Upcoming horror film Winchester has received a new title and release date. Whilst the franchise-reviving horror film Jigsaw is due for release in a matter of days, directors (and twins) Michael and Peter Spierig will be back with a new movie in the very near future. Starring the award-winning U.K. actress Helen Mirren (The Fate of the Furious), Winchester has now received a couple of pre-release upgrades.

The Spierig Brothers have previously directed and written movies such as UndeadDaybreakers, and the Ethan Hawke time-traveling sci-fi Predestination. Their next production following Jigsaw is based on a true story reminiscent of a Creepypasta, which is generally known as 'The Winchester Mystery House'. A genuine mansion in San Jose, California it was the property of Sarah Winchester, who was the widow of gun magnate William Winchester. Now a tourist attraction, the house is a sprawling collection of hundreds of rooms filled with furniture, due to the owner's obsession to continually build extensions to the structure. It has a reputation as being a haunted house, and has appeared in several TV shows like Mythbusters. In this adaptation of the story Mirren is playing Sarah Winchester, as the plot explores the origins of her actions and beliefs.

The original release date was scheduled to have been February 23, 2018, but this has now been changed as recently reported by distributor CBS Films. The film has been brought forward by three weeks to open in theaters on February 2, 2018. The title has also been amended, and is now known as Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built. It's fairly unusual for a horror/ghost movie to have a release brought forward by a number of weeks, so that could be possibly read as a vote of confidence. Although the more cynically minded could read it as an attempt to open before Marvel's Black Panther dominates the box office. Having said that, the new date will put it up against the current opening for the third Cloverfield film.

Actor Jason Clarke

CBS Films also released a synopsis, which you can read below:

Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester, (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren) heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms. To the outsider it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman’s madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters...

Along with Mirren, the movie also stars Jason Clarke (Terminator: Genisys), Sarah Snook (Black Mirror), and Angus Sampson (Insidious: The Last Key). As can be seen with that new title - which might be a move to prevent misconceptions about the movie's link with firearms - it will be exploring the more supernatural elements of the story. Namely that Sarah believed that adding rooms to the house would divert the attentions of the countless victims of her husband's inventions, the ghosts of which she believed were seeking vengeance.

Only one promo image currently exists which just shows Mirren in a periodic mourning costume, so there is little to judge it on yet, but the plot certainly seems to have plenty of potential. And with the presence of the lead actress and the genre experience of the Spierig brothers, this is one creepy production that we'll be keeping an eye on. Further details as we get them.

MORE: First Look At Hellen Mirren In Winchester

Source: CBS Films

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