Review of Dreamcatcher (2003) by Jim S — 13 Sep 2014

Considered a bomb when it first came out, it's gotten somewhat better with age and lowered expectations. I think expectations were too high when you had an A-List director like Lawrence Kasdan taking on a genre Stephen King sci-fi/horror novel hybrid, featuring a script by an Oscar winner writer, William Goldman, who'd previously adapted the terrific King novel, "Misery".

Add on top of that a cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis, Tom Sizemore and Donnie Wahlberg and it seems like a film that couldn't miss. I think the films main downfall is that it feels like tow different films.

The first half is along the lines of John Carpenter's "The Thing" with a monster terrorizing a group of men isolated in the snowy woods. It's when the film drifts into an alien "Independence Day" government conspiracy story line that the film loses it's way.

The second half feels like a completely different movie. Either the first half or the second half probably should have been shortened so the film would have had a consistent focus. Still, I really did like the first half and that's enough for me to be a fan of this film.

The film also had a good balance of practical and digital special effects. I remember reading an interview with Kasdan at the time and he said something along the lines of, you know how people says it's always scarier when you don't show the monster? I totally disagree with that and it's way scarier when you show the monster! I remember thinking I kind of liked that aesthetic to the film, making sure it had a good scary monster.

The story does seem to be a bit of a King cliche, which flashback to the now grown up group of men as kids growing up and having traumatizing experiences as children (i.e. "IT" "Stand by Me" etc.

) Despite it's faults, it's not a bad film but it probably could have been better.