![]() She allegedly had teams of builders, carpenters and tradesmen working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. ![]() Instead, over the next 36 years, she directed the construction herself. Winchester’s maze-like house reportedly conformed to no set architectural plans. ( image courtesy San Jose Public Library California Room) Sarah Winchester’s grand home before the devastating quake of 1906 that saw the seven-story observation tower collapse. ![]() After purchasing a 160-acre plot of land she began building a house in the American Queen Anne style, which was popular during the late 1800s. Wikipedia images)Īfter several years of traveling, Sarah Winchester moved to California to be near family and, in 1886, began work on what would become a lifelong project-a grand home that would eventually boast, according to some sources, more than 200 rooms, extensive gardens and a tower that topped seven stories high. He left behind a wife, Sarah, and a monumental inheritance of more than $20 million, roughly equivalent to $500 million today. The story of what has since become known as the Winchester Mystery House begins in 1881, when William Wirt Winchester, treasurer of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company and the son of its founder, Oliver Winchester, died of tuberculosis at just 43. The house's second story "door to nowhere" that opens out to a sheer drop. The house and its owner have become shrouded in myth and mystery, and are now set to be the focus of a new Hollywood movie. But on closer inspection, all is not as it seems. At first glance its myriad broad windows, turrets and balconies are eye-catching. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house.Winchester Mystery House: Library of Congress imageįrom the outside, the Winchester “Mystery” House, located in a suburb of San Jose, Calif., undeniably extolls grandeur. To the outsider it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman’s madness. ![]() Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Here’s the official synopsis for Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built: The film also stars Jason Clarke, and Sarah Snook, so the acting should hopefully be of a high standard. The direction from The Spierig Brothers (Predestination) also appears crazy enough for the film to unsettle its audience without the need for relying on endless jump scares. While its premise is nothing new and the fact that it is very loosely based on a true story is something we see all the time, it’s the creepiness of the set and the score that I think makes the trailer work. Thankfully though, if this new trailer is anything to go by, there is more to this movie than simply Mirren’s performance to look forward to as it looks like it could be well and truly scary – something which is surprisingly rare for the genre. While horror movies are generally quite hit and miss, you can normally count on Mirren to deliver regardless of the circumstance. Which shouldn’t have been any doubt considering the film is starring none other than Helen Mirren in one of the lead roles. 2017 was a pretty decent year for horror though in retrospect with films like Get Out, Split, It and Annabelle: Creation providing that the genre is well and truly alive if filmmakers are willing to do something different with the genre.Ĭan 2018 be an even better year? Well I’m doubtful, but based on this new trailer for Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built, it looks like we are at least getting a good start to the year. As a fan of horror movies, that last part is not necessarily a bad thing except for the fact that most horror films that come out each year are …well, terrible. In life, few things are certain: death, taxes and countless horror movies launching each year at the box-office. ![]()
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