I recently became enthralled with “The Master of Horrors” series, which was a television series where a famous horror movie director directed one of the hour long episodes. After renting “Incident on and off a Mountain Road”, I was very impressed and decided to check out the other “Master of Horrors”. The one episode I didn’t really want to see was “Dreams in the Witch House”. I had a few reasons. First of all, I’m not familiar with Stuart Gordon and most of his movies don’t seem very good to me. Second of all, the trailer didn’t really impress me. The concept seemed plain silly and the idea of a rat with a human face and an evil witch didn’t exactly seem scary to me. On the other hand, Dreams in the Witch House didn’t seem very funny either, like other episodes such as Deer Woman and Homecoming. Finally, Dreams in the Witch House seemed like an “artsy” horror movie. Not that I have anything against “artsy” films, but most try to hard to be abstract and end up just being plain boring.

However, I decided to rent the episode after I saw it came in a package together with “Cigarette Burns”, an episode directed by John Carpenter. After watching “Dreams in the Witch House”, I’ve decided that I am definitely going to go buy a copy.

“Dreams in the Witch House” is about Walter, a young college student. He is currently studying Quantum Physics and needs somewhere to stay. He ends up in a run-down house where rooms are rent out cheap. The landlord is cruel and mean spirited. There is an old man renting a room on the first floor who seems very “odd”. Across from his room on the second floor is Frances, a young mother who has a baby boy named Danny.

Strange things begin happening to Walter. Quantum Physics is about parallel universes and how they could intersect and create entrances into each other. Walter notices that one of his designs of a possible parallel universe shares a strange resemblance to one of the walls in his room. As well, a strange rat attacks Frances and her baby Danny. Walter shrugs it off as a bad rodent problem.

However, Walter soon starts having strange dreams. In one, a rat with a human face crawls onto his body and begins spouting out warnings of what’s to come. In another, Frances begins to make love to him, only to turn into an old, hideous lady. As the strange occurrences go on, Walter discovers that they’re not dreams and that he has actually been pinpointed by a witch, who is traveling within parallel universes, to be used in one of her ritualistic sacrifices.

The plot of “Dreams in the Witch House” does seem horrible. Witches and rats with human faces seem more like something out of “Harry Potter” than a horror movie. But I was surprised at how good “Dreams in the Witch House” was. It was one of the creepiest and most nail-biting movies I’ve seen in along time. The beginning was a little slow. The movie starts off with Walter moving in to the house and I wasn’t thrilled. There were a few attempts at scares here and there, but overall the first 20 minutes didn’t thrill me. The rat with the human face just seemed plain silly to me and failed to scare me. As well, the cliché of someone having a dream and it turning out to be real added to the cheesiness of the beginning. It seemed as if the first part focused more on Walter getting accustomed to the room and meeting Frances than anything else and although it interested me, it wasn’t very scary and the few attempts at scares with the rat-man evoked more laughs than gasps from me.

As the movie progressed, it started to get better. The next 10 minutes were full of plenty of scary moments, although most of them seemed like they had been done before. There was one shocking moment that although was very creepy, seemed like a very similar sequence in “The Shining”. As well, another creepy sequence involving the Necronomicon reminded me of the Evil Dead”. The whole Necronomicon thing had been done in those movies and this was too similar for my liking. I was enjoying “Dreams in the Witch House” by this point, but I didn’t think it was great.

To my surprise, the last 30 minutes of “Dreams in the Witch House” was some of the most shocking and horrifying things I’ve seen in a long time. There were scenes in “Dreams in the Witch House” where I could barely watch anymore. While other movies, such as Hostel, made me look away in sheer disgust, “Dreams in the Witch House” had me almost looking away with barely any gore. The suspense was so nail biting that during one sequence I actually got out of my seat for gods sake! As well, my sister couldn’t watch many of the scenes and when it comes to horror, she usually doesn’t get scared easily. The last sequence actually had me gasp. “Dreams in the Witch House” was a horrifying movie.

The reason that “Dreams in a Witch House” is so horrifying is that instead of using gore and jump scares to frighten the audience, Gordon just builds up suspense like the old horror movie classics did. You never know what’s going to happen and as the movie progresses, the stakes become higher. In one scene, Walter finds himself being controlled by the witch, who is trying to make him kill a baby. He stands above it with a knife, struggling to control himself. He slowly brings the knife down, grazing the baby, still managing to resist the witches control and not kill the baby. The scene is extremely intense. In a Hollywood movie, there wouldn’t be nearly as much suspense. We know that a child will never die and that the main character will always remain victorious. But as the story progresses in “Dreams in the Witch House” and extremely shocking stuff begins to happen, we realize that Stuart Gordon isn’t afraid to do anything. This makes the movie so much more horrifying because we don’t know what’s going to happen. In a Hollywood movie, we know Walter wouldn’t kill the baby, but in “Dreams in the Witch House”, I was frantically watching, wondering what Walter would end up doing.

Stuart Gordon constantly throws shocking twists and turns at the audience. “Dreams in the Witch House” might just be the most unpredictable movie I’ve ever seen, which of course adds to the scariness of it all. The ending was so out of the blue and freaky that my face contorted into a look of shock and horror, according to my sister at least. “Dreams in the Witch House” is definitely one of the freakiest movies I’ve seen in awhile and definitely beats out Don Coscarelli’s “Incident on and off a Mountain Road” in terms of sheer terror.

There is also a fair amount of gore and nudity to please the gore and sex hounds. There is some eye gouging, a stomach ripped open, and lots of blood. There isn’t a huge amount of gore, but for a TV show episode, this has to be one of the most I’ve seen. As well, there is a sex scene which has full frontal nudity. While many Master of Horrors fans seem to enjoy the gore and sex, “Dreams in the Witch House” was such a good movie whether there was gore or sex. I don’t think the gore or sex is at all relevant, but I’ve noticed a lot of “Master of Horror” fans like that stuff, so I’m pointing it out.

Stuart Gordon’s direction is pretty solid in this and he can definitely build up suspense well. While I wouldn’t say this is one of the best directed movies I’ve seen, I thought Gordon’s direction was very well done and the movie benefited greatly from it. Some of Gordon’s shots, including the ones in the final scene, added to the horror so much that I believe without Gordon’s direction, the movie might’ve been a lot less scary.

I guess my only other beef with “Dreams in the Witch House” would be that the actor who played Walter seemed a little goofy at times. Some of the time, he seemed somewhat comical and acted “silly”. His expressions were so over-the-top. I think he might’ve been better suited to a comedy, but definitely not a horror movie. However, the acting was decently convincing. I just think the movie could’ve been better with another actor.

One of my biggest problems with “Incident on and off a Mountain Road” was the running length. At 51 minutes, it seemed very short and it seemed as if not a lot happened. “Dreams in the Witch House” was much better at its timing. Much more happened within the 60 minute running length and I think if anything more was added, the story might have become redundant.

“Dreams in the Witch House” is a horrifying movie and I definitely recommend it. The beginning does seem a little silly and slow at times, but it is necessary to set up the events that occur later in the story. “Dreams in the Witch House” is the most suspenseful film I’ve seen recently and I recommend it to any fans of horror.



OTHER MASTERS OF HORROR:

Incident on and off a Mountain Road


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older