Very, very rarely do I not make it through a movie. We all have a tolerance for certain aspects of movies lacking in one regard or another–its part of the mixed bag that comes with independent horror films. Dream Home, however, a 2006 release by Maverick Entertainment, takes the cake on what i’ll never watch again and everyone’s favorite movie comment two hours of my life i’ll never get back. i didn’t past the first 45 minutes even, and i’m still a little peeved about that…
All right, maybe I should’ve finished it to give it a proper review–but let me be quick and frank about what made me turn it off:
1. the dialogue seemed to take forever. less is more sometimes–even the black and white images at the intro and title screen of the movie took entirely too long. seems the director doesn’t have much faith in his audience in terms of how long it takes a viewer to understand what is going on.
2. the premise of this movie has been dones multiple times, is tried and true, and in some ways is fail-proof given the right parameters–but Dream Home had a hard time with any of the established narrative ideas of previous haunted house movies. If anyone’s interested, there’s a step-by-step guide of sorts in a book called Dark Thoughts. The essay is by Aaron Smuts and called "Haunting the House from Within".
3. the characteres are simplified, stereotyped, and unnacceptably dull. notice i say characters and not actors–i’d like not to make comments on the actors’ ability without seeing them in something else, so i suppose the writing, again, takes this hit.
4. a cat that dissappears and reappears? give me a break.
5. as a guest in someone’s house, if you find a strange man in the bathroom calling you honey and saying he hasn’t seen you in a while, tell the owners of the house. its common courtesy.
I’d have to say that the previews at the beginning of the disc where far more enticing than the move itself.
Oh, and the house in the movie is not the same as the one on the cover, not by a long shot. The house in the movie looks to be about fifteen years old.
Awful! Don’t bother. Happy watching,
Omie
