San Jose

Chilling ‘Winchester' Trailer, Upcoming Film Immortalize Famous San Jose Landmark

Prepare for a fright — or several.

The trailer of the highly-anticipated movie "Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built" was released by CBS Films on Tuesday. The terrifying snippet is a precursor to the film's airing date of Feb. 2, 2018.

In it, Australian filmmakers and twins, Michael and Peter Spierig, have turned the popular San Jose landmark and Sarah Winchester's eccentric story into a psychological thriller. Production occurred in Melbourne, Australia, with spooky scenes being filmed at the famous mansion, CBS Films said.

The plot of "Winchester" follows Eric Price — a psychologist enacted by Jason Clarke — who studies firearm heiress Sarah Winchester — played by Academy Award-winner Helen Mirren.

The protagonist was convinced that she was haunted by the souls killed at the hands of the Winchester rifle. In the wake of the untimely deaths of her husband and child, Winchester threw herself into the construction of the enormous mansion, which is designed to keep evil spirits at bay, the Winchester Mystery House website says.

Amid the trailer's scenes of builders shaving wood, a narrator describes the Winchester Mystery House as a "gargantuan seven-story structure with no apparent rhyme or reason." Filled with 500 rooms that are each "more confusing that the next," the manion's "never-ending construction" began on the "orders of a grieving widow," he continues.

Inspired by true events, the film promises to throw a slew of eerie creatures — souls, demons, ghosts, spirits and apparitions, to name a few — at the viewer.

The world-famous Winchester Mystery House in San Jose doesn't look at all scary in the bright sunshine. But some Australian filmmakers are turning Sarah Winchester's eccentric story into a psychological thriller for the big screen.

At the conclusion of the trailer, Winchester's ominous premonition is: "I can feel it — in the air, in the walls. This spirit has a power we've not seen before. It has found us."

People can visit the Winchester Mystery House, known for its staircases, Victorian-era rooms and gardens, for a peek at the film's costumes, which are on display in the Venetian Dining Room

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