Dreamcatcher not half bad!!
Boy, it's been ages since I liked a horror sci fi film it seems and man, Dreamcatcher is pretty damned good! I think it really gets a huge help from some good direction by Kasdan and really great acting from everybody involved. I deliberately didn't read the book when I saw who was gonna be in the cast, so I have no idea how it was. Anyone else see it? Let's rip it up / laud it!!
Seven
Not bad, but not great either...
When I saw "Dreamcatcher," I was entertained, I got a few jumps out of my seat, and I was left a little uneasy for a few hours after seeing it. It quickly wore off though, so it by no means gives me the same chill I get when I see "The Exorcist" or "The Shining." Those two are the only horror movies that continue to frighten me no matter how often I see them. That's more of a psychological effect for me. I'm not scared at what I'm seeing, so much as the thought of what those movies are about, and how those thoughts affect me. But back to "Dreamcatcher."
It's a good film, and it has its moments. I will however say that I think Stephen King is a little overrated. I was with a group of my friends when I saw the film, and I'm the only one of them who is NOT a Stephen King afficionado...but even then, I was still able to laugh with them at noticing the many similarities to other King works. Four kids in the woods...walking along the train tracks, looking for a dead friend's body in "Stand By Me." Not too dissimilar from the image of the four friends as kids helping Douglas (Duditz) and then following him along the train tracks. Familiar image? Definitely. The overall plot...a combination of "The Regulators," "The Tommyknockers," and even "The Stand." The scenes where the soldiers are rounding up the people who are supposedly infected was very similar to some of those scenes from "The Stand" when they were...well, doing the same thing. Hell, even the aliens looked like elongated versions of "The Langoliers," at least the way they looked in the TV mini-series.
As a movie, "Dreamcatcher" is pretty good. It's not the scariest movie ever made, and it's certainly not the most original, but it is entertaining, and certainly something I wouldn't mind watching again. But for people who think Stephen King is god...well, I could say some things, but I'll just say this...he's not.
No way Stephen King is God, he's not even J.C.!!
...and by that I mean John Carpenter, a guy who can REALLY scare the bejesus out of you! The Thing looks like it is always going to be my fave horror / sci fi film at this point. No one seems to make films of its caliber anymore. However, Dreamcatcher I still say was a great effort, and had much homage to The Thing in it, too, I might add. Kasdan knows what he's up against, apparently!!
Oh my god I can't remember!!
Now those trailer taglines are running through my head and I can't remember where the tagline "Be afraid. Be very afraid." came from!! Help me out, here guys...gals...Aliens? What?! Arrrrghh!!