Dream House
“Every house has a past. This one refuses to stay buried.”
Director
Jim Sheridan
Release
25 November 2011
Runtime
92 Minutes
Certificate
15
Synopsis
Will Atenton has made a major change to his life. Leaving his job in publishing, he moves with his wife Libby and their two daughters into a house where he hopes they can build a quieter life together. For a while, that's exactly what it appears to be. Then unsettling incidents begin. Will discovers that local teenagers have been gathering around the property because of its notorious history. A family once lived there. The mother and children were murdered. The father was accused of killing them. The revelation immediately changes how Will sees his family's new home. He begins searching for information about the murders, eventually crossing paths with neighbour Ann Patterson, who appears to know considerably more about the previous occupants than she's initially willing to reveal. As Will continues investigating, pieces of the house's history begin connecting in ways he never expected. What initially seemed like a mystery about strangers who lived there years earlier becomes something far more personal. Discovering the truth means confronting memories buried for a reason.
The Movie Trailer
Dream House is a psychological mystery thriller starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts, centred on a family whose seemingly idyllic new home conceals a disturbing history.
Will Atenton leaves his successful publishing career behind to spend more time with his wife Libby and their two daughters in their new house.
It should represent a fresh beginning.
Instead, strange events suggest something is very wrong with their new home.
Will discovers that the house was previously the scene of a brutal crime in which a mother and her children were murdered — and local suspicion centred on the husband and father.
Determined to understand what happened, Will begins investigating the property's history.
But the closer he gets to the truth, the less certain he becomes about everything he thought he knew.
THE PERFECT HOME
Will Atenton's Fresh Start Hides a Terrible Past
The house initially represents everything Will wants from his new life.
He has stepped away from his career and chosen to devote more time to his family, with the property providing the setting for that fresh beginning.
Then he discovers what happened there.
Suddenly every room carries a different meaning.
The home that should make Will's family feel safe becomes the source of increasingly uncomfortable questions.
Who lived there before them?
What really happened on the night of the murders?
And why does it seem as though the past hasn't completely left?
BURIED MEMORIES
The Mystery Becomes More Personal With Every Answer
Will approaches the house's history like a mystery that can be solved.
Find the records.
Talk to the neighbours.
Discover who committed the murders.
But Dream House gradually undermines the certainty of that investigation.
The deeper Will digs, the more difficult it becomes to separate the mystery surrounding the property from his own experience inside it.
Answers don't necessarily clarify the situation.
Instead, each discovery forces Will to reconsider something he previously accepted as fact.
Eventually, solving the mystery of the house means understanding why its history feels so disturbingly familiar.
CRAIG, WEISZ & WATTS
Three Performances at the Centre of Dream House's Mystery
Dream House builds much of its mystery around the relationships between Will, Libby and neighbour Ann Patterson.
Daniel Craig's Will is determined to protect his family while attempting to understand a situation that becomes increasingly difficult to explain.
Rachel Weisz gives Libby an emotional importance that extends far beyond the conventional role of a thriller protagonist's wife.
Naomi Watts' Ann, meanwhile, occupies the edge of the mystery.
She knows something.
The question is why she's so reluctant to tell Will.
As the connections between the three characters become clearer, the film moves away from the straightforward haunted-house story it initially appears to be and towards something considerably more psychological.