It’s nearly October, which means we should be in for some good scary flicks. Sadly, the only October horror movie is Paranormal Activity 3: More paranormaler. So I was mildly excited to catch the psychological thriller Dream House. I had already caught the revealing trailer which intentionally gives away a crucial plot twist. So my interest was piqued.
Dream House stars Daniel Craig as a novelist who quits his city job to spend more time with his family in his “dream house.” Though it doesn’t take long for his 2 daughters to notice that a man keeps appearing outside their windows. As a side note, if my daughter ever tells me that something eff’d up has been appearing to her, I will believe her. I will move, call an exorcist, whatever it takes! So back to the movie. Daniel Craig finds out that his house was the scene of a grisly murder of a family by their father. He researches it and finds out he is more involved than originally thought. Just watch the trailer, you’ll get it.
And the movie gives us this reveal in the first 30 minutes. I was quite excited about the prospect of where it would go from there. There was at least an hour left and I thought I was going to go on a ultimate mind-trip. The only problem is that it doesn’t go anywhere. Honestly. It’s as if the actors and director start sleepwalking through the entire duration.
For the rest of the short running time (dream house is less than 90 minutes) the revelations that could have had an impact just fall limp and are told pretty straightforward. Normally with psychological identity thrillers there are several layers and different ways for the audience to view it. Dream House has only one layer, it doesn’t need to be seen again to understand it more. A second viewing would only make you angry.
It’s really too bad too because this movie caught my attention because I expected a payoff and originality. As a fan of the twilight zone it was appealing to me. Well it turned out like a very mediocre episode of the twilight zone. The problem with that, is that Dream House cost millions to make and had talent behind it. Don’t see this. Not scary at all.
Dream House gets a D.
That’s too bad…they had a good idea and great talent and blew it. Thanks for the heads up.