Movie Spotlight: Winchester

Winchester is a 2018 movie starring Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook, and Finn Scicluna-O'Prey. Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), widow of firearm magnate William Wirt Winchester, has spent two decades building a seven-story mansion in San Jose, California, when the Winchester Repeating Arms Company hires Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) to assess her mental state. This mansion, eventually known as the Winchester Mystery House, contains more than one hundred rooms, as well as doors and staircases that lead nowhere, and Sarah is building it to appease the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles. Sarah's niece (Sarah Snook) and great-nephew (Finn Scicluna-O'Prey) are staying at the house, and when a vengeful spirit possesses the young boy, it's up to Sarah and Eric to save him.

Winchester is the perfect movie to watch in the dark, so that's how I watched it, and it really added to the spooky atmosphere of the film. The Winchester Mystery House is said to be the most haunted house in the world, and the gorgeous sets used in the movie really made me want to go check out the real thing. Sarah Winchester was a fascinating person, and Helen Mirren did an incredible job of playing a brilliant woman who's mourning the deaths of her husband and daughter while dealing with guilt over the bloodshed caused by Winchester rifles. Winchester is an entertaining movie full of terrific performances and creepy (yet realistic) ghosts, and now is a great time to watch it since Halloween is coming up. 😊👻

My rating: 7.5/10



If you'd like to find out more about the Winchester Mystery House, check out the episode my favorite podcast did about it:

Hollyweird Paranormal: The Winchester Mystery House/Sarah Winchester

Movie Spotlight: Jessabelle

Jessabelle is a 2014 movie starring Sarah Snook, Mark Webber, Joelle Carter, David Andrews, Amber Stevens, and Ana de la Reguera.  Ben Garant wrote the movie, which surprised me since he's known for writing comedy (such as Reno 911, Hell Baby, and Let's Go to Prison).  Pregnant Jessie Laurent (Sarah Snook) and her fiancé are on their way to move Jessie's things into his house when they are hit by a car; Jessie loses the baby, and her fiancé is killed.  Two months later, it's time for Jessie to be released from the hospital, so she calls her dad, who she hasn't seen in a very long time (after her mother died of cancer, Jessie's dad sent her to live with her aunt, who is now deceased); he drives her to her childhood home and sets her up in her mother's room, where she finds a box of videotapes labeled "Jessabelle."  She watches one in which her mother says that there is a female presence in the house who does not want Jessie there. When Jessie's father discovers her watching the video, he flips out and throws her wheelchair in the bayou after telling her not to snoop around anymore.  Jessie sees a female figure in her room that night, but it disappears.  The next day, her father brings her another wheelchair and apologizes for acting like a psycho; Jessie watches the next video, in which her mother says that the presence is demonic and that Jessie shouldn't blame herself for an accident that occurred.

I wouldn't call Jessabelle a great movie, but the acting was better than most horror movies, and I liked the ending.  Most of the scares came from the volume getting really loud all of a sudden though, and it annoys me when movies do that.

My rating: 6.5/10