Daniel Craig has established himself as one of Hollywood’s most reliable leading men, particularly when it comes to action movies and suspenseful thrillers. From his gritty breakout role in Layer Cake to the high-stakes mysteries of Knives Out and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Craig has built an impressive filmography outside his best-known role as James Bond.
Craig played the iconic British spy across five films, beginning with Casino Royale in 2006 and concluding with No Time to Die in 2021. Now, with the search for his successor officially underway, movie fans have another reason to revisit the franchise and Craig’s career as a whole.
But while audiences wait to find out who will inherit Bond’s license to kill, one of Craig’s more overlooked thrillers is attracting attention on streaming. The film wasn’t exactly a hit with critics when it first arrived, but that hasn’t stopped viewers from giving it another look.
Dream House, a 2011 psychological thriller directed by Jim Sheridan, is currently climbing HBO Max’s international movie charts, according to FlixPatrol. It’s ranked #3 in several countries.
What is Dream House about?
Dream House follows Will Atenton (Daniel Craig), a successful publisher who leaves his job in New York City to move his wife, Libby (Rachel Weisz), and their two daughters to a quiet New England town.
Their fresh start takes a disturbing turn when Will discovers that their new home was previously the scene of a gruesome murder. A mother and her two children were killed inside the house, and the surviving husband was suspected of committing the crime. With the help of Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts), a neighbor who was close to the murdered family, Will begins investigating the tragedy. However, the deeper he digs, the more unsettling the mystery surrounding the house becomes.
Unfortunately, Dream House wasn’t particularly well received when it premiered in 2011. The film currently holds a dismal 7% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, alongside a somewhat more forgiving 36% audience score. Critics largely took issue with its slow pacing and predictable psychological thriller twists.
That’s hardly the kind of reception that inspires confidence in a thriller, but more than a decade after its theatrical debut, Dream House is getting another chance to find an audience.