Many of those peculiar architectural features were re-created “centimeter-accurate” on sets in Australia, where most of the film was shot. The house is full of details ripe for a ghost film - a door that opens directly to a multistory drop-off to the ground below, or the Seance Room, where Winchester supposedly communicated with the spirits - and the possibility of a Winchester movie has brewed for years with directors like Peter Jackson attached at one time, the Spierigs say. And there’s obviously iconic things like the staircase that goes into the ceiling.” “It is an unusual design,” Peter Spierig says inside a dining room on the house’s ground floor. There is little consistency or logic throughout the property’s 24,000 square feet - intentionally designed this way because Winchester hoped to trap the ghosts that, following the separate deaths of her baby daughter and husband, she believed haunted her. Maneuvering through parts of the house is a challenge, among many things, of spatial awareness. Directed by Australian filmmaking duo Peter and Michael Spierig, twin brothers well-versed in the cinema of spook (“ Daybreakers,” “Jigsaw”), the film follows a psychiatrist (Jason Clarke) who is invited to the Winchester property by Sarah Winchester (Helen Mirren), the reclusive widow and heiress to the Winchester rifle fortune. 2, reconstructs the ghost tales and explores the actual woman behind the haunted mansion. But that doesn’t mean the myth isn’t due for a cinematic revival. The fabled horror stories alongside the real-life history now remain as the backbone of a whimsical tourist attraction. “Now this is a big urban area, and none of that was here.” ![]() “There was just farmland around here,” filmmaker Michael Spierig says of the area in the early 20th century. The vast and supposedly haunted century-old property sits under typically sunny skies in a thoroughly modern San Jose, facing a collection of department stores and a large shopping mall down the street. The lasting existence of the Winchester Mystery House feels like somewhat of a bizarre presence. Chad Ziemendorf/The Chronicle Show More Show Less The window was constructed with full knowledge that it would have no view to the outside as the boards behind it are the retaining wall of one of the house's elevators, constructed years before this staircase and window. Lance Iversen / The Chronicle Show More Show Less 8 of8 A tourists casts an erie reflection in a window as he passes on an upper level of the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, Calif., on Tuesday, June 29, 2010. Sarah Winchester's spookily designed home - how about stairs that dead end at the ceiling? - is a marvel any night of the year. Construction began in 1884 and continued 24 hours a day for 38 years until her death in 1922.įlashlight tours are offered on Halloween and every Friday the 13th at Winchester Mystery House. The 160-room, 5,500,000 Victorian mansion was owned and designed and built under the direction of Sarah Winchester daughter of William Wirt Winchester son of the man who manufacturer of the Winchester repeating rifle used to win the west in the 1800s. The public tours the rambling, mysterious mansion at night with only the moonlight, a souvenir flashlight, and your imagination to provide illumination through the bewildering maze of rooms and stairways. The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose offers special 65 minute Flashlight Tours every Friday 13th and on Halloween. Sarah Winchester heir to rifle company fortune, owner resident of the Winchester Mystery House until she died in 1922 Handout Show More Show Less 7 of8 SOUNDSCENE_WINCHESTER_23302.JPG Michael Macor/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 6 of8 Mrs. Michael Macor/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 5 of8 Sarah Winchester's bedroom, inside the Winchester Mystery House, where the filming of "Winchester" is taking place, in San Jose, Ca., on Friday May 5, 2017. ![]() Michael Macor/The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of8 The South Witches Cap room where it is believed that Sarah Winchester held her saences, inside the Winchester Mystery House, where the filming of "Winchester" is taking place, in San Jose, Ca., on Friday May 5, 2017. ![]() Ben King Show More Show Less 3 of8 Actress Helen Mirren, who plays Sarah Winchester, poses for a portrait in the South Conservatory of the Winchester Mystery House, where the filming of "Winchester" is taking place, in San Jose, Ca., on Friday May 5, 2017. Ben King Show More Show Less 2 of8 Helen Mirren as Sarah Winchester in "Winchester." Sarah built San Jose's Winchester Mystery House. 1 of8 Helen Mirren as Sarah Winchester in "Winchester." Sarah built San Jose's Winchester Mystery House.
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