Dream House: "Everybody Who Lives In This House Gets Killed"

Director: Jim Sheridan

Writer:   David Loucka
Starring: Daniel Craig
              Rachel Weisz
             Naomi Watts
             Martin Csokas

             Claire Geare
             Taylor Geare
             Rachel G Fox

             Elias Koteas
Rating:   **

Release Date: 25/11/11

So, a film that looked like it could have been a genuinely promising horror/thriller, turned out to be dull, slow and predictable.

So a family consisting of Will and Libby (Craig & Weisz) and their twin daughters (Geare twins) move to their 'dream house' in Connecticut. Everything starts peachy keen, and then strange things start happening, and then they notice a man looking in on them from outside. They begin to become concerned about this strange man, and ask around the neighbourhood, only to find out that their new house was a scene for a grizzly murder a few years back. From this point on, things go a bit tits up, and one obvious twist after another unveils, and leaves you feeling dull inside. Ok, so Craig and Wentz do a lovely job, and have excellent chemistry. They are brilliant actors so I expected the best from them, and they gave what they could, considering. The twins, were your typical horror movie children, just there screaming, being occasionally creepy, you know the type. The family as a whole did a good job, but it couldn't really save the film, nor could they make it scary.

The neighbours are Ann and Jack (Watts & Csokas), a soon to be divorced couple with a teenage daughter, Chloe (Fox). Ann is the neighbour that spills the beans to Will and she is there to help him out along the way. Her husband adds a little twist to the film but not much else, and I didn't quite find myself caring about him. Watts is a terrific horror actress, and she does well in this film as always, but like the others before, she couldn't help the film one bit. Also the daughter, Chloe, didnt really add anything, nor did it take anything away. She was an alright character but that was it, was a  shame really.

Finally the villain, Boyce (Koteas), an evil man who has a lot to do with the big twist in the film, a predictable twist at that (with no help from the trailer). He is hired by Jack to do some nasty stuff about half way throught the film, and it is soon revealed he did some even nastier stuff in the past. Whilst the twist is good, it's been done before, and also the trailer kind of gives it away. Koteas is a deliciosly malicious villian in this film, but it just isn't enough.

Overall it just doesn't work, but for one big reason, the big wigs from the movie company butting in and ruining a potentially good film (Hello Weinsteins). It got so bad that the director (Sheridan), Craig and Weisz have refused to promote the film, as they are so unhappy with all the editing. I really want to see the original idea for the film, just to see if it was any better. I'm gonna have to say that I think it is best to avoid this horror, as it just doesn't fit the bill, probably why they avoided an October release date.

Dream House - Trailer