BallWubba
Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
Hattie
I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.
audreytrauner
Haven't seen the movie yet, not sure I will. However, I will tell you the tale of more than 35 years ago when I worked with the caretaker of the Winchester House girlfriend as waitresses in a cheap restaurant. I have been there through the back doors, have been in the caretaker's apartment over the gun shop ( no smoking) and have also helped take care of the watch dogs. They also were in charge of the security alarm. I have seen numerous doors off of their apartment leading to stairwells going to small toilets or nothing at all.
Most importantly, I saw them being made to lie to the local news (SFBAY) about their being things going bump in the night. That was soo not true. The news people made them wear black and look frightening.
DigitalRevenantX7
A family moves into the legendary Winchester House as caretakers for the season. But as soon as they arrive, the formidable house's army of spirits – victims of Winchester weapons that cursed the Winchester family – decide to mount an assault on them. At the same time, they are drawn to investigate the disappearance of a Winchester family member – a young girl who appears to them periodically.The Haunting of Winchester House is one of the Asylum's catalogue of mockbusters – cheap generic copies of big budget Hollywood films, made purely to trick people into renting them by including deceptive titles that sound very similar to the target film they are ripping off.This particular example is one of the Asylum's better films, although that is not saying too much since virtually all of the Asylum's works are too cheap to really compare to their target films. In this case, the Asylum conducts a haunted house ghost story. Mark Atkins, one of the company's best directors, does a pretty reasonable job in making a suspenseful ghost story, although this is about three or four light years away from the likes of such esteemed ghost stories such as THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE & the original THE HAUNTING (in my opinion the finest of all ghost stories).That said, the film might be too average to compete with the big boys but it does have some creepy atmosphere that goes a fair way to papering over some of the stupidly low budget that the Asylum operates on. The only problem I had was with the twist ending where the family discover that they themselves are already dead – something tacked on to follow the now-cliché twist ending pioneered by The Sixth Sense. There was also a stupid scene where Michael Holmes dismisses a character's deaf slate (a small chalkboard that the hearing impaired would have carried around in ye olde days for people to communicate with them) as a "nineteenth century smartphone". I found that to be offensive to the hearing impaired of the era, despite it actually being somewhat accurate in a certain context.
scriptspring-594-680587
Apart from getting the history of The Winchester House completely wrong, there is no substance in the story, the characters are not well developed, so you don't really care what happens to them, and the trite horror movie set-ups are the very definition of campy. It isn't scary and you can't even laugh at it as a suitable schlock flick. A complete waste of an hour and a half.For those of us who are familiar with the actual Winchester House in San Jose, CA, the house portrayed is not the actual house, nor is it in its actual location. How hard would it have been for the makers of this film to have done even a little bit of research to get the content in the ballpark? I love the genre, so this comes from someone who can appreciate a good horror movie. Unfortunately, this isn't one!
OllieSuave-007
With all the horror movies made in the USA involving a haunted house, you would think one that features one of the most famous haunted places in the world (Winchester Mystery House in San Nose, CA) would feature a unique and compelling story. However, this film fails to deliver that notion and instead is a campy, low-budget, and unoriginal movie.This film was Winchester in name only, elaborating very little on the real-life Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester, the heiress who kept construction on the house going non-stop for 38 years to appease the spirits of those killed by the Winchester firearms, was portrayed as just a lost soul looking for her long lost daughter (why she could not find her daughter in her own darn house is beyond me). There was no effort in elaborating the history behind Sarah Winchester nor the many different rooms, secret chambers, doors and hallways in the house. If you're going to have the Winchester Mystery House portrayed in a film, at least make the characters explore the many different and eerie aspects of the house like the staircase that leads up to the ceiling, door to nowhere, the séance room, Winchester's bedroom, the garden, the 7-11 staircase, emphasis of the number 13, etc. Also, make the effort of having the house located in a city like in real life, rather than sequestered in the woods. Detailing and emphasizing the history and mystery of the house will make the film more unique and original. Instead, the lack thereof makes the film dull and stands out as just another low-budget, ghost-on-the-loose horror flick.Lastly, the acting is absolutely horrible - lack of substance, emotion, depth and drama. It looked as if the actors were ill-prepared for their roles and made very little effort in portraying their characters. I had to cover my eyes a few times just because the acting was so terrible. I have to single out the actress who played "Susan Grenier." I think she is the worse actor in the film who, at times, tries too hard to be realistic (i.e., forcing out tears when she cries).Overall, if you're bored and looking for a good horror movie to pass the time (like I was), you might be better off choosing to watch something else! Grade F
