As an admirer of Michael and Peter Spierig’s previous feature, Predestination, I had high expectations going into their latest, Winchester, which is now playing in general release. Predestination told a tricky, engaging tale that involved time travel and multiple identities; I hoped the Spierigs would create another fun puzzle narrative around the fabled Winchester mansion, a former farmhouse that owner Sarah Winchester transformed, through constant renovations between 1886 and her death in 1922, into a multi-story building with mazes and secret passages. Yet the film fails to generate much sense of mystery about the house. The brothers race through scenes of the characters exploring the mansion when they should be slowing down the film to build atmosphere. Moreover, the routine ghost story that the Spierigs spin doesn’t take full advantage of the environment either.
Another lesson of Curse of the Demon is that horror films gain from suggestion: the title figure famously appears onscreen only twice. In contrast, Winchester features more ghosts than you can shake a stick at, and top of this, they aren’t very scary; they have the same pale look and the same digitally heightened screams that one encounters in so many recent horror movies. Given the film’s expansive setting, it’s disappointing that the Spierigs, who have proven their capabilities elsewhere, would fall back on such boilerplate imagery. This speaks to Winchester’s overall failure of imagination—it’s the sort of forgettable movie that could have been a memorable one.
