it was good background noise while working, but other than that, it did not hold my attention at all.