[star rating=”3.5″] WINCHESTER. Directed by The Spierig Brothers with Helen Mirren and Jason Clarke.
MEGAN FURNISS reviews
This time I didn’t do enough research. Charmed by the IMDB tagline “Ensconced in her sprawling California mansion, eccentric firearm heiress Sarah Winchester believes she is haunted by the souls of people killed by the Winchester repeating rifle” and lured by an adoration of Helen Mirren, I expected more of a historical, political drama, but the very first traditional horror skrik had me jumping in my seat and wishing I had brought a sweater for the goose bumps. Set in 1905 in a rambling, isolated mansion outside San Francisco, the story of the movie is inspired by real events and people.
Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), heiress to the Winchester gun company, lives in the house, and keeps building onto it, seven days a week, adding room after room. Doctor Price (Jason Clarke) is sent by the other directors of the company (Sarah is a 51% owner) to assess her mental fitness. Naturally, the doctor has his own demons to confront and ends up being the perfect choice to help fight the supernatural ones that have a dark and bloody mission.
Anticipated horror
I bought the period styling hook, line and sinker. I loved the clothes, set, lighting and attention to detail; right down to the delicate glass dropper for the laudanum. Somehow, the period allowed the pace of the film to be slow and old fashioned, making the anticipated horror of it tension-filled.
The rambling house and its stairways to nowhere, strange cupboards, doorways, passages and rooms that are nailed shut and out of bounds is the perfect setting for the horror to unfold.
I thought that Helen Mirren was delicious. She is such a master and here it feels like she was given free range to really, really play. She is in turn penetrating, still, crazed, possessed, kind, frightened and powerful, and I loved how unexpected her choices were. Jason Clarke was pretty good too; he has a strong, brooding presence but his performance had moments of lovely subtlety, unusual in a horror movie.
The political overtones of a country literally cursed by gun deaths is a little sledgehammery, but it is possible that Americans might feel the reverberations very close to their current gun crisis. It is true that the horror of guns is a curse.
I am no longer an adorer of horror movies even though I was obsessed with them when I was young, but, in spite of what most critics said (I read all about it afterwards and the reviews have been scathing) I really enjoyed Winchester and was engrossed and frightened to the end.
What: Winchester
Where and when: Ster-Kinekor Cinemas from 29 March 2018
Book: Ster-Kinekor website
WS
