Andrew Robinson
(Minor spoilers for Dreamcatcher (2003) are present).
As has been covered by this site before, filmmakers have historically had trouble adapting Stephen King works. The Dark Tower (2017), Thinner (1996), Cell (2016), the Stephen King-directed Maximum Overdrive (1986), and Dreamcatcher (2003) all prove this point. However, horror fans have also been gifted with gems such as Misery (1990), Stand By Me (1986), Carrie (1976), It (2017), The Shining (1980), The Green Mile (1999), and Shawshank Redemption (1994), so it’s not all bad by any means. As in most cases, though, there are some clear favorites, and some clear rejects. But what’s the worst of the worst?
With respect to the other duds mentioned above, Dreamcatcher (2003) takes the cake. Centered around a quartet of adult men who discover that the town they are vacationing in has been invaded by aliens in the most peculiar of ways, Dreamcatcher has roughly one billion subplots, none of which are particularly engaging.
What is most disappointing is how many big names are involved in the production. Stephen King-stalwart Thomas Jane (Henry), Damian Lewis (Jonesy), Donnie Wahlberg (Duddits), and Morgan freakin’ Freeman (Colonel Abraham Curtis) all star in the film that is directed by four-time Oscar nominee Lawrence Kasdan, and adapted to film in part by two-time Oscar winner William Goldman. With this group, the film has no business being as remotely bad as it is. However, everything about the film is terrible. Let’s take a look at what makes it so incredibly bad.
A Confusing, Subplot-Laden Plot
This one can probably be blamed partly on King himself. Many believe that King wrote the novel version of the story while using painkillers to help recover from a car accident, which could be a reason for the confusing, jumbled nature of the plot. However, this reviewer actually doesn’t think the book is that bad. It certainly isn’t King’s best work, but it could be worse.
Essentially, the plot is as follows: the aforementioned quartet of adult men (Henry, Beaver, Jonesy, and Pete) go on a camping trip every year. During the camping trip in question, they rescue a traveler during an intense blizzard.
The traveler soon proves to be infected with something extraterrestrial, the military gets involved and attempts to quarantine the area, and the four friends are forced to fight to save humanity.
As if that isn’t enough, Duddits is a person with disabilities that the four friends had helped rescue from some bullies when they were all children. Duddits proves to have superpowers, and some of that inexplicably rubs off on the friends.
Psychic powers also play a part in the movie and, unbelievably, there are also some disturbing scenes involving fecal matter.
Dreamcatcher is all over the map plot-wise, and it includes far too many subplots to be watchable and understandable.
Stemming from a book that borders on insane (and crosses that line multiple times), the film just doesn’t do a good job at adapting the many subplots into a comprehensible story arc.
Unnecessarily Gross Imagery
The fact that fecal matter plays such a major role in the movie is off-putting. Again, this can also be blamed on King, as it is also prevalent in the novel. However, the film version does not have to include such disturbingly explicit imagery. No one wants to see what the film shows, and there’s simply not a need for much of it. Even for avid horror fans, Dreamcatcher goes a tad far with their imagery. Put simply, Dreamcatcher seems to know that it isn’t the greatest movie in the world, and tries to make up for that fact by being as disgusting as possible. The imagery is unnecessary and just disgusting.
There are more reasons why Dreamcatcher fails, but the main ones simply fall on the side of remarkably poor plotlines, including unnecessarily gross imagery. It’s fair to blame King for some of it, but the film likely shouldn’t have even been made. However, simply making a Stephen King book into a movie raises expectations, and Dreamcatcher fails miserably.
In the opinion of this reviewer, Dreamcatcher is one of the worst movies ever made, and is easily the worst Stephen Kind adaptation in history.
1/10
