Winchester--Michael and Peter Spierig (2018)

To be perfectly clear, Winchester (2018) is not really about Sara Winchester, but actually about this guy (Jason Clarke)

I'm big fans of the Spierig brothers, Michael and Peter.  On a lark, I saw Undead (2003) in theaters, and I utterly adored it (even though Owen Gleiberman savaged it in EW--he didn't "get it").  I liked Daybreakers (2009) and I think Predestination (2014) is a work of genius--seriously, it's brain melting brilliant.  So, I was not prepared at all for the absolute s***show that is their latest film, Winchester (2018), although if I had known that they'd joined the Blumhouse family already with Jigsaw (2017), I would have hesitated.  The film has been getting press mostly regarding its "based on a true story" moniker, since supposedly Sarah Winchester, the heir to the Winchester rifle fortune,  built the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose in order to appease the ghosts that had died from her family's rifles--something she could never quite do, so she kept building, and building, and building that damn house.  Some parts of that story are true--she was an heiress to the rifle fortune, she built a house in San Jose--but a lot of it is apocryphal, and the Spierigs take the bones of the story, and turn the silliness dial up to twelve, because eleven just isn't far enough.  The trailer makes the film seem like a great haunted house yarn centering on Sarah Winchester, played by the weirdly ageless Helen Mirren like a goth Miss Havisham, traipsing around in full grief regalia the whole damn time.

The awesome Helen Mirren as a goth Miss Havisham, er...I mean Sarah Winchester

This woman frequently comes across as intelligent and regal, no matter what kind of crappy role she's given, and trust me, this one is truly crappy.  She's no Jane Tennyson.  While you would think the film is about her, it's actually about Dr. Eric Price (Jason Clarke) a washed-up laudanum junkie doctor who had a brush with death that made him lose his "once in a lifetime love" from which he's never quite recovered (ergo laudanum).  He's hired by the minority shareholders of the Winchester Rifle Co. to declare Sarah Winchester nuts so they can take over her controlling share of the company, and she will subsequently stop building her damn house.  He shows up at the construction site in San Jose, to find everyone expecting him and not excited about it. Not only is Sarah wise to his laudanum habit, but her niece (Sarah Snook) and her painfully annoying son, Henry, are not fans of his either.  Also, Henry has this habit of sleepwalking with a bag over his head in the oddest places, and talking in weird voices with glazed over white eyes.  See, still not really about Sarah here.  Ugh, I'm still mad that I paid for this film.

The Winchester House looks like a fake stage set, which is what the Spierigs shot on, in Australia

Dr. Price has a special connection to the Winchester House, since he was shot with a Winchester rifle, and died for 3 minutes, then came back to life--which makes him the only one who can stop an especially malevolent ghost played by Richard Horne from Twin Peaks: The Return (Eamon Farren), who absolutely defines the term "ugly pretty."  Turns out that only Sarah and Eric can see this ghost, although he possesses annoying nephew Henry any chance he gets.  The film goes on, and on, and on, with Eric thinking that Sarah's crazy, and then realizing that she's not and that everything she says is totally true, even when delivered in an over-the-top scenery chewing fashion by Mirren.  In fact, I almost nodded off at one point--in a movie theater, with some guy opening and crumpling every plastic covered snack food imaginable behind my head.  One would think that nodding off would be physically impossible since this film is almost entirely made of jump scares--really dumb, overly telegraphed jump scares.  I guess the insipid, stilted dialogue induced narcolepsy.

False advertising--this film is not about what's going on inside Sarah Winchester's head

Finally, Jason Clarke, Eric, whatever, figures his s*** out, gives Sarah a clean bill of health, and but for a few ornery nails (far more entertaining in a Quay Brothers film), all is well.  Except for the fact that the Spierig Brothers have squandered all my good will toward them. Now I think I understand why, before the film, the Brothers headline a very brief making-of doc and "thank us all" for going to see their film.  Yeah, you're not welcome guys.  Not welcome at all.  Let me put it this way:  both Havenhurst and The Abandoned were better films.  Not Visions, though.  That film was on par with this one.  Ugh, Winchester.

Fantasia 2016--The Wailing--Hong-jin Na (2016)

A bravura gore scene from Hong-Jin Na's The Wailing (2016)

Horror films are notoriously populated by not-so-bright characters who make bad decisions.  Characters constantly go where they should not, trust people that are suspicious, and react in panic rather than rationally--and honestly, with all the blood, violence and mayhem suddenly surging into their lives, one can forgive horror protagonists for going a little nuts.  That's why Hong-Jin Na's protagonist, Sgt. Jeon Jong-gu (Do Won Kwak), rather surprisingly takes "the protagonist who makes poor decisions" to a whole new level.

Family members are brutally slaughtering each other in the formerly boring rural town of Goksung

For the most part, nothing seems to happen in rural Goksung, so when the Sgt. is called to investigate a brutal double homicide, his whole family excitedly chirrups that "someone has died."  This violence is only the beginning as a series of horrible murders, burnings, and mutilated bodies are found in rapid order.  To say Jeon Jong-gu is bumbling is a kindness.  He and his partner stumble from crime scene to crime scene, shocked and inept, as rumors of red-eyed cannibalistic demons, and the influence of a Japanese stranger, start to circulate.  The film does impress upon the spectator that these events are pretty dramatic, since not a lot happens in Goksung.

In the film's first 45 minutes, The Wailing's tone is a little wonky, as we are introduced to the main players, and basically witness Jeon's cowardly performance in a comedic fashion--making me wonder if the "comedy" is supposed to counteract the horror that really starts to sweep through the film at an unrelenting pace.  At one point, Jeon is called "A girly wimp with balls the size of peas," and this description is not unwarranted.  He's the guy who hides under the bed when attacked.

These cops kind of deserve the rocks thrown at them by The Woman with No Name (Woo-hee Chun)

For instance, a rather hilarious set-piece has Sgt. Jong-gu and his partner patiently guarding one crime scene while a woman (with no name) throws rocks at them.  While Jeon eventually speaks to her and discovers some important information about the case, it takes him a really long time to put the puzzle together--although he's at least suspicious of the "poison mushroom" theory proffered by the local medical community.

Is this Japanese stranger (Jun Kunimura) responsible for the violence that befalls Goksung?

This woman sets him on the path of a Japanese stranger who may be a catalyst for Goksung's current horrific decline, and when Jeon pays him a rather violent visit, the brutal violence that has spread like a curse through his town takes an extremely personal turn, as his daughter begins to exhibit symptoms of possession.

Jeon's poor daughter (Hwan-hee Kim) is possessed by vicious evil

Once Jeon's daughter is taken over, the film becomes a little more genre familiar as Jeon does everything he can to save her, including hiring a pretty expensive shaman to perform some extremely loud rituals.

The Shaman (Jeong-min Hwang) goes full throttle in an attempt to exorcise the girl

At this point in the film, I felt the most out of my depth, wondering if this kind of "shaman-for-hire" is actually still a part of contemporary Korean culture, or if it's limited to more rural pockets.  As I live in a country that still has its share of snake charmers and Scientologists, I figure anything is possible, but this type of ritualized religious performance seemed very over the top--which might be quite deliberate.  My cultural ignorance felt acute.

Hwan-hee Kim gives a harrowing performance as Jeon's possessed daughter

As I mentioned before, the film's horrific grip is motivated by Jeon's dumb decisions, but things ratchet up when his family's life is at stake.  The film's well-performed and orchestrated possession narrative takes center stage in the second half of the film, and propels the narrative into a series of bursting climaxes, as one rising tension is followed by another in rapid succession.  At 2 hours and 36 minutes, this film is rather long, but really never feels that way once things get rolling.  The film's downbeat ending is pretty much telegraphed from the start, but Hwan-hee Kim's tense performance feels like a fist closing around your heart.  This ending has divided some viewers, but I thought it hit just the right note.  See The Wailing on a big screen and with an audience if you can, but be sure to see it!

In homophobic, present day Russia, Pyotr (Alex Ozerov) hides a powerful secret

Special props to Blake Mawson for the simultaneously unsettling and timely PYOTR495 (2016), which screened at Fantasia prior to The Wailing.  Beautifully shot and wickedly paced, this short feels especially poignant in the wake of the Orlando massacre at Pulse nightclub and Russia's LGBT propaganda law.  Queer teen Pyotr meets up with a Grinder date for a hookup, but soon realizes that he's stepped into a horrific trap by homophobic Russian nationalists up for a little gay bashing "ultra violence."

This psycho Barbie is a super stylish Russian nightmare

The styling of this short is sleek and masterful, with the lighting, costumes, sets, and makeup creating a visual feast that at the same time is damn hard to watch--at first.  Not to give anything away, but Pyotr might not be so young, naive, and defenseless after all.  As Mawson was kind enough to point out, the film's awesome soundtrack by the inimitable Konrad Black is available for a listen here.  I'm looking forward to seeing more from this talented young filmmaker.