Dream House. Some say that all houses have memories. For one man, his home is the place he would kill to forget. A family unknowingly moves into a home where several grisly murders were committed...only to find themselves the killer's next target. Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a job in New York City to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived. When Will investigates the tragedy, his only lead comes from Ann Paterson (Watts), a neighbor who was close to the family that died. As Will and Ann piece together the disturbing puzzle, they discover that the story of the last man to leave Will's dream house will be just as horrifying to the one who came next.
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"After Thursday nights brilliant PR event to promote the release of Dream House on DVD..."
After Thursday nights brilliant PR event to promote the release of Dream House on DVD, you can read all about my experience here! I was certainly looking forward to finally getting round to watching the movie, I gathered a few friends around my house at midnight in an attempt to maximise the horror, which we would later learn was completely unnecessary because not only is the film 100% not frightening, the narrative trundles along with torturous frustration and the big twist is revealed halfway through the film, I mean I even feel slightly hesitant to use the word twist.
To quickly get you up to speed with the plot, Craig plays Will Atenten, a high flying New York businessman (is there any other kind!?) who gives it up all to move to New England with his beautiful family to settle down and make the most of his life. Shortly after moving in to his supposedly idyllic new home, he discovers a bunch of Goths in his basement one night. After shooing them out he learns that his house was actually the scene of a brutal series of murders that happened 5 years ago, and not only that, the killer who was the father of the family is back on the loose! Dum Dum Duuum! Now for anyone with half a brain cell, and even anyone who saw the trailer , which stupidly gave the twist away and I hope someone was fired for that! Its not hard to see where things are going.
The final act of the film is a bit of a mess in terms of narrative, as we jump back and forth between reality and dreams, ghosts and the living all wandering in and out of the same scene which could be mistaken for clever filmmaking, actually is just a clear example of a fairly decent director like Jim Sheridan making the most of a poor script. Sheridan is one of those hit and miss directors, his early work with Daniel Day Lewis was brilliant, he slightly missed the mark with the atrocious 50 cent film Get Rich Or Die Trying (its spelt tryin' but I refuse to type that) 2009's Brothers was brilliant, yet Dream House fails to deliver, visually there are some nice moments and the cinematography has moments of beauty, the performances from Daniel Craig, Rachel Weiz and Naomi Watts are as good as they can be in a situation like this, why Craig felt the need to sign onto this is any ones guess. Most of the time I just wanted him to be 007 and kick everyones arse but sadly not.
In terms of the extras, theres not much apart from a few bog standard making of featurettes but personally all I wanted to see in the making of was someone apologising for even doing so.
Oliver Hayes