Dreamcatcher

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     Dreamcatcher is one of Stephen King’s weirdest novels. It was written while he was in the hospital recovering from an accident that occurred in 1999. He was struck by a car and bedridden for weeks. He dealt with the discomfort by writing. Much of his sense of imprisonment bleeds through into the plot of Dreamcatcher. It’s a sci-fi/horror hybrid that will terrify and amuse with equal parts dread and hilarity.

     It’s about four foul-mouthed friends on their annual trip to a cabin in Maine to hunt, drink, and catch up on old times. A hunter claiming to be lost in the woods stumbles upon their cabin and he is taken in, given food and shelter, and promised a trip into town as soon as the storm dies down. Soon the lost hunter, covered in a blood-red fungus and feeling very sick, gives the guys a horrific surprise that I can’t disclose here because it’s the best moment in the book. King himself says of this infamous scene that he wanted it to do for the toilet what Psycho did for the shower. It will haunt your dreams.

     Basically an alien plot to take over the world (starting in upstate Maine, of course) unfolds and the four friends are caught in the middle. Oh, and they have a fifth friend, Duddits, who has “special powers” that they believe is the key in saving the world. Colonel Kurtz (a character modeled after Mr. Kurtz from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness) is also a key player, becoming insane from secretly hunting aliens his entire life.

     The book is over 900 pages and packed with a plot that goes in so many different directions. It has elements of horror, science fiction, humor, fantasy, drama, tear-jerking sadness, and a pinch of vomit-inducing imagery. Only a pair of fools would attempt to fit all that into a 136 minute movie.

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     Those fools go by the names of Lawrence Kasdan as director and William Goldman as writer. Widely considered the worst movie of 2003, Dreamcatcher stretches itself too thin. What killed this movie for audiences was the poor marketing campaign. The trailers said almost nothing about aliens, only vague hints at horror and shots of a blizzard among pine trees. With an all-star cast (including Morgan Freeman, Timothy Olyphant, Jason Lee, Damien Lewis, Tom Jane, Donny Wahlberg, and Tom Sizemore) people assumed it would be an entertaining two hours. Many were confused and distraught when the first signs of aliens appeared.

     Having said that, the film found an audience among a few science fiction fans. Dreamcatcher is my favorite movie of all time. Watch this film in the woods, snow covered branches scratching against your windows, amid a freakishly strong blizzard, and you will be terrified, especially during the infamous toilet scene! Words can’t describe (because I don’t want spoil it and because I would have to use language not suitable for the lowest, most vulgar of company) how surprising and disturbing that scene is. The movie does it better, simply because…you can see it. Watch this movie if just for that scene. It occurs maybe thirty minutes in so if you hate it, just turn it of with not much time wasted.
     For a film that needed to condense 900 pages of story into two and a quarter hours, Dreamcatcher does a fine job. Certain plot points are changed, others omitted entirely. Even though the film is slightly confusing, muddled, a bit too long, and not what it was advertised as, I adore it. You might too. The ending is completely different in the movie and book, though I don’t mind at all. The film ending is more visually stunning, whereas the book’s ending is intellectually more stimulating and would look just plain cheesy if filmed. Check out the film if you’re feeling adventurous. Read the book if you want a great horror story with a heavy dose of science fiction.