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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Friday’s openings: ‘Winchester’ houses horror

Dan Webster

Scary movies have been around since almost the beginning of film. Certainly the Germans realized this, and directors such as F.W. Murnau put the genre to good use.

In recent years, horror has become more closely linked with real experience. As in the variations gestations of "The Amityville Horror" and "The Conjuring" franchise. But there's a difference between movies that are based on a true story and those that contend they are replicating the source story.

One of the former opens on Friday. It carries a simple title:

"Winchester": Helen Mirren plays the heir to the Winchester arms manufacturer fortune, and she has built a house full of mazes and stairwells to nowhere as a way to appease the spirits of all killed by the famous weapons that bear her family's last name. Oh, shoot!

I'll update when the area theaters finalize their listings.