User reviews

I was certainly interested in seeing "Dream House," since I just got back from seeing this couple in "Betrayal." Let me tell you, from a strictly visual point of view, both of them are gorgeous, not to mention both wonderful actors on stage and on screen.

I gather from reading a few reviews that this film suffers from the director having the final cut taken from him, a bad trailer, and being incorrectly advertised.

I had never heard of it until I rented it. It's a thriller about a man named Will Attenton (Craig) who quits his job in order to spend time with his wife (Weisz) and two daughters. They have bought a place away from the city, but they didn't know that three of the previous four inhabitants of the house had been murdered by the husband and father.

After some strange happenings, Will tries to find out what happened, which includes going to the institution where the father, Peter Ward, was sent after the murders. He was incapable of standing trial. What Will finds out is a huge shock.

I actually liked this film, and I would have liked to have seen the director's cut, since apparently the actors were all up in arms about Jim Sheridan not being permitted to do what he wanted with the final product.

I think for that reason, it's a tad confusing, nothing that a second viewing wouldn't solve. It's not as bad as it's been reviewed to be, and I think one poster was right - people were expecting a horror film and were disappointed.

Well, I will never be disappointed about not seeing a horror film. And I'm a sucker for Daniel Craig.

The previews and commercials for Dream House led one to believe it was a horror film, it is not, not at all. I think that is where a lot of the disappointment is coming from. It is a pretty good thriller, once you get used to the fact that that is what you are watching. The storyline, basically that horrible things have happened and we the audience have to figure it out along with the main character, is not the tired thriller standard, or at least the details are different enough to not seem tired. It's actually intriguing and the answer to the mystery is not obvious miles out, even if the climax sort of is. The acting is really quite good too. People who like mystery thrillers should enjoy the film, fans of scary movies will mostly not like it.

For the longest time I sort of refused to watch this, because I had heard that the theatrical release was cut to receive a PG13 rating ... so I was waiting for an uncut release on disc or streaming platform now. But this isn't or wasn't succesful enough to make anyone think about an "uncut" release.

Also now that I have watched it ... I don't think a couple of extra seconds of "violence" (the reason this was initially getting an R rating) would not have swayed my opinion in any direction ... still it would have been nice. Having said all that, the quite buff Daniel Craig (you will see him shirtless - steady ladies and fellas who are into this) plays the main role. And while it may feel a bit like a mystery, anyone who has seen a few thrillers will not be too surprised where the movie will take us.

Having said all that, a lot of suspension of disbelief has to be done ... for you to enjoy the movie. Because even while a many years long gap is somewhat explained .. it is not really sufficient to make sense ... anyway, you'll know once you watch and actually think about it ... if you don't think about it, don't worry! Stellar cast and an intriguing story make this more than worthwhile ...

First what you should know up front: "Dream House" is not a horror flick. Also it's rated PG-13 which means it's pretty tame (no gore, no explicit violence, etc), so if you're looking for something along the lines of The Exorcist you might wanna stick with The Exorcist.

In lieu of buckets of bile and terrifying demons, we get a really clever and tense story about a family in a remote house slowly uncovering the details of a bizarre unsolved mass murder that happened under their roof 5 years earlier. Strap on your seatbelt because the plot has more twists and turns than the Grand Prix, and there are a few total 180 turnarounds that might lose you if you're not paying attention. But overall I thought it was a great story.

My only criticism is, due to it's somewhat tame PG-13 presentation, the film loses some of its edge. At times it can feel almost like a "family film" which is totally at odds with its otherwise creepy vibe. Imagine if The Exorcist had been directed by Steven Spielberg, and maybe you'll catch my drift. In fact, "Dream House" does indeed have a Spielbergesque quality to it (as in the original "Poltergeist"), which may be to your liking, but for a lot of horror/thriller fans it's too clean and perhaps ties things up in too neat of a bundle in the end.

Acting is great all around, and I have to mention the GREAT job by the 2 sisters (and real life sisters) Taylor Geare and Claire Geare. They were ages 10 and 5 respectively and did a really convincing performance, particularly in a few scenes where they bring out an otherworldly element that's hard to describe.

I recommend this movie for its original story which digs deep into psychology and the twists of the human mind. No chainsaws or blood sucking vampires here, just a really interesting thriller that should captivate any mystery fan.

In New York, the successful editor Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) quits his job in the GPH Publishers to move to the suburb New Ashford and dedicate more time to his beloved wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) and his daughters Trish (Taylor Geare) and DeeDee (Claire Geare) and to start writing a novel.

The family is frightened by a stranger watching them through the window and Will decides to investigate and finds teenagers in a satanic cult in his basement. Sooner he discovers that the family man Peter Ward killed his wife and his two daughters in that house five years ago. Will goes to the police but the officers do not give attention to him. He also learns that Peter Ward spent five years in the Greenhaven Psychiatric Hospital but was recently discharged.

Will tries to get more information about the murder with his neighbor on the other side of the street, the divorced Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts), but she refuses to give any information to him. Will decides to go to Greenhaven to get information about Peter Ward and he discloses a dark secret about the former intern that will affect his life in his dream house.

"Dream House" is a good mystery that deserved a better screenplay. The story has a great potential and a surprising plot point but does not develop well important characters and situations after the revelation of the mystery. Usually this type of twist happens in the end, like in "The Others", or "Ghost", or "Identity", or "The Sixty Sense". In "Dream House', the mystery is disclosed too early and the last twist is very weak and predictable. But anyway I liked this film.

Daniel Craig is one of my favorite contemporary actors and Rachel Weisz is impressively gorgeous. Naomi Watts is effective, as usual, and the relationship of Ann with her husband deserved a better development. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Casa dos Sonhos" ("The Dream House")

Note: On 31 March 2012, I saw this film again on Blu-Ray.

This begins to look like the story of a successful publisher that decides to quit his job and retire to the house of his dreams to live there peacefully with his wife and children. But the story gets complicated while it develops itself and the dream house soon becomes a nightmare one after husband and wife know that terrible murders had taken place there five years before and strange events still related to it are still happening there and scaring them. But from then on the story loses itself in a lot of loose ends making it very confusing although most of them get tied up in the end in a somewhat fanciful outcome. After a certain time we understand that the story mixes up reality and imagination or even dream. The end of the movie may be considered an open ending, happy or unhappy according to the viewer's interpretation of the surprising final scene. The acting is good, the thrilling scenes are good enough and the plot confusion doesn't spoil the movie whole after all.

I give this movie a 7. The premise was pretty good, the cast was good, and the twists were pretty smart and executed fairly well. I do however think it was a little slow, and there were a few tiny technical details they should have not played with that were just annoying.

The biggest thing that killed me is accents. Yes, accents. First, if you want to make a film that is firmly rooted in the U.S., why does someone go out of their way to hire foreign actors. OK, Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig are probably a package deal since they are married, then they throw in an Aussie with Naomi Watts ( who, by the way was probably the only one that pulled it off). Daniel Craig's character, whether by plot design, or just plain bad fluctuates between his regular British accent, a plain American accent, and a tiny bit of an American southern twang accent. If this isn't bad ( or at least confusing) enough, you have the beautiful European ( Hungarian/Austrian) woman that grew up in England, Rachel Weisz, speaking in a southern accent. Please, just let Rachel Weisz use her own accent, it is sexy, and it would not have made a difference at all, but alas, it was the little thing that annoyed me the most.

Good storyline. Plot twists on plot twists. Definitely worth a watch.

Generic and predicable thriller made somewhat bearable by the undeniable chemistry and acting chops between Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz, even though both actors involved deserved better than what they were giving with the material. Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz work very well together on screen ( and supposedly in real life as well) but they should have waited for a better film to showcase their chemistry and acting chops then this film, which not only does not respect their efforts in trying to bring humanity and credibility to a badly written script but does not even try to at least capitalize on their efforts in bringing more to the movie. Instead, the movie goes into several different unnecessary directions that goes no where and drags this film down. Naomi Watts is good as well but i just did not think much about her character and found her an unnecessary, forced inclusion to the story that ruins the film by making it even more predictable than it already is. The film also feels like it was two separate movies before it became one. Its a ghost story then it moves into a mystery with out it making much sense, not to mention the fact of how predicable the whole structure is. Let's just say that you have in fact seen this story before.

Its alright for what it is but it could have been much more, especially with two great actors (Weisz and Craig) having great acting chemistry on screen.

An unusual twist in this movie kept me watching it through. Great cast and good story, lots of suspense. Plus it's under 90 minutes. I recomend giving it a try. It's entertaining.

For the entire first half of the movie I kept finding myself thinking, "This really isn't that bad." Yes, the trailer ruins the movie (it's not the only twist but it is the major one, and is the primary reason that I've stopped watching trailers unless I'm unsure if I want to see the film) and so in the back of my head was always the knowledge of what was going to be revealed; I love that the producers tried to say that it doesn't spoil the movie, so stupid.

Still though, it was a relatively interesting story and Daniel Craig is almost always a commanding actor who can keep my attention. I was interested enough to keep going, despite some of the more obvious clichés of the horror genre, like building up suspense then dropping it and then having a loud noise to make the audience jump. Then the trailer twist was revealed and everything goes downhill after that. The tone of the film entirely shifts from this horror setup to a drama about an unstable man. The middle act was incredibly dull, despite Craig's best efforts it just felt like nothing was running well at all. I kept waiting for the film to end before it got worse, but boy it got to a level of bad that I was not expecting at all.

The producers kept saying that the twist in the trailer "wasn't the big twist" and they were right, but damn I wish they had been lying. When the "big twist" comes it all feels so rushed, underdeveloped and absolutely absurd. My mouth almost dropped open from just how hilariously stupid it was. As a huge fan of Craig, Rachel Weisz and horror, this ended up being a major disappointment. No wonder the two of them and Jim Sheridan refused to do any promotion for it.

Am I the only one that really liked this movie? Am I the only one that thought it was insanely clever, with a sick double-twist ending? Maybe not, but from the other reviews it seems like I'm one of the few! I agree with the other review - I watched this because I thought it was a horror movie, and it is much more of a psychological creepy awesome movie. But it's good, enough said.

Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz are great, enough said.

Written really well, and directed well. Once you think 'ah, nice, cliché, I see the ending' - nope! Give it a shot, it's a really great movie. I feel like with a few modifications it could've been even better, on par with The Sixth Sense, but it was still great. I'd watch it again.

A family moves into their suburban home to live their dream but it turns out that they bought a murder house that is famous and toxic. The local teenagers tend to congregate in the basement to reenact the most famous crimes in their town's history. The one when the father of the household killed his wife and two girls in that very home. They find out that the killer has been set loose on account of a lack of evidence. This flick is well told; it comes complete with a great house as a main character. We have to go back and forth in time in order to tell the story with suspense, this conceit is never my favorite, but still and all, this is a competent movie.

Editor and author Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) quits a high power job in Manhattan to relocate with his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. However, as they settle into their new life, they discover that their house was the murder scene of a mother and her two children. Will tries to befriend his neighbour Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts) and find out from her what happened but she is not too eager to talk.

Meanwhile, Will's younger daughter starts seeing someone lurking outside the window at night. As Will pieces together the haunting puzzle, he must find out who murdered the family in his dream house before the culprit returns to kill again.

"Dream House" is not a suspense thriller that will jolt you with sudden loud music and cheap scares. Instead, it plays games with your mind, keeping you guessing about what's happening and making you sort out the plot yourself. Now, if you like your thrillers done this way, then go for it. If not, this one is going to be a nightmare...

Director Jim Sheridan's plot build-up is almost by-the-book and he makes no apology for it. The opening scenes show Will as a devoted father and loving husband. At first, his daughter's visions of a shadowy figure are dismissed quietly, but when Will gets physical evidence of someone lurking around, our curiosity heightens. Sheridan, who gave us "My Left Foot" and "In The Name of The Father", is not delivering this thriller to his audience in a platter. He just dishes out the cards and lets his audience sort them out - at least until the closing sequences.

At first, it feels rather weird to see beefcake Craig as a domesticated guy. However, there is a good chemistry between he and Weisz who also lends a loving and tender touch to the proceedings. The kids, played by Claire and Taylor Geare, are also convincing and adorable. It would have been great to see more of Naomi Watts but her role is rather limited - and she acquits herself professionally. Fans of Rachel G. Fox, the Scarvo girl in TV's Desperate Housewives, will find her in a cameo as Ann's daughter Chloe. All in all, a thriller for the thinking viewer.

Good movie that could've been better.

Great actors but story was a little muddled.

Excellent surprise twist half way through the movie. In some ways the movie had that sixth sense kind of feel about it.

Greetings again from the darkness. The horror/thriller idealist in me just never gives up. With three legit movie stars and a director who is responsible for one of my favorite movies, I thought this might just be the genre's rare gem. Instead, it's watchable, kinda fun, and mostly predictable.

Much of the predictability comes from the trailer, which inexplicably spoils the key twist in the film. Because of the trailer, I actually expected an additional twist to contradict the give-away. Instead, it plays out pretty much as expected, saved only by the efforts of Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz (now married in real life). Word is that the producer of the film, wrestled control away from director Jim Sheridan (In America, My Left Foot) and edited the film into it's mostly banal finished state. Such a shame.

Basic story is that a NYC white collar professional quits his job and moves his wife and two girls to their dream house in a quaint little community. Problem is, no one told them that a few years back a mom and her two daughters were murdered, supposedly by the husband who then spent years in a mental institution. With the help of a neighbor (Naomi Watts), Craig starts assembling the pieces of the murder mystery and his new home. On top of that, Elias Koteas is tracking his every move and watching the house.

The frustration with this one lies in untapped potential. So much more could have been done with Koteas, Watts and Marton Csokas who plays Watts' intense ex-husband. For two days after watching this movie, I kept coming up with new twists and turns that could have made the movie more suspenseful and entertaining. It's clear that Craig and Weisz are unhappy with the final product as they have been noticeably absent on the talk show circuit.

It's not the worst suspense thriller you'll ever see, but there are better haunted house films on the market.

Dream House...or not really a Dream House at all? That is certainly a question. And not every question has an answer. However this one does (A: not really a Dream House).

I stumbled across this film by accident when it came on the box during a mini-marathon of home improvement/renovation/moving shows. Expecting another half hour of property porn I felt my anxiety levels steadily increasing as time passed with only minimal progress being made on the renovations - a few dabs of paint here and there does not a Dream House make.

Just when I started to sense that the pace would soon pick up the plot took a major twist, in turn taking me completely by surprise (genuinely)! Amongst other things, the twist revealed that this so-called Dream House was in need of much more substantial repair work than anyone had anticipated - it was found to be unsafe for habitation by local authorities shortly thereafter.

Notwithstanding the deceptive title and the gripe below, I really enjoyed this film. Solid performances and a decent script coupled with a good, though thoroughly unambitious, blend of mystery, drama, and suspense.

Gripe: One element of the film I did not enjoy was the lack of creativity in how the plot twist gets revealed - there's no graded opportunity for the audience to (try to) join the dots, and feel super smart and smug for 'working it out' - which is a lot of the fun when it comes to these types of films! I do wonder if the conversation on set between director and writer might have gone something like this:

Sheridan: I love this plot twist but we need a less subtle way of revealing it. Loucka: Oh okay, we could drop some more obvious clues early on? Sheridan: We could.. but that's still too subtle. Could we do it with no subtlety? Loucka: None at all? Sheridan: Yeah, none. Loucka: Hmm... well a credible character could just tell everyone exactly what the twist is? Sheridan: Brilliant. Loucka: Thanks; I'm going to finish my other other 'house' themed script now.

Luckily, I didn't read the reviews before watching this, or I may have THOUGHT I was watching a horror story, as one reviewer suggested. So, I went into this based on the talented people in the cast. I was not disappointed. I was very surprised by the twist at the end, though I did figure one part out, which I won't address here. For those who like thrillers, I think I can honestly say that you will enjoy this film. I know I did, and I'll watch it again!

Recently watched this movie and I thought it was going to a be a run of the mill haunted house movie. It turned out a bit different and with the twist around halfway it made the movie worth watching. Don't watch any trailers and just watch the movie, it's not Oscar stuff but worth the time. I would have preferred a different ending but I usually do. Good acting and tense action.

I went to see this film with great expectations as I'm a great fan of Sheridan's body of work and also happen to enjoy Psychological Suspense/Horror films (NOT slasher film trash). So I was really quite disappointed with this effort by a team that seemed to have so much potential.

But now it all makes sense to learn that the final effort was yanked away from Sheridan; which has resulted in a homogenized and generic thriller made up of (and the result of) idiotic random behind-the-scenes "creative decision making" by Test Audiences(?) and less-than-passionate-about-the-story/genre Studio Heads whose primary involvement was solely in getting a "Horror/Thriller" into theaters by October in order to cash in on the Halloween audience.

Seeing this happen again and again, I doubt they will ever learn. This is the only industry in the world where one (as a Producer) can "fail upward" just because you got something (anything) produced (in the can).

As a final note: There was a fantastic Spec Script floating around a couple of years ago with nearly the same title... "The Dream House." It was somewhat similar, as it involved an Architect & his family who rehab & remodel an abandoned mansion by a lake; but THAT script was a truly terrifying Horror/Ghost Story along the same lines as Shirley Jackson & Robert Wise's quintessential B&W Horror Classic "The Haunting."

With this Dream House turning out to be such a dud and a nightmare, hopefully that spec script will resurface in the near future to make up for this failed effort.