A “Shutter Island” meets “Baby Blues” plot makes for an interesting and twisted movie. “Dream House” stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts, and it’s a definite must-see this year for lovers of psychological thrillers or a good mystery.
A family leaves the city for their “dream house” in the suburbs. Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) leaves his job so that he can spend more time with his wife (Rachel Weisz) and their two young daughters (Taylor Geare and Claire Geare). Will is supposed to work from home, writing a book. However, shortly after moving in strange occurrences begin happening in and around the house, bothering the family.
The family learns of a brutal murder that took place in the house years earlier. A woman and her two daughters were shot and killed and the husband was shot by his wife before she died. The Atenton family is left in their new house to wonder why the man had killed his own family. The only real clues Will can get are from his neighbor, Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts). Ann seems to be the only person who knows anything about what happened and who is willing to talk about it.
“Dream House” starts out like the typical horror movie, leaning more toward a ghost story than a gore fest. It will have viewers clutching their seats or even jumping out of them, depending on which is found to be scarier, loud banging sounds or ghostly figures appearing outside of windows.
The writer of “Dream House,” David Loucka, had a few tricks up his sleeve with the plot of the movie. Following the plot is a bit like driving on a curvy road in the mountains on a nice day that suddenly turns into a blizzard. The road is clearly marked, but at times it’s difficult to locate where the edge lines are and where the middle is.
About halfway through the movie, though, the plot slows down and nearly comes to a stop, but viewers should hold on because the story picks up again at almost the end of the movie for one final twist in the metaphorical windy road before coming to a dead end, or the end of the movie.
Craig’s character, Will, lives in his own dream house, in more ways than one. Even after learning what actually happened in the house, he continues talking to the “ghosts” in the house, convincingly playing a crazy man.
While “Dream House” is a good ghost story, with twists that will catch someone off-guard if they are not paying close attention, for the most part many of the twists are predictable but still interesting. The plot has a close resemblance to “Shutter Island,” – sometimes too much so. In fact, if it had come out before the DiCaprio flick, “Dream House” would be a much more interesting film.
Regardless, “Dream House” has a decent who-dunnit type of storyline, making it a good movie to watch.
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Rating: B
“Dream House”
Starring Daniel Craig and Naomi Watts
Rated PG-13 for violence, terror, some sexuality and brief, strong language