Review of Dream House (2011) by Spencer S — 18 Dec 2014

It's really surprising that this film hasn't been paid more attention. Not positive attention, mind you, but the kind of attention that truly bad films deserve. This film should have been eviscerated, picked apart, and trivialized until it couldn't languish in its obscurity any longer.

Director Jim Sheridan (a six time Oscar nominee) tried to get his name taken off of this film after it was recut, and the trailer released, which gave away the entire twist of the film. That's right, if you watch the trailer, you will understand the entire film without having to watch it.

Daniel Craig plays a father and husband, who lives in a house, which apparently was home to a family who was murdered five years prior. While the film looks like a ghost story, it's actually a psychological mystery, which it needn't be.

This film is clumsy, thoughtless, confusing, and doesn't know what it wants to be. The ending is slapped on carelessly, in a way that makes you laugh incredulously, like "Really? That's how you're going to end this horrible tale?" The murders are handled horribly, trying to make the gruesome deaths somehow dreamlike, taking away all the familial tension.

The specters somehow have agency, and shift from his mind to nearly tangible phantoms. If you're looking for a well handled haunted house film, this is not it.