User reviews

The actors - especially the mother - seemed quite sincere in their roles, but the story itself didn't really make any sense. It all seemed so random - just random ghosts at random times coming after random people in random ways and doing random things with them, all for no apparent reason. The characters were pretty much text-book cookie-cutter. There were entirely too many full-on face shots where the heads of the characters filled up the entire screen, back & forth between them. I never realized how annoying that could be, but I've never seen that kind of shot so over-used before. There is no discernible story, just a bunch of disjointed, discombobulated "fragments". Not very well plotted. If you don't care too much about story but just like seeing people scream & ghosts go, "Boo!", this will do it for you. But if you're looking for an interesting or engaging story of some sort, this really doesn't cut it.

I will stat with plot A family moves in to look after the Winchester mansion for a few months, and soon find themselves terrorised by vengeful spirits. With the help of a paranormal investigator they'll unravel the mystery of the house

The mum and day are driving to the new home with their daughter in the back seat.

There have near accident as they almost get hit by a car but soon get to house and unpacked and strange things start happen, they find out that house is haunted.

The acting in this movie was so HORRIBLE (Is so bad that it's make the word horrible look good)

And How old is the daughter?, she look like 15 year old girl but she acts like spoilt whiny five years old.

There is only one good thing I can say about this movie was the twist was good but it already been done few times now.

2/10

This movie was downright brutal to watch. I have a very tolerant ability to watch B horror films; however, this one is particularly bad. The acting is worse than brutal, the story is beyond bad with zero back story provided upfront and early on and the direction is...wait a second there was even a director here- if so I doubt he would want his name on this stinker.

I really tried to watch this one, but I had to turn it off about halfway through due to total boredom and due to how completely bad this one is. Don't waste your time on this one- not even to rent.

Because there is no history provided and no story outlined very well at the beginning of this movie, it basically just starts into a freaky horror show of ghosts and ghouls whom you have no idea who or whats going on. I mean- unless you know about the infamous Winchestor mansion and its rumoured history you will really be scratching your head wondering wtf is happening here. To be honest I know the history and I still was asking myself wtf is happening here.

Avoid!

With all the horror movies made in the USA involving a haunted house, you would think one that features one of the most famous haunted places in the world (Winchester Mystery House in San Nose, CA) would feature a unique and compelling story. However, this film fails to deliver that notion and instead is a campy, low-budget, and unoriginal movie.

This film was Winchester in name only, elaborating very little on the real-life Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester, the heiress who kept construction on the house going non-stop for 38 years to appease the spirits of those killed by the Winchester firearms, was portrayed as just a lost soul looking for her long lost daughter (why she could not find her daughter in her own darn house is beyond me). There was no effort in elaborating the history behind Sarah Winchester nor the many different rooms, secret chambers, doors and hallways in the house. If you're going to have the Winchester Mystery House portrayed in a film, at least make the characters explore the many different and eerie aspects of the house like the staircase that leads up to the ceiling, door to nowhere, the séance room, Winchester's bedroom, the garden, the 7-11 staircase, emphasis of the number 13, etc. Also, make the effort of having the house located in a city like in real life, rather than sequestered in the woods. Detailing and emphasizing the history and mystery of the house will make the film more unique and original. Instead, the lack thereof makes the film dull and stands out as just another low-budget, ghost-on-the-loose horror flick.

Lastly, the acting is absolutely horrible - lack of substance, emotion, depth and drama. It looked as if the actors were ill-prepared for their roles and made very little effort in portraying their characters. I had to cover my eyes a few times just because the acting was so terrible. I have to single out the actress who played "Susan Grenier." I think she is the worse actor in the film who, at times, tries too hard to be realistic (i.e., forcing out tears when she cries).

Overall, if you're bored and looking for a good horror movie to pass the time (like I was), you might be better off choosing to watch something else!

Grade F

I wont bother going into too much detail regarding the story as thats already been covered but if you try to imagine a really cheap bad horror from the 70's then you'll have it.

Winchester House itself is a relatively unknown haunted house but in the same vain as the Ammmityville house. I don't know whether the movie is supposed to be based around the true events that happened there or not but its respected enough that Most Haunted have actually done an investigation there.

The acting here is beyond laughable. For instance at one point one of the 'spirits' drag the daughter into a closet right in front of her mother while the mother stands there watching and only shows any shock at whats happening when the daughter is actually in the closet and the door slams. Was she not horrified by some ghost actually grabbing her daughter and dragging her from behind for 20 feet? Then you have the supposed 'psychic' who shows no knowledge whatsoever about the spirit world! The SFX look like they were done on your home PC using MS Paint or something lol. The direction and score are all horrible and the script so bad that its almost funny.

I had high hopes for this, expecting a new Ammityville or something and all i got was a couple of non intended laughs. If you are wanting a good horror with a creepy backdrop, a couple of jumps and something scary then go and watch the Teletubbies because thats a damn site scarier and much better acted lol.

The Asylum have made a lot of real clunkers, and Haunting of Winchester House adds to that long list. I don't think it is quite down there as one of the absolute worst, but that does not stop it from being a movie with almost no redeeming features. The worst asset is I agree the acting, the worst being from Lira Kellerman and Patty Roberts who act in a very forced and artificial way throughout. Kimberly Ables Jindra is the least bad, she has moments where she is touchingly sincere but it is nothing special or memorable and she like everybody else fails to rise above her material. That's hardly a surprise though, because the dialogue is so inane and awkward that you want to vomit even thinking about it, and the characters are basically cookie-cutter cardboard cut-outs with no personality or development. The story also doesn't work, the telling of it is far too fragmented, random and predictable and it would have been scarier if the pacing hadn't felt like I was riding on the back of a snail, and that the scares didn't feel like a mish-mash of pre-existing horror/haunted house movies with none of the suspense, tension or thrills. Even though it is a haunted house movie, the origin of how it came to be so here was just not there, so everything just felt really underdeveloped, seeing as the movie is nearly an hour and a half there is no excuse for that. It looks very amateurish, the special effects look fake and are utilised far too obviously, the lighting gives the movie a very murky look and the camera shots are so fast and full of face shots and close-ups that it makes the action incoherent. And the music and sound effects are really overdone and just overbear everything. All in all, really as awful as I'd heard and a movie I wish to forget in the long run. 1/10 Bethany Cox

this is possibly the worse movie ever made. the actors are horrible. the director, producer and actors should be shot in the head. literally. especially the guy that plays the husband. whats more, is it cost me 3.99 and 2 hours of my life to watch this crap. actually, i want to shoot myself in the head to get make the awful memory of this film go away. and whats up with Leroy Brown, paranormal detective. some idiot actually issues checks to these people. if i had they're addresses i would send them hate mail. Is OK if you don't publish this because this has inspired me to start a blog. and maybe a class action suit against people who have anything to do with making movies that suck. i want to burn out my retinas.

Such good film and lighting was wasted in the making of this move. How long did it take to actually make it? Tow weeks? A good movie not only takes time and money but also the end result in that is working hard to find the right actors. Patty Roberts played the daughter and I feel that she looked way too old to be playing that part. Not only that her acting skills are horrid. Maybe spend a bit more time searching for a different movie that is actually scary and did not only cost a few thousand to make. I can say after watching this film... I did not have nightmares or check under my bed. I would not waste my money watching this movie...trust me, maybe you can find it on a clearance rack sooner than later and not feel as guilty having spent a dollar buying it then spending more to rent it. I may buy a few to use as wrapping tape.

Apart from getting the history of The Winchester House completely wrong, there is no substance in the story, the characters are not well developed, so you don't really care what happens to them, and the trite horror movie set-ups are the very definition of campy. It isn't scary and you can't even laugh at it as a suitable schlock flick. A complete waste of an hour and a half.

For those of us who are familiar with the actual Winchester House in San Jose, CA, the house portrayed is not the actual house, nor is it in its actual location. How hard would it have been for the makers of this film to have done even a little bit of research to get the content in the ballpark?

I love the genre, so this comes from someone who can appreciate a good horror movie. Unfortunately, this isn't one!

Okay there were countless reasons why this movie was atrocious. But i can honestly say that it was placed in the wrong genre. I really think it belongs in the comedy section of a movie store / netflix. The acting was HORRIFIC. The movie was supposed to last 1 hour 25 minutes but it took my sister and I almost 3 hours to watch because we had to stop and rewind and continue to laugh at the terrible acting attempts. First of all the family that arrives at the house moves in, eats dinner and falls asleep. When they wake up in the middle of the night they are WEARING THE SAME CLOTHES!!!!!!! not sure why no one notices this, but it definitely adds to comedy aspect of the movie.

The daughter was supposed to be 7 years old or something but she was taller than the mother and looked like she was about 17 years old. And WTF happened to that woman who flew backwards into a tree after creating the magic dove soap circle. Or the trashbag baby car seat.

The fathers side burns where awkward as hell and the mother sad to say was definitely the best actress in the movie which pretty much says it all.

This movie was LOL funny and if it were in the comedy section I would give it a 10 out of 10.

Action from the very beginning, I may as well have been physically and painfully glued to my chair because there was no way I was missing a second. In fact, at one point, my wife had fallen down the stairs! But I just sat there yelling a running commentary of what was happening to her as she lay there crying into the carpet. Incredible acting. The suspense was immensely frightening and the jump scares were out of this world. I am very concerned about the condition of my seat cushion after I soiled my freaking pants. Anyway, it deserves more than 10 stars no doubt about it. Absolutely outstanding, hooking, storyline and dialogue-it was almost like I was on crack again. But those days are behind me I assure you, but it was nice to get another high after all these years. As the kids would say: I recommend this motion picture af.

Despite a low budget and mediocre acting with blue screen effects that make you laugh, this movie is actually quite good. Not many movies these days are actually scary. In an age where sawing someone's head in two makes people yawn, it seems time to bring back some old fashioned scares.

Based on the legendary Winchester house this movie provided those old school thrills with very little gory violence. The threat is consistent and sustained allowing the viewer to feel threatened where other horror movies would back off. Despite all the negative aspects to the film it is enjoyable to watch and the fact it is so cheap actually helps. Hollywood often gloss over horror making it unscary, this goes the whole way to provide good entertainment.

a worthwhile watch

I think that most of the dialouge and pertinent information might have been cut and left on the editing floor. It was great to play a drinking game, take a drink every time you are confused or there is lack of continuity. The story might have made sense if he characters had conversations with each other. The set must had been limited to filming in one hallway of the house 90% of the time. The ending was OK though, I suggest fast forwarding through the whole movie and watch the last 20 minutes, you will see all that you need to see because they recap everything that happened after the movie reaches the climactic ending. Or, stock up on your beer and get ready to get drunk while you watch.

Please for the love of god never take the time to watch this movie. Its really not hard to make a good movie from low budget that will ACTUALLY scare you, take Paranormal Activity for example.

The house is the only thing true about the story, which is cheesy to mislead people into watching it when they expect something totally different. Whats worse is the portrayal of the Winchester house from the outside totally looks like a scaled down version dollhouse with horrible blue screen special effects behind it. To think the movie starts with, like many horror movies of this genre, that it is based on true events is a shame.

My opinion - this movie should of gone straight to DVD, and someone should have used those DVD's for shot-put practice.

=============Please Read This Part If Anything=====================

I only watched it because it was on netflix, and when i looked up the trailer on youtube, the reviews there were good. However, i noticed all of the reviews talked about a scam site, which luckily i never visited. The site is known as sitemoovis.co.cc and i STRONGLY advise you do not visit it. I was smart enough not to do so, i went ahead and did some research to see if anyone got any malware or bugs from it and apparently some did. I should of been more suspicious when every review with that sites name in it was VERY good, and i realized something was off when the movie was VERY BAD. I just thought the IMDb community should know of this scam and stay away from it.

You have to watch this movie, I am warning that in the start the acting is for some reason really bad and forced.

Any way, so the story was great. it was really creepy and i jumped a few times. I have to say that i was entertained the entire times.

I would not say that this is a b movie more of a A-.

Some of the people that are "haunting" the house are really really creepy.

The whole movie was just put together in a good way creating a fun watch.

I think that you should watch it for sure. The ending is will shock you!

This movie was quite a surprise. Usually the movies made by "The Asylum" are mediocre, but this one was quite out of the normal standard.

The storyline and plot was intense and something you immediately got yourself immersed into, because it is compelling and interesting. The story takes you places in a good pace and it leaves you wanting more.

Now, I have been reading some of the reviews here already, and I will agree with what many have chiseled out, that the acting in the movie is not among the best of movie performances, but what drives and carries "Haunting of Winchester House" is not the acting, it is the story, the gloomy feeling of the place and the genuinely creepy sounds. Now, don't get me wrong, the acting wasn't all throughout bad through the entire movie, but there were points where it was painstakingly bad to look at. But the mood of the movie luckily made more than up for this fact.

What I didn't fully understand was the directors obsession with having shadowy persons walk past the camera view. Sure it worked the first time, but it was done repeatedly over and over, to the point where it was just annoying to look at. There is nothing scary about some dark, silhouette passing through the view of the camera.

Also, the "ghost", and I use the term loosely here, well they were more like walking dead (not zombies as per se). Had they chosen to go with a more ghost-oriented approach, the movie would have had so much more depth and value. The "ghosts" were too physical. Had they been transparent, wispy, incorporeal projections of themselves, it would have added so much more to the movie. But in all fairness, the main "ghost" was sort of disturbing and scary nonetheless.

And the ending was amazing. That totally took me by surprise. I didn't see that coming. And an ending like that always sits well with me. I like it when movies are unpredictable and doesn't end in the traditional sugar-coated-Hollywood-fashion-ending that most movies do.

As a fan of hauntings and supernatural phenomena, I found "Haunting of Winchester House" to be quite interesting, and the movie turned out to be much more impressive than I had anticipated. If you like ghost movies, and can live with some, at times, less than mediocre acting, then you should definitely check out "Haunting of Winchester House", because it is really quite good. Truth be told, then I had goosebumps several times throughout the movie.

There are plenty of good movies out there. If you need to watch one you have already seen, just don't waste you're time on this one. The dialog is almost as bad as the acting and the plot isn't much better.

The ending was unpredictable, yet unoriginal. The movie will not startle you or make you jump. There are no jokes, I washed the dishes during the movie, just so it wasn't a complete waste of time. This movie actually made doing chores seem like fun.

This is not a cheesy movie, it is just zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Why they made it I don't know. The plot would be better for the twilight zone.

In conclusion if you need motivation to do the dishes or want to wish you were at work, watch this movie.

Someone says in the comments that this movie won some awards? Seriously???? I can't believe it! We rented because the title caught our eye, we visited the real Winchester House in California once. After watching this movie, I must say they use 'based on a true story' very liberally! Other than the Winchester Rifle 'curse' and 'keep building' references, this has little to do with any of the Winchester House legend or family. Some people mentioned the acting... in fact I think the actors did pretty well with what was an obviously lame script. Even the greatest of actors would struggle with that stilted dialog ("we don't have any money" - LOL)! I do agree though that the casting of the daughter was a bad choice - she must have been a relative or friend of someone involved because she did look much older in appearance than the character age seemed to imply - it made many of her scenes confusing. And besides the weak script and casting - how about the lighting?!! so shadowed and dark..., it was hard enough to understand the scenes without adding poor lighting to the mix. I had a hard time following as the scenes went from one to the other without any continuity or sense whatsoever. The most fun was close to the end when interesting details about the caretaker family are revealed. Unfortunately the script also did not see through on this opportunity - the film could've been salvaged somewhat if it could have managed a real thought-provoking or thrilling final ending. Nice concept - but very poor execution. Too bad! Maybe someone can take on a real Winchester House story one day, and do it right!