Film: Dream House
Studio: Cliffjack Motion Pictures
Release Date: Sept. 30
Grade: D
This past weekend, moviegoers were duped by Hollywood…again. Why do people keep falling for the same old tricks over and over?
Deceptively marketed as a horror film, Dream House was, sadly, the exact opposite. The official trailer portrayed the perfect formula: a creepy house with a dark secret, an unsolved triple murder, and whisperings of a killer still on the loose. Surprisingly, the movie didn't live up to the hype of the trailer – or live up to anything for that matter.
The story follows Will Atenton (Daniel Craig, Cowboys & Aliens), a man who has just quit his publishing job to pursue a career in writing and spend more time at home with his family. Along with his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz, the Deep Blue Sea) and two daughters, he moves to the suburbs, leaving New York City behind.
Eventually, the four of them learn that the previous owner had murdered his entire family five years earlier, sending Will's life into chaos as he attempts to unravel the mystery of his new home. He also tries to speak to his neighbor Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts, Fair Game), a woman who knows more about the house than she originally reveals.
Dream House attempts to fool the viewer by throwing a few poorly planned twists into the film, one of which was actually in the official trailer. If a person had watched the movie without having seen the promotional footage, though, he or she will be able to figure it out within the first ten minutes.
The major question the audience will most likely have is why Craig, Weisz, and Watts agreed to appear in a movie with a mediocre-at-best storyline in the first place, let alone one with more plot holes than a Michael Bay film.
The last minute of the film was just as ridiculous as the first 90. Clearly, no one knew how to finish this disaster so they tacked on an ambiguous ending that made the movie even more clichéd.
What at first appeared to be an intricate supernatural thriller turned out to be a muddled and boring catastrophe that is sure to fall into the "forgotten movie" category – if only the creator had the decency to never write it at all. One can dream.
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