Dream House

I'm surprised that this film has such negative reviews and yes, I understand that if you've seen the trailer, you don't need to see the rest. The creators really screwed it up with the trailer, because they stuffed the best and most shocking parts into it and the rest, as if it didn't matter. Anyway, it goes by pretty quickly. 90 minutes is just right so that you don't fall asleep and learn everything you need for joy. I don't mind that the film copies here and there. Nor do I mind the fact that it ends the way it ends. Why should it. What matters is that it kept me on edge in the first half, shocked brutally in the beginning of the second, and then rode with tension until the end. I wasn't disappointed. (13/02/2012)

Dream House looks like an adaptation of a book that could have easily (in a weekend) been written by Stephen King. The protagonist is about to write a novel, he, his wife and children find a new house, but their garden is haunted at night, the house has a mysterious past, the neighbors, who might know something about it, are stubbornly silent... And the atmosphere gets thicker and thicker. So now is when the (potential) audience splits into "Sounds good, I want to see it", "I don't care and don't want to see it" and "It'll be crap, but I have to see it so I can bitch about it later". I'm very glad I ended up in the first group (and I'm sure the aforementioned "kingliness" is to blame - I bet the screenwriter is a big fan of the master too). Those expecting a bloody horror film full of ghosts will be disappointed, but Dream House is a very good drama with a suspenseful plot. If you enjoy the opening 40 minutes or so, I think you'll devour the rest of the film after the twist that comes halfway through. The acting is superb and Daniel Craig's performance is a joy to watch, the fabulously chilling music of John Debney plays in the background, and director Sheridan literally creates the perfect atmosphere and clearly knows what the word gradation means. On the one hand I'm sorry that Dream House is so poorly rated, but on the other hand I'm glad that I enjoyed it so much.__P.S. Avoid the full trailer.__P.P.S. And if you listen to the soundtrack before the film, avoid the song titles for good measure. (02/02/2012)

An entertaining mystery thriller that has just the right atmosphere to draw you in from the start. You sense from the start that something is wrong and you are desperate to find out what. There's a twist in the middle and the same at the end, and although it seemed like the film wouldn't have much to offer after the first twist, the ending convinced me otherwise. A fine film for a boring afternoon, it won't stick in your memory for long, doesn't have any deeper implications (unfortunately) and you will only remember that there was a kind of mindfuck, but more than enough to entertain for the moment. (20/01/2022)

Wow! This was painful disappointment. A very promising line up featuring Jim Sheridan as director, with Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts in the main roles, but a terrible product that doesn’t work at all. The moment you start thinking a little about it, you realise that it doesn’t make any sense. And yet, the premise is not pointless, it just needs a completely different approach. (16/12/2011)

Oh dear, so many familiar names and such a lackluster outcome... First of all, this was hardly a horror film because the creators tried to scare me with jump scares that would only work on kids at a summer camp. Honestly, I can't even pin down the genre of this movie; to me, it felt like a mishmash of everything the creators had ever seen on screen, and it didn't quite gel. I don't have the highest opinion of Canadian cinema (with some exceptions), and this movie certainly didn't improve my view. / Lesson learned: When you're about to get in bed with someone, check their pulse first. (10/05/2022)