At the end of watching this trailer, chills ran down my spine, my eyes watered, and the hairs on my neck stood up. Not to mention my lights in my room flickered as I began writing this article. Turn off the lights, turn up the volume, and get terrified about what I am about to tell you. I have been a horror film fanatic since I was a teenager. I took a Horror Film class where we watched horror films and analyzed them every week. I have also been curious about the paranormal since I was young. My curiosity has led me to learn about the mysterious Winchester house.
The background history of the Winchester mansion.
The Winchester mansion is located in San Jose, California. It began construction in 1884 and continued working around the clock until the owner, Sarah Winchester, died in 1922. Since then California has made it a historic landmark and it is a tourist attraction for many. You can visit it to this day although be warned it is considered to be one of the most haunted houses in the world.
Sarah Winchester was the wife of Will Winchester, the owner of the Winchester Rifle company. He died of tuberculous and she inherited $20.5 million and received 50 percent ownership of the company and was paid $1,000 a day. A medium had told Sarah that she must move west and continuously build a house because she was being haunted by the spirits who were killed by her husbands rifle.
She did just that and created a seven story mansion from a farm house.
Sarah had no architect to build the house and this is what makes it so interesting. The house has stairways and doors that lead to nowhere, windows that look into other rooms, and doors that lead to outside ledges. People say that Sarah did this to confuse the spirits so they wouldn't find her in the house.
There are over 100 rooms, two ballrooms, 40 bedrooms, and only one working toilet, the rest were decoys to confuse the spirits. She also slept in a different bedroom every night to confuse them. In 2016, an attic was found that is said to be Sarah's "hiding spot." In 2017, they opened day-time tours to the public allowing them see rooms that were not allowed to be seen by the public before.
Are you brave enough to go inside?
Hug the pillow and pull up the blanket, its trailer time
Please watch the trailer before reading anymore, unless you are too scared.
After learning about the real Winchester mansion and the history of the Winchester family, I am very excited and terrified to see this film. The fact that the amazing Helen Mirren plays Sarah Winchester is already going to be epic. If you look at old pictures of the original Sarah, Helen looks almost identical to her.
I love the beat of this trailer as it syncs with the hammering sounds of construction work. The house is famous for the never ending construction work that Sarah had requested. Not only that, but all of the shots of the house that you see are from the actual house itself.
In a way, the house is a character per say because it can create an emotion in the audience. It strikes fear, uneasiness, mystery, suspense, and confusion.
The trailer also has your classic horror movie build up, with a fast montage of words mixed with intense shots. However, the ending was clever. I think that horror directors are becoming more clever in tricking their audiences. Horror fans know when something will pop out, but they just don't know exactly when it will strike. The classic mirror trick is in so many horror films that is getting repetitive and people can predict it.
That's exactly what I was doing - watching the mirror scene waiting for something to appear in the mirror. As I was waiting the fear and suspense grew and I became anxious.
"Where is it already?" I asked myself. Then it got me, the turning of the mirror split down the middle revealing a ghostly face made me jump. I hope it made you too, because that was clever in my mind. They are putting the jump scare in a place I wasn't expecting. The last thing you hear is construction work because the ghosts of the builders are still building it.
I really appreciate the fact that this film is set when Sarah was still alive and revolves around her and her house. It's not about a group of teenagers that explore it and something paranormal happens to them. The TV Shows "Ghost Adventures" and "Most Haunted" already investigated the Winchester house and you can watch those episodes on YouTube.
There are also documentaries about the house and more information on it if you are curious. I am curious about the doctor played by Jason Clarke and why he is in the story, I hope I am brave enough to find out. The film debuts February 2, 2018. So grab your snuggle buddy, a blanket, and some Disney films to watch afterwards.
