Winchester – A review

A self-destructing psychiatrist Dr. Price is asked by the board of the Winchester automated guns and rifles organization to assess the mental state of Miss. Winchester – the widow of the owner of the company. This because the board’s concern about the lady’s continues quest to build and add to her hundred-room mansion. Once at ‘the house that spirits built’ Dr. Price finds himself questioning his own sanity as supernatural events occur.

Now these kinds of ghost stories I like; which is: creepy stuff and no blood and gore. Yes the ‘classics’ (tropes) are all there: gaslight, empty hallways, creepy children singing nursery rhymes, people walking very slowly to where the danger might be lurking, et cetera, et cetera.

But that doesn’t matter if the movie has an intriguing plot at its core. The plot of Winchester is a doozy. It is rather cleverly written with all the little bits and pieces falling together at exactly the right time. Maybe a bit too perfect in the end for the cynics amongst us – but I’m willing to let that go.

Too fast? – the hallway

Now, I do believe -maybe script wise that’s why I’m putting this thought here- that some essential scenes were cut from the final movie. Running at an easy ninety-minutes I can’t help but feel that this movie could have done with some extra character exploration (or house exploration).

The theatrical version doesn’t suffer too much from this lack. But, when striving for perfection, it would have benefited the movie if it lasted a little longer. Now the ghosts appear right off the bat which makes the madam Winchester character far less ambiguous as either sane or unstable.

Then again, you are watching a horror-movie so you might have already guessed her state of mind.

Then there's the greatest visual power (apart from acting which I’ll get to) Winchester brings: the marvellous house. Anybody like me who once read a ‘readers digest’ booklet on world mysteries knows about the house that spirits built.

Anybody who read Stephen King knows it as well.

It’s one of those fascinating American haunted house stories like Amityville and H.H. Holmes’s house of horrors.

The idea of a building that has over a hundred rooms with all kinds of hallways, corridors and stairs (leading nowhere) is a cinematographic dream. You can have chase sequences, you can play with styles and decors even a colour palette. In this sense it’s a shame that Winchester doesn’t make full use of the enormity of the mansion. The movie only shows around seven set locations within the house which diminishes the effect of this building being insanely large.

Something the (several) overhead-shots only barely make up for.

Again, here, I feel that Winchester would have benefitted from an additional scene or two just highlighting the scope of the house. How? (e.g.) Letting a kid play hide and seek is always a tried and tested method for a moviemaker to showcase the setting in a ghost story.

Acting and directing –the heart of the house.

But that’s enough nitpicking on my behalf because we come to acting. Great acting always depends on a great script. Now, a great actor can make a bad script better – but never perfect. But then if the story is solid nobody truly minds the dialogue that is written on the page.

Winchester is like this. The dialogue is lovely but not very impressive; it is the overall mystery that hooks the viewer. The actors know this. Across the board they play perfectly against each other with always keeping an eye on the grand scheme of things. It’s a ghost story after all; the mystery of it all is front and centre and the emotional input brought forth by the actors supports this.

Especially Jason Clarke has fun playing a –pretty much- 19th century loser. Who gradually changes from a Laudanum addicted man-child miscreant to an adult force of good.

But, yes it is Hellen Mirren’s show. The minute she’s on stage in her black gown (another classic genre trope) she’s having an absolute blast playing this elderly aristocrat that could/could not be talking to spirits. It’s clear from her screen presence that she wants to be in this movie. She wants to tell this ghost story and she uses her skills to make it so (while enjoying herself playing dress-up).

Directing, then, is fresh. Because it is a new house there is no need for any mouldy darkness like in, for instance, the woman in black. The Winchester mansion is in tip-top condition so the directing uses that element. A lot of ghost scenes, therefore, are –a feast for the eyes- well lit. Some even take place during daytime.

In a cinematic ghost story world currently ruled by the shadow-filled rooms of Insidious and The Conjuring it is refreshing to have well lit rooms.

The same goes for the usage of disturbing angles. I’m always a sucker for the so-called ‘Dutch angle’ in ghost-movies whenever something strange happens. But it has been done to death a bit as of late. So again it is refreshing to see a movie that simply doesn’t use them.

That doesn’t mean the directing doesn’t like a trope or two. The jump scares are a bit much in this movie.

And again the film takes too little time to make full use of suspense and tension.

And by the end of it the budget this movie had shows as Winchester mansion goes in full tilt (as the house in Burnt Offerings did).

Conclusion – leave through the kitchen.

But all those tropes are fine by me; I already got a lovely ghost story that’s been solidly written, well acted, well directed and a visual feast for the eyes. The only downside is that it could’ve been even better if it didn’t feel so rushed.