The Haunting True Story Behind Helen Mirren's 'Winchester' (2024)

Haunted houses are a mainstay of the horror genre, whether they're discussed around a campfire at night, read about under the covers with a flashlight, or viewed in a movie with eyes mostly hidden behind frightened fingers. Winchester, directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, may not have been very effective at scaring its audience, but it still stands out among its peers because of the kernel of truth behind its story. The movie stars Dame Helen Mirren and Sarah Snook as Sarah Winchester and her niece Marion Mariott.

Together they live in a mansion built by Sarah Winchester to trap the ghosts haunting her family. In the movie, the house features bizarre staircases, rooms sealed by 13 nails, and doors that lead to nowhere. Many of these features are in fact present in the house in real life. While Sarah's motivations for building such a strange house may be debatable, Winchester does portray several real historical aspects of her life and her home.

Winchester

PG-13

Thriller

Fantasy

Horror

Mystery

Release Date

February 2, 2018

Director

Michael Spierig , Peter Spierig

Cast

Helen Mirren , Sarah Snook , Jason Clarke , Angus Sampson , Eamon Farren , Laura Brent

Runtime

99

Main Genre

Thriller

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Writers

Michael Spierig , Peter Spierig , Tom Vaughan

Tagline

Terror is building

Website

Helen Mirren's Sarah Winchester Suffered Several Personal Tragedies

Winchester is a period piece taking place in 1906, but the history of the Winchester Mystery House began decades earlier. Sarah Winchester's husband was William Winchester, successor of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, which developed the famous Winchester rifle. Although William passed away before he could take control of the company, Sarah still inherited a sizable fortune. Researcher Mary Jo Ignoffo's book Captive of the Labyrinth states that Sarah received 777 shares of stock in the rifle company. This inheritance had a value of $77,000 in 1881, or nearly $2.5 million today. And the stocks paid Sarah further dividends for several years after her husband's death.

But, of course, the money came with the tragedy of losing her husband. The death of close family members was a common thread in Sarah's life. Between 1866 and 1881, Sarah lost not only her husband but also her only daughter when she was a month old, her father and mother, and her father-in-law. Sarah herself was also beginning to suffer from rheumatoid arthritis. On her doctor's recommendation, Sarah left New England for California, joined by several of her remaining family members. This included her niece Marion Mariott, played by Sarah Snook in the Winchester film. While the film exaggerated Marion's involvement in Sarah's house affairs, the two did live together for many years. In 1886, Sarah used part of her inheritance to purchase an estate called Llanada Villa for her and her family. To make room for everyone, Sarah immediately began to add on to the farmhouse at the center of the property. Thus began the house's transformation into what would become the Winchester Mystery House.

The Winchester Mansion Was Supposedly Meant To Confuse Ghosts

Throughout the decades of Sarah Winchester's life (and even after her death), the Winchester house was remodeled again and again. It's famous for its variety of unusual physical features, including inaccessible hallways, stairs that go down then straight back up again, and doors that lead to nowhere. Many believe that Sarah Winchester built the house with such strange architectural features because she thought she and her family were being haunted.

The widely-circulated story is that Sarah feared that the people killed by Winchester rifles were haunting her in revenge for their deaths. In addition, she supposedly visited a spirit medium who gave her a dire warning. The medium said that Sarah had to keep building to appease the ghosts, or she would die. So, the story goes, Sarah continually designed new rooms and hired construction teams to work non-stop out of fear. She allegedly hoped to keep the spirits at bay and trap them inside the labyrinth-like house.

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Winchester is absolutely based on a real person and a real house, but is it possible that the ghostly happenings inside that house are real too? Well, that's a little complicated. The movie Winchester bases its supernatural plot on long-documented tales about Sarah's superstitions and beliefs. The problem is that many of these documented stories have their origins in rumors and outright misunderstandings, similar to The Amityville Horror's controversial source material. Take, for instance, the doors and windows that open to nothing but walls or open air. The reason for these oddities is actually mentioned in the Winchester movie: the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. The natural disaster collapsed several areas of the house, but Sarah and her construction crew chose not to rebuild. Instead, they cleared away the rubble and left the rest as is, leading to the "doors to nowhere."

In addition, Sarah was a relative recluse after moving to California. She was still grieving her family losses and she suffered from arthritis, making it difficult to go around, especially in public. The Winchester movie addresses this, explaining that the odd staircases in her home aren't part of the supernatural mythology; instead, they were shallow and rose at odd angles to not only accommodate Sarah's arthritis, but also her short stature, as she only stood at 4 feet 10 inches. Her reclusive nature coupled with the ongoing and lavish construction on the house were great fodder for newspapers at the time. After her death, these rumors continued to grow, especially after the house was sold and turned into a tourist attraction you can still visit today. But by the accounts of those who really knew Sarah — her servants, the construction workers, her lawyer — Sarah was a level-headed woman with little to no superstitious habits, a passion for architecture, and good business sense.

The film Winchester took its inspiration from stories people have been telling about the house — and Sarah — for over 100 years. And guests to the Winchester house say that they feel cold spots, hear eerie music, and see doors and windows slammed shut by themselves. The ghost hunters on TV and skeptical researchers may butt heads over these phenomena, but one thing that can't be denied is that Sarah Winchester was a real person, and she really did build a strange, sprawling house that is still fascinating its visitors to this day.

Winchester is available to watch on Tubi in the U.S.

Watch on Tubi