Metascore

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 16 Critics What's this?

User Score

Mixed or average reviews- based on 61 Ratings

  • Starring: Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz
  • Summary: Some say that all houses have memories. For one man, his home is the place he would kill to forget. Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts star in "Dream House," a suspense thriller about a family that unknowingly moves into a home where several grisly murders were committed...only to find themselves the killer's next target. Successful publisher Will Atenton quit a job in New York City to relocate his wife, Libby, and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived. When Will investigates the tragedy, his only lead comes from Ann Paterson, a neighbor who was close to the family that died. Will and Ann piece together the disturbing puzzle. (Universal Pictures)


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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 16
  2. Negative: 5 out of 16
  1. Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    Sep 30, 2011
    75
    It's painful to watch a movie like Dream House - well-acted, beautifully shot and directed with extraordinary care and attention to craft - only to realize that the story, the alleged backbone, is absurd.
  2. Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    Oct 1, 2011
    50
    70 minutes into the 90-minute process, I was engaged. Then it all collapsed.
  3. Reviewed by: Tasha Robinson
    Oct 1, 2011
    42
    The film's ambitions are woefully small and familiar.
  4. Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    Sep 30, 2011
    38
    So much is just so…obvious.

See all 16 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 26
  2. Negative: 4 out of 26
  1. The fact that this movie tells you everything halfway makes it that much more compelling. It isn't a thriller in the sense of what is going to happen to next but rather it allows you to believe that such a scenario could happen to anyone and they will have no clue. The character is the story. Expand
  2. The trailer and poster are not as they seem. The movie looks like a drama and a film is highly recommended to view one Sunday afternoon.
  3. Some of the critics are unduly harsh on this movie. Its engaging. There are a few interesting twists. Its not nearly as creepy as the ads would lead you to believe, but my teenage boys enjoyed it enough that they were still talking about it a week later. No need to see it in theatre though, fine to watch at home. Expand
  4. The film tells the story of an executive of a publishing house, who abandons his job to spend more time with his with family, moving into the house of his dreams ... he discovers there, after a few events, that five years before, there was a massacre inside the house. The performance of Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts (especially) are the best of the film: Daniel Craig can give dramatic air in the later parts of the film, but in scenes that he show more emotion as a father (happy ones), the thing is a little awkward. The script is well written in the early suspense parts of the film, from the middle to the end, especially in the last one is weird, and rushed - the movie would have the potential to be a good movie, if he hadn't "lost his breath" and finished so abruptly, out of nowhere (and a brief scene with any connection to the main story appear at the beginning of it, to explain the end). Although I think it is a unpretentious distraction as a movie, with and a story a bit unusual. My score: 4.0 / 10.0. Expand

See all 26 User Reviews

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