Dream House -- Horror or Psych-Thriller?

Just got back from my one and only public movie theater experience for this year, which just so happened to be the viewing of the film "Dream House".  Not because I've been desperately looking forward to this film, but because my wife and I have had four free movie tickets for over a year now and decided to use two of them.  I'm not a big fan of seeing movies in the movie theater, but that's a subject for another post.  Tonight wasn't such a bad movie viewing experience, but I have to wonder why people don't just shut the fuck up and watch the damn film!

As far as the movie goes, quite simply put: I liked it.  I don't recall the commercials, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't quite as much a horror film as I had hoped.  That being said, it does have plenty of horrific elements, thought I would better classify this film as a psychological thriller.

The movie pulled me in pretty quickly with some suspenseful techniques that have perhaps been overused, which is the biggest flaw this film has.  One of the major plot twists is something that, though I will not give it away here, I have seen enough times to have caused a mental sigh as it played out on screen.  But, it was more of a minor note rather than the big finale most other films would make of such a twist, and for that it served its purpose to drive the film forward, after which it flowed very nicely to the end, allowing the viewer's mind to try and figure out what really happened.

Being a thriller, I thought I had it figured out halfway through, but I was wrong.  Once again falling victim to what the film sets the viewer up to think, which causes the real twist more of a desired effect. 

I give "Dream House" 4/5 stars, and that's a weak four.  The movie was done well, but it could have benefited from more creativity and less cliche.  I can't help but feel like the big twist in the middle (if you've seen the film you know what I'm speaking of, I'm sure) has become overused, and that alone haunts me in the wrong ways.  Maybe it's a 3.5 and I'm being too generous.  Not sure.

Cheers!