Oddities and inconsistencies in stark relief
Winchester was originally titled Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built, until the filmmakers realized that it was actually San Jose contractors and tradesmen who did most of the heavy lifting. ( Movie history is full of these switcheroos: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was originally called A Boy’s Life, while Pretty Woman at one point went by the title 3,000 until someone got a look at Julia Roberts.)
The horror movie Winchester is directed by Michael and Peter Spierig (Daybreakers, Jigsaw) but wasn’t screened for critics before its release, so there’s little more that can said, except that it stars Helen Mirren and is based on a true story, at least architecturally speaking.
There is an actual Winchester mansion in Califor- nia, built in 1884, owned and lived in by the widow of rifle magnate William Wirt Winchester, and under continual renovation and construction until her death in 1922.
Its bizarre features include stairways to nowhere, interior windows and 47 fireplaces. No definite proof of ghosts, but that never stopped Hollywood.
An early trailer for the movie includes a weird line from co- star Jason Clarke — “Each maze of halls more confusing than the next” — which suggests that the more you explore the house, the LESS confusing it gets. But perhaps the Winchester mansion’s oddities and inconsistencies extend even to the grammar one uses to describe it.
Winchester opens Feb. 2 across Canada.