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Dream House (Jim Sheridan 2011)
Yet another ghost film about the instability and insecurity of our homes; although not a haunted house tale in the traditional sense, Dream House engages with a number of conventions and tropes, if only to play around with them. What sticks out the most for me, is the significance of the house and Will Atenton’s (Daniel Craig) relationship to it. It is a new house recently purchased by the Atentons outside the city (New York City) because things will be better there. Their house carries every signal of being a hyperhouse (or McMansion): large, identical to all the others around it, made of wood, etc.
Of course, it quickly becomes evident that everything is not better outside the city. In fact, with hostile neighbors, punk kids and indifferent police it is clear that everything is worse in suburbia. Suburban fears have made a strong comeback in recent years, with films such as Paranormal Activity, Trespass, The Strangers and many other stories which expose the anxieties of an American middle-class living a life they cannot afford. Even Bret Easton Ellis’ Lunar Park (2005) seems to fit into this menagerie of middle-class anxieties. Without any spoilers, suffice it to say that Dream House clearly and cleverly exposes the rot at the center of this credit-card driven desire.
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