Winchester Parent Guide

Was Sarah Lockwood Winchester, the widow of gun maker William Winchester, crazy? Does she actually see the ghosts of the many who died from the use of his rifles? And are they really directing her to build endless rooms onto her sprawling California mansion?

Interleaving just enough truth to leave us wondering if the unbelievable is believable, the movie Winchester takes us inside what is still one of San Jose, California’s most visited tourist attractions. The 24 hour a day, 7 days a week construction of the rambling Winchester House, an architectural mess of dozens of bedrooms, with hallways and staircases leading to nowhere, began in the 1880s. By 1906, when the film begins its story, the domicile is seven stories high with about 90 rooms.

Helen Mirren plays Sarah, who still owns half of her husband’s company. The heiress has the habit of chatting with the deceased while rambling through the corridors of her home and locking misbehaving entities into bedrooms barred shut with 13 nails. Meanwhile, back at the firing range, the directors of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company would like nothing more than to have the woman declared insane. After all, a major shareholder convinced her company’s flagship product is evil, can’t be good for business. Yet it will take just the right sort of disreputable doctor to make the judgement call – and the board is happy to supply a bribe.

Eric Price (Jason Clarke) may call himself a physician, but the San Francisco resident’s favorite remedy is the highly-addictive laudanum. His own abuse of the drug provides recurring visions of his late wife who was a victim of a self-inflicted gunshot (yes, from a Winchester weapon). It doesn’t take much persuasion for Eric to accept the offer to take a trip to the countryside and have Sarah committed.

The outcome of having a stoned shrink spend a few days with a haunted heiress in a dark and spooky mansion is the stuff classic Hollywood horror flicks are made of – and this script hits all the bases. Jump scenes are plentiful, along with glimpses of ghoulish faces. These metaphysical confrontations ramp up for a big finale (that just happens to coincide with an historical earthquake). The depictions become increasingly intense and include scenes of a mass shooting and others being taken down by Winchester’s bullets. As well, there is the portrayal of a young boy, presumably possessed, who falls from a rooftop.

While lacking in creativity, Winchester still has enough blind corners to keep you wondering what’s around the next one. Also, it is nearly clear of profanities and sexual content. Depending on parents’ tolerance of the violent conclusion (an ironic ending for a movie that seems to be taking its own shot at lax gun laws), older teens may find this haunted house entertaining enough to be worth a visit.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.