Review: Dreamcatcher
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
I've got fond childhood memories of Steven King stories - reading the books and watching the movie and mini-series adaptations. My true fascination with horror began with those stories. But looking back at the dozens of adaptations, only a few stand out as real gems. So I was in no hurry to rush out and see Dreamcatcher. I haven't read the book in this case, but I'll summarize what I think about the typical King book vs. it's movie adaptation. The main flaw is always the characters don't have nearly the kind of depth that King gives them in the books. His horror plots are usually pretty corny, it's the characters that make the books good. The other thing left out and/or downsized is the sheer brutality and the often twisted sexual situations. That shit always gets sanitized for the screen, removing the powerful impact they have in the books. What's that leave you with? The movies more often then not have shallow characters, a cheezy plot, and stale horror and sex elements. After watching it for awhile, I could tell Dreamcatcher was not going to be one of the few exceptions. There were some pleasent suprises however. For a while I felt like I stumbled into a troma version of Aliens. That was fun, plus the bathroom stuff was great. One thing I particularly enjoyed was the visual metaphor of the guy's "mental warehouse". That was the one part that took advantage of film as a medium as oppossed to just play-acting a story that's better fit for print. Eventually the movie sort of turned into forest gump meets outbreak and I lost interest.
Reviewed by: Ravenous, added January 11 2004
Comments: Dreamcatcher
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