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The Preview Reel: Winchester

Scott Davis
The Preview Reel

Welcome to this week’s “Preview Reel” column, where we look at the week’s upcoming wide-release movies. Maze Runner: The Death Cure ended Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’s reign last week as it opened with an impressive $23.5 million. It won’t have much competition this week as there is only one new wide-release film, Winchester, due to the big football game on Sunday. Is the Helen Mirren-led horror movie capable of the number one spot or is it just a forgettable cash grab? Glad you asked….

 

Winchester

What we are excited about: The trailers do a decent job of selling the fact that this story is inspired by true events. “Inspired” being the key word there as they’ll probably stretch the truth a bit, but it does add an extra level of scariness knowing that the Winchester Mystery House is a real place. A little bonus is that the Spierig Brothers are directing, who have had an interesting, albeit brief, film career. The two directed the time-travel flick Predestination (2014) starring Ethan Hawke, and were behind the camera for Jigsaw (2017), which was certainly better than most of the other Saw sequels. They haven’t had any huge hits, and we’re not sure Winchester will change that, but they do have some talent and we’re interested to see what they do with this source material.

What we are worried about: While Winchester is based on a true story, the trailers feature a bunch of things we have seen many times before. The true story angle only does so much as the rest of the trailers features a bunch of jump scares and the typical PG-13 ghosts. We’re hoping there are some original moments here and that Helen Mirren can elevate the material, but we’re not holding out much hope for that.

The Buzz: Most of the buzz is focused on the Academy Award® nominations and the big game on Sunday, which means there doesn’t seem to be much excitement surrounding Winchester. The film is rated PG-13, which will help its prospects with the teenage crowd on Friday and Saturday night. Unfortunately, there aren’t any reviews yet, which might keep everyone who’s not part of that demographic away. Look for an opening around $15 million.

Final Thoughts: It’s hard to recommend a PG-13 horror movie when there aren’t any reviews for it yet, and with the big game and Oscar® movies to catch up on, this might be a rental down the line.

Scott Davis

Scott Davis is a recent graduate of Oakland University where he earned a degree in journalism. He worked for the student newspaper on campus, The Oakland Post, where he became the paper's managing editor. He also earned a minor in Cinema Studies at OU. Scott enjoys all things film and TV related, especially the blockbuster kind. He might be the biggest Christopher Nolan fan you know.
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