Dreamcatcher [2003]

August 14, 2009

Dreamcatcher was panned by both critics and regular moviegoers, so what do we really have here? A movie that doesn’t have much direction or coherent storytelling. However, in this mess, a strange thing happened. A combination of great actors, phenomenal visuals, and zany events lead to a trashy roller coaster ride that’s surprisingly enjoyable. Like a strange music video for a King novel. Another thing also happened, but I think it was unintentional: Dreamcatcher highlighted the King template. It’s always some guys who were friends when they were younger and now things are different.

Add to this some supernatural element and you got yourself a King template. Well, the main King template as the man has written so many novels and short stories that he simply cannot be pinned down into a single category. Actually, you can say the same thing about the movie we’re talking about today. Dreamcatcher is a science fiction, mystery, fantasy, thriller, and horror movie all at the same time. Thanks to the runtime of just over two hours, it feels like several movies compressed into one. And it’s also willing to go places you wouldn’t expect modern commercial movies to go.

The opening scene first hits us with some hard truths and then shows us a man on a brink of committing suicide. This sense of mystery is all-enveloping and it pushes the story forward. In fact, it pushes it so much forward that we end up with a creature feature. And a creature featured in this creature feature is one fascinating organism. This is something that I will leave for you to discover. I just want to mention that it feels Lovecraftian in a certain sense. Something we could notice in another, much better King adaptation, The Mist.

Although some of the scenes reminded me of another early 2000s creepy movie, The Cell. I should also tell you that Stephen King’s novel Dreamcatcher is much better than this movie. A lot of the parts are missing along with a couple of really important twists. So, if you’re looking for a good book to read, there’s your solution right there.

Four childhood friends are on their way to a remote cabin for their annual get-together. They all share a secret, a strange, telepathic ability of which they became aware after saving a mentally challenged boy when they were kids. But when one of them helps a man lost in the woods and brings him into the cabin, even stranger things will begin to happen.

With a budget of almost $70 million, Dreamcatcher features excellent special effects and production values. They were truly groundbreaking for the early 2000s, a time when CGI was finally getting realistic. I keep thinking of another movie from that era, Van Helsing. Another bold project featuring a lot of CGI and an utterly bizarre story. You can say that Dreamcatcher created a nice balance between character development, “regular scenes” and CGI. And the atmosphere at times was really creepy. We’re talking about Stephen King’s creepy atmosphere here just to be perfectly clear.

I remember watching this movie just as it came out and freaking loving it! The snowy setting was gorgeous but it was the creature that fucking got me. And I also enjoyed the sense of escalation, turning Dreamcatcher into a summer blockbuster from a personal drama. Finally, if you’re looking for similar movies, you already know what movie I’m going to recommend. Yes, my all-time favorite The Thing is always worth another run. Can you already hear that bass guitar soundtrack? Although I guess Slither and Deep Rising are more similar.