Reviews

Wish I'd have come to this site first to read reviews and I would not have wasted time on this awful film. A rambling, uninteresting story with a completely ridiculous ending. Worst film I've seen in well over a decade and I watch a LOT of them.

I can't believe scriptwriters and whomever else responsible for this travesty could not do better with the stellar material available from Mr. King. If you've read the books, just know that other than character names, you will find no semblance much to the book plots. Not a spoiler; just truth. If you've not read the books, like the rest of my family, it is still a bad movie. Family members didn't get it at all. There was zero character development. Not even sure what was going on half the time. My kid was asking me, why is that happening, you read the books?! I had zero to answer. Basically had no idea myself what was supposed to be the point. What a lousy film. Was so boring even with all the noise of guns and stuff blowing up. I actually started to doze off about halfway through, out of lack of interest. I highly regret the loss of better spent time rather than watching this.

I have never been a big M Night fan. I watched because I'm a fan of story lines involving multiple personality disorder. This film pleasantly surprised me in that, the depiction of the complexities of the disorder was so well written, directed and played. The casting of James McAvoy was the perfect choice. He played the role to perfection. As you become familiar with the various personalities inside Kevin, James is so good at portraying them that you can tell when he changes simply by his facial expression. It's impressive! And the characters of the psychiatrist, and Kevin's victim Casey, are also well written and played. You get a true feel for the characters and what has shaped them to the point where the story of the kidnapping begins. I wasn't as shocked at the end as some people have written they were. I pretty much expected it. I think that was because, I did get such a good feel for the characters that I could figure out how the story would play out. It was a very fun watch!!! M Night has my respect for this one!

I am only giving this a 2 out of 10 because I did get at least some laughs out of it. Otherwise it would be a 1! I watched this with my hubby and 13 year old daughter, having heard from a couple friends that it was scary. We all like scary, and it was rated PG-13 so okay to watch with our child. Frankly, after watching it, PG would've been a fine rating. As a "scary" movie, it fails to meet any criteria thereof. Slow moving, no suspense, and the ghosts are more hilarious than scary. My 13 year old was even bored, and kept pointing out the holes in the plot, which were like Swiss cheese. The only reason we didn't turn it off midway is that we all hoped it would pick up and get better. It didn't, right down to the oh so predictable ending. My daughter's final comment: "how lame". Couldn't have said it better myself!

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!