Winchester

The scariest thing about WINCHESTER is what a complete waste of acting talent it is, sputtering its way along a predictable path.

Dame Helen Mirren (Prime Suspect, Excalibur) stars as Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester gun fortune. The board of the company is attempting to remove her, questioning her sanity as she grows more reclusive in her sprawling mansion.

Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke from "Zero Dark Thirty") is hired to interview Sarah and deliver a verdict that she is unworthy to run the company.

When Price arrives, he finds a massive mansion under constant construction for reasons that will soon unfold.

There are many jump scares, with demons popping into mirrors or doorways, lots of wandering around down enough long hallways to make you remember how much better Kubrick did hallways in "The Shining".

Alas, this is a second rate horror flick, not worthy of Mirren and Clarke.

Several clever ideas like just how those rooms are designed at midnight are muddled with repetitive hauntings and very few real scares.

By the time they start leveraging the fact that Sarah is haunted by everyone killed by a rifle, I couldn't decide if I was watching a scary gun control flick or a bad "Poltergeist" rip-off.

Poor Helen, she deserves better.

WINCHESTER is a total misfire and gets a D.

Nice house though......