“Winchester” (Biography/ Horror: 1 hour, 39 minutes)

Starring: Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke and Sarah Snook

Directors: Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig

Rated: PG-13 (Violence and thematic elements)

Movie Review: Helen Mirren is a renowned actress. She adds to many movies, her acting giving them clout. Her regal presence elevates this horror, but it is not enough to save “Winchester,” a movie loosely based on actual events. 

Mirren plays eccentric Winchester firearms heiress Sarah Winchester, who lives in 1906 San Jose, Calif. She, her niece, Marian Marriott, her great-nephew, Henry (Finn Scicluna-O’Prey), and a large staff live in a large mansion that is continually under construction. 

Dr. Eric A. Price (Clarke) is present to assess Sarah Winchester’s mental health, but soon finds she is actually building an asylum for vengeful poltergeists that haunt her.

Again, Academy Award-recipient Mirren is phenomenal as usual. Her scenes with Jason Clarke are the movie’s best. The rest of the movie fails to capture a deep mystery that exists with Sarah Winchester and her mysterious house.

Brothers Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig (“Jigsaw,” 2017) create movies that contain good thrills, but flailing, over-sensationalized plots. Yet, the thrills are stereotypically expectations. Audiences easily know what is coming, so there is no real horror — other than the cheap plot.

Grade: C (A misfire.)