Dreamcatcher (2003) Review

Dreamcatcher (2003) Review

Dreamcatcher has many of the hallmarks of a great Stephen King story, and is something of a throwback to the sci-fi/horror movies of the 80’s, but unfortunately it’s a bit muddled, with moments of greatness, and moments of great stupidity. 

Four guys who have been friends since childhood reunite for a hunting trip in Maine. Flashbacks used throughout the movie show how they helped a mentally handicapped boy called “Duddits” and became friends with him, and how he gave them telekinetic powers. In the beginning of the movie, each character is introduced individually, and we see how they use their powers in their everyday lives. It’s a bit drawn-out, but once they get to the cabin and things start getting strange (I mean, stranger than just telepathy), the movie picks up. They discover they’re in the middle of an alien invasion, and a military organization is trying to contain the outbreak, which affects the wildlife and any people in the area. 

The main characters are played by Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, and Timothy Olyphant. While they’re all good actors and have all been great in other movies, here they just don’t get their chances to shine. Damian Lewis, in particular, seems to just sleepwalk through the first half of the movie, but then something happens with this character later on that I won’t spoil, and it almost becomes laughable. 

The characters don’t get fleshed out that much and are nothing special— in the flashbacks they’re basically just like the group of friends from other Stephen King adaptations like It and Stand by Me—but the one saving grace is Morgan Freeman as the military colonel. Every time he’s on screen, the movie is great, and his character is way more ruthless than the sort of characters he usually plays. He just doesn’t care, he wants the aliens contained no matter what, and goes to extreme measures to do so. It’s just too bad he doesn’t appear until almost halfway through. 

There are some concepts that I have a feeling worked better on the page than they do in the movie. They try to show how the one character Jonsey is able to store information in his mind and lock it away so it won’t get lost, and his mind is represented like a library mixed with a storage unit. It’s actually a pretty neat idea, but then there are other things that don’t work, like a power one of the friends is given that allows him to make a weird spirally portal thing by twirling his finger around, which helps him find stuff, such as a lost girl when they’re kids. I know, it sounds weird, and there’s a lot of weird stuff in this movie, not the least of which is the alien species.

The aliens take on multiple forms, but the main one is a toothy worm-like creature affectionately called a “shit weasel” because it comes out of people’s asses. It’s kind of like the xenomorph in Alien, only funnier. There’s actually a direct reference to Alien; the alien fungus that spreads all over is called “The Ripley”, referring to the main character of the Alien series, Ellen Ripley. There are a few other movie references like this, and they all felt a bit on the nose. But then again, this movie isn’t exactly subtle.

Something I thought was ballsy was the alien didn’t get hidden or obscured until the ending (such as in Alien), but rather, once one of the aliens shows up, which is called Mr. Grey, the camera pans up nice and slow to give a full reveal of what he looks like, and it’s actually a really cool shot, even though the design of the alien isn’t anything special. 

As for the ending, I won’t spoil it, but in the third act, the story starts to get a bit confusing, and the conclusion is not exactly what you might expect. It’s a very quick wrap-up, which is appreciated, since the movie is over two hours long, and starts to feel long after a while. 

Dreamcatcher was the first book Stephen King wrote after his car accident in 1999. I haven’t read it, but from what I understand, it’s not one of his best, and even King himself has admitted to not liking it very much. The screenplay was co-written by Lawrence Kasdan (he also directed), who’s probably best known for writing Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, and most recently, The Force Awakens. It’s kind of funny to think the same guy who wrote about Indiana Jones looking for the Ark of the Covenant also made a movie about aliens that crawl out of people’s asses.   

Overall, I’d say give this one a watch. Just don’t go in with high expectations. It’s not one of the best Stephen King movies, but definitely not among the worst. It’s entertaining, and has some decent twists and turns throughout. Oh yeah, and the reason it’s called Dreamcatcher? Let me put it this way: not one of the best reveals in the movie.