winchester mystery house

California Haunted House To Star In New Movie

Filed under: Estates

I've always thought the story of San Jose, California's Winchester Mystery House would make a horror film and Andrew Trapani who was behind "The Haunting in Connecticut" seems to agree. He is producing a new movie starring the haunted house. The Winchester Mystery House was under construction for 38 years. Sarah L. Winchester, the heiress to the WInchester rifle fortune, obsessively designed the byzantine home keeping construction going 24 hours a day for 32 years until her death in 1922. Legend says that she kept building the home, which has 160 rooms including around 40 bedrooms, because she believed she was pursued by the ghosts of people killed by Winchester rifles. She wanted to outrun the spirits and home, which has doors that open onto nowhere and stairs that led up to ceilings, had many places to hide. The house's website says that there were no blueprints but Winchester sketched out original rooms on paper and even tablecloths.

Trapani told the Mercury News that he is currently working on a plot which combines a modern story about the house with flashes back into the past to try and probe why Winchester did what she did. The movie will be the first feature film granted permission to shoot on location at the home and filming is slated to begin by the end of the year. Tickets for the grand tour of the house sell for $31 each for adults.

Gallery: Winchester Mystery House