WINCHESTER is yet another Hollywood ghost story with a real deficit when it comes to imagination and non-cliched scenes. The whole thing plays out as a tired exercise in jump scares and is boringly predictable from beginning to end. The film is supposedly based on the legends surrounding one of America's most haunted homes, but it feels completely generic and the ghostly antics have been done better elsewhere; THE ORPHANAGE is a particular inspiration here. The story features Helen Mirren who doesn't seem to believe in the film at all, and Jason Clarke, who is wasted given the talents we've seen from him elsewhere. If I had to sum up this film in a single word, it would doubtlessly be 'generic'.

It's 1906. Widower Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren) is the heiress to the Winchester firearm fortune. She lives in a mansion in northern California with her niece Marion Marriott and Marion's troubled young son Henry. Marion lost her drunkard husband and Sarah believes it to be the family curse. The mansion is constantly under renovation as Sarah adds rooms to accommodate the spirits of the people killed by legendary gun. Psychiatrist Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is sent to evaluate the troubled head of the company and finds the house haunted by spirits.

Around the halfway point, Eric reveals that he was killed by a Winchester rifle. It occurs to me that this could have been another Sixth Sense. It wouldn't be original but at least, it could have been interesting. This is a dull muddle of a lifeless haunted house. I don't care about the jump scares because I don't care about the characters. The only intriguing section is Henry being possessed starts shooting at Sarah. There are some interesting shots which elevated the tension. Other than that, nobody is enjoying this, least of all the audience.

In 1906, Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) is hired by the board of the Winchester Company to make a mental assessment of Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren),who inherited and is in charge of the firearms company. When her husband died after the loss of her daughter Annie, Sarah met a medium and began to build and rebuild a never-ending house in San Jose, California. Now she lives with her widow niece Marion Marriott (Sarah Snook) and her son Henry (Finn Scicluna-O'Prey) and the executives believe that Sarah is unbalanced and cannot be in charge of the company. She invites Dr. Price to spend a couple of days in her house and he begins to interview her. Soon Sarah explains that angry spirits of people killed by the Winchester rifles are designing the house and are sealed in the rooms to become calmer. The skeptical Dr. Prive, who grieves the loss of his beloved wife Ruby, writes his preliminary assessment but soon he witness the truth about the Winchester house.

"Winchester" is an underrated supernatural ghost story. It is not a masterpiece and has flaws, but is a good spooky movie and the viewer will certainly startle in many scenes. Maybe the greatest flaw is the use of a real personality (Sarah Winchester) in a fictional film. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Maldição da Casa Winchester" ("The Curse of the Winchester House")