Dreamcatcher (2003)

User Rating:

5.3/10   

Director:

Lawrence Kasdan

Writers (WGA):

Stephen King (novel)
William Goldman (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 March 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Four friends hung a dreamcatcher in their cabin. It's about to catch something it cannot stop.

Plot:

Friends on a camping trip discover that the town they're vacationing in, is being plagued in an unusual fashion by parasitic aliens from outer space.

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Maine | Blizzard | Hunting Trip | Hunting

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

Morgan Freeman	...	Col. Abraham Curtis
Thomas Jane	...	Henry
Jason Lee	...	Beaver
Damian Lewis	...	Jonesy
Timothy Olyphant	...	Pete
Tom Sizemore	...	Owen
Donnie Wahlberg	...	Duddits
Mikey Holekamp	...	Young Henry
Reece Thompson	...	Young Beaver
Giacomo Baessato	...	Young Jonesy
Joel Palmer	...	Young Pete
Andrew Robb	...	Young Duddits
Eric Keenleyside	...	Rick McCarthy
Rosemary Dunsmore	...	Roberta Cavell
Michael O'Neill	...	Gen. Matheson

Also Known As:

L'attrapeur de rêves (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, gore and language.

Runtime:

136 min | USA:134 min

Country:

USA | Canada | Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Iceland:14 (theatrical rating) | Malaysia:18SG | Portugal:M/16 | USA:R (No. 39706) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA | Brazil:16 | Canada:18A | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | France:-12 | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:NC-16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG (edited for re-rating) | South Korea:15 | Sweden:15 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | Greece:K-17

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

This was the story that Stephen King wrote while he recovered from his near fatal accident. The accident is reflected in the story, especially in a graphic scene in which a major character in run down by a vehicle.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In the scene where the tracking device in the pistol is monitored, the marker shows Interstate 95 running to the west of Dixfield, Maine. I 95 does not run this close to Dixfield; the closest it runs is Auburn, ME (Exit 75; about 35 miles southeast) and Augusta, ME (Exits 104, 112, and 113; almost 50 miles from Dixfield to the East).

Quotes:

Dr. Henry Devlin: [Begins talking into the gun like it's a phone] Hello? Jonesy. Jesus Christ, I knew it was you. Where's he taking you? Massachusetts. He is? Duddits, OK... Jonesy, I will. You hang in there. Jonesy? Jonesy. He hung up...
Captain Owen Underhill: Give me back my gun.

Movie Connections:

References Aliens (1986)

Soundtrack:

Scooby Doo, Where Are You

Nice start... but then things go terribly wrong

This movie starts very interesting and then, around the arrival of Morgan Feeman, becomes almost total crap. What I thought was going to be a supernatural thriller, the way it started, turns out to be a silly sci-fi horror almost as bad as the Stephen King adaptation of 'Sleepwalkers', just to name one.

May be it is very hard to make a good Stephen King adaptation when it involves creatures not from this earth, or in a different time, or et cetera. 'The Langoliers' is another great example of something that starts very interesting and once those monsters appear becomes something stupid. There it took a while for them to appear, here we are only at a quarter of the movie.

The interesting supernatural part I was talking about involves the four friends Henry, Beaver, Jonesy and Pete. As kids they meet the mentally retarded Duddits, who seems to have supernatural powers and passes some of them to the four friends. As adults (they are played by Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis and Timothy Olyphant) they still have the powers and that is where the movie begins. They have telepathic gifts; they know things from strangers and are able to have contact with each other without speaking, and this is demonstrated with the great opening scenes.

When the four friends go to the woods for some hunting things go wrong. With them, and the movie. I will not tell you what happens exactly because you can guess by then. The movie never gets scary or interesting after the opening scenes again. For me the only thing I could enjoy from there was snow falling from the sky and performances that were alright. With two hours and ten minutes the movie is way too long and with a something this stupid and predictable you can only waste your time. Read the book and make your own version instead.