The Winchester House
The Story: One of the strangest structures in the United States is the home of the late Sarah Winchester. The widow of gun magnate William Winchester, Sarah believed the ghosts created by her husband's Winchester rifles would come for vengeance. To protect her, she built a mansion in Northern California that was endlessly under construction for 36 years. It is said she believed that keeping it always in flux would ward off spirits who'd do her harm. But the construction is nonsensical at best. There are windows that look into other portions of the home rather than outside. There are doors and stairwells that lead nowhere. All told an estimated $75 million dollars by today's rates was spent on the house, which has been a tourist attraction since 1923, five months after she died of a heart failure at 83. Learn more about the house in the Ghost Adventures episode above.
The Pitch: Technically, the house has inspired a movie, but it was made by the dedicatedly low-budget schlock maker The Asylum. Instead, imagine the story of Sarah Winchester told in a gothic setting. It could begin after the death of her infant daughter in 1866, before leaping to the death of her husband in 1881. Then move ahead to her alone in the home and feeling lost. It could play out a psychological thriller, where the audience is kept on their toes about whether or not the house is haunted, or if Sarah is just deranged from so much grief. Tonally, think of The Others. In the end, Sarah would die as she did in life. Construction on the home would stop. And the final image could be her ghost wandering the halls of her home, looking for her lost husband and daughter.
