Lionsgate released Winchester on 2 February 2018.
It tells the fictionalized story of Sarah Winchester and her crazy house. The legend claims that she kept building to appease the ghosts of people killed by her husband’s guns. I’ve always thought that kind of hard to believe. The filmmakers take this idea and make it real. That works much better!
The critics hated this movie! I read a lot of reviews to understand why. I still find it hard to say. Mostly, they don’t like it because they wanted it to be a different film. In particular, they wanted it to be surprising in some way they can’t articulate. And they are mad about it! I get it. A superhero film can just be a superhero film. But a ghost story much somehow be more than a ghost story. Or something.
But this is a very good film! I love haunted house films. This isn’t as good as The Awakening but it is better than The Haunting.
Some people would not like this film because it has a lot of jump scares. I assume this is what people are talking about when they tell me they don’t like horror.
Truth is, I don’t especially like jump scares. They are very effective on me! But they are also kind of a cheat. They always come with a loud music cue. As though the visual is not enough.
At the same time, jump scares allow filmmakers to mess with the audience. You should know that the scare never comes when you expect it. Films build up to it and then don’t deliver. When you relax, the jump scare is released.
But jump scares really aren’t that important to horror. Most of David Cronenberg’s horror films are devoid of them. And even Night of the Living Dead foregoes them. I think they tend to appear in films out of desperation.
The film really doesn’t need them. But the producers used everything they had in this film. That turned out to be a bad idea — at least in terms of the critics. I don’t think they take anything away from the film. They are used effectively.
I recommend watching Winchester. It is an effective and engaging film.
Winchester (2018) poster via IMDb under Fair Use.
