FILM 1839: WINCHESTER

FILM 1839: WINCHESTER

TRIVIA: The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion located in San Jose, California. It is believed to be haunted by the victims of the Winchester rifle. It has been a tourist attraction since 1923, a year after Sarah Winchester's death.

Very little of the filming took place in the actual mansion. The mansion's design in reality is extremely cramped, making filming very difficult. As such, most of the mansion's interior needed to be recreated on sound stages.

According to records kept by the Mystery House proprietors today, Sarah Winchester constantly built and rebuilt the house throughout her 38 years in residence. The Winchester house has windows and doors in the floor, doors that open into walls or go nowhere, and stairs to nowhere or into the ceiling. Its total area is around 6 acres (24,000 m²).

The promotional image for the film of Helen Mirren sitting in the carriage in mourning clothes mirrors the only known photograph of the reclusive Sarah Winchester on the estate, which is seen on the tour of the mansion in San Jose, California.

Lionsgate bought the film and photography rights to the Winchester Mansion for this film. So now tourists are not allowed to take any pictures of the interior of the mansion, because a tourist photo would be in direct competition with a Hollywood movie.

The directors are twins. Dame Mirren likened the experience to having one mind speaking through two mouths.

The quotes on the stained glass windows shown at the beginning, "Wide unclasp the tables of their thoughts" and "These same thoughts people this little world," are obscure Shakespearean quotes, and not even from the same play. No one knows why Sarah Winchester chose them.

The real life Winchester house has spider webs incorporated into its design, as Sarah believed that spider webs were good luck.

FILM 1821: GHOST STORIES

FILM 1821: GHOST STORIES

TRIVIA: The title of the film was misspelled as "Ghost Storeis" in much of the pre-release media. This was done to accord with the production's tagline "The brain sees what it wants to see"

Based on the West End play by League of Gentleman writer Jeremy Dyson.

Both Andy Nyman and Jeremy Dyson's feature film directorial debut.

ANOTHER TOP FIVE: HORROR MOVIES

I realized when making the last top five that I love horror films so much and there are so many good ones that I couldn’t leave it at one top five so as it’s Halloween and all here’s another list…

1. THE HAUNTING (1963)

The remake of this doesn’t even come close to the original. It’s a truly haunting story of a group taking part in a paranormal experiment in a super creepy house. The scenes with the banging coming from just outside the door make actual hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

2. DEAD OF NIGHT (1945)

The original, and in some ways the best, British anthology horror film. It starts with a man talking about a strange dream, which leads to others in the group to tell their tales of the supernatural, the ventriloquist dummy is the one that stands out here though.

3. HIGH TENSION (2003)

This is a gory entry into the top five, I don’t shy away from gore, I just don’t find it as scary as the kind of horrors that are more understated and uses your own imagination to create the fear. That being said, I was on the edge of my seat watching the seemingly unrelenting dread-fest that was this film. The suspense was immense and the ending was unusually surprising.

4. MISERY (1990)

This is one of those films that I can watch over and over. It’s maybe not classed as a horror by everyone – but the scene with the legs (if you’ve seen it, you know) I think is more horrific that a lot of modern gore-based horror. The psychology behind the character of Annie Wilkes is fascinating and the idea of a kindly sinister psychopath is terrifying.

5. THE EXORIST (1973)

This is a classic, and for a good reason. When I was a kid I was so keen to watch this (and wasn’t allowed to) that I read the book (some of it was a little dull and the film is a lot better). Not only is the film great, with some really ingenious tricks to make the special effects (the documentary of the making of is a really interesting watch), but the added bonus of the stories of the curse surrounding it makes it one of the most famous horror films of all time. Plus a bonus piece of trivia – did you know that a real life murderer was cast as an extra in this film?  See more information here: http://www.blumhouse.com/2017/04/13/did-you-know-theres-a-serial-killer-in-the-exorcist/

Just because I could go on forever I’m going to add more honorable mentions to the list:

PONTYPOOL (2008)

THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE (1974)

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET(1984)

ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)

THE CONJURING (2013)

THE STRANGERS (2008)

JU-ON: THE GRUDGE (2002)

THE COLLECTOR (1965)

THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS (1946)

TWISTED NERVE (1968)

DOROTHY MILLS (2008)

BASKET CASE (1982)

EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1960)

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/october/bookingcoms-spooky-new-campaign

Film 892: Sinister

Trivia: Screenwriter C. Robert Cargill admitted that the name of Ethan Hawkes' character, Ellison Oswalt, was inspired by author Harlan Ellison and comedian Patton Oswalt.

Film 879: Grave Encounters

For their ghost hunting reality show, a production crew locks themselves inside an abandoned mental hospital that's supposedly haunted - and it might prove to be all too true.

Film 862: When the Lights Went Out