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DREAMCATCHER (2021)

Directed & written by Jacob Johnston
Starring Niki Koss, Zachary Gordon, Travis Burns, Blaine Kern III, Olivia Sui, Emrhys Cooper, Elizabeth Posey, Adrienne Wilkinson, Lou Ferrigno Jr., Nazanin Mandi, Ryan Powers, Al Calderon, Ben J. Pierce, Krystal Vayda, Jacques Kurdian, Brandon Michael Vayda, Thomas Bert, Grace Rizzo
Find out more about this film here!

A group of unlikable people go to a DJ rave (I guess that’s what it’s called, I really don’t know and am not into the hippity skippity). When one from the group gets a backstage pass and drops acid with the DJ, leading her to kill herself shortly after. The DJ’s manager attempts to buy off the rest of the group so they don’t cause a stink for her client, but soon after, a masked killer wearing DJ Dreamcatcher’s mask is going around killing the group off. Meanwhile, there’s a ghost, I think.

DREAMCATCHER is a bit of a mess. Not a bit. A lot of a mess. I think the term “write what you know” is a good one, but they should add to that and say, “except if all you know is Hollywood.” Films about Hollywood by people who really haven’t lived anywhere else but Hollywood are the worst, in my book. Most of the time, these is a vapid and cardboard character nature to lower budgeted horror, but its increased tenfold when it’s set in LA or Hollywood or anywhere near it. The central locale is a rave, so the film centers on minute after minute of slo mo dancing shots with neon lights and lasers in a warehouse. It’s supposed to be a decadent and trippy experience, but these shots are so cliched that they only make my fast forward finger twitch. The characters are awful to one another. At the beginning, one sister buys tickets for her sister and friend-zoned friend to go to this rave to see their favorite DJ, but almost immediately after arriving at the show, they all begin arguing with one another. The lead played by Nikki Koss is so abrasive to everyone, as she runs into old boyfriends with new girlfriends, leads her friend-zoned pal on, and then tears into her sister. The fast and sarcastic GOSSIP GIRL speak is tired and feels as if it were written in the nineties. I just found my interest waning with this movie every second it went on.

This is a film that wants to be taken extremely seriously. It makes on like ENTOURAGE or EMPIRE with a lot of behind the scenes, industry stuff as the DJ’s career on the verge of bursting out, but none of it is interesting. It feels like the film forgets it’s a slasher for large chunks of time. I didn’t feel for the characters. The scares were cliched. The sets looked nice and this was a slicky produced hollow turd, but a hollow turd nevertheless. I just didn’t care by the time the end came and I never thought it would as this one is close to two hours long! DREAMCATCHER fails on every level. It is the worst kind of horror—soulless, uninspired, and lazy drudge that seems only to be made by all to bulk up a resume, not to scare and surely not to entertain.

Check out the trailer here!!