Every Haunting Hour Ever #34: Dreamcatcher

Season: 2

Episode: 12
Original Airdate: December 17, 2011
Director: Neill Fearnley

So I was finally able to find a website that had most if not all of The Haunting Hour episodes that would redirect me to good quality versions of the episodes. Before, I had only crappy quality versions that weren't all that abundant on YouTube to watch. However, I would advise you to have a good, strong anti-virus program before you visit it. For those brave enough to venture to the site, click the link.  

Lisa (Kerris Dorsey) is beginning her first day at Camp Pine Mountain and is very nervous. She befriends a girl named Amelia (Michelle Creber) and makes an enemy in Meg (Madeleine Arthur). The camp legend of a mysterious creature called the Dream Catcher who feeds on nightmares appears to be true after a cabin full of girls have a recurring nightmare that scares them into insomnia. The Dream Catcher then targets Lisa, Amelia, and Meg. Before the Dream Catcher can attack Lisa, her alarm goes off saving her and Amelia. Meg is shown still asleep in the mess hall as the Dream Catcher prepares to attack her.

I'm not going to lie, I kind of like the dark ending. While the episode does end pretty abruptly, I honestly think it works in the episode's favor. Because of the abrupt ending, you don't see what the Dream Catcher does to Meg and her fate is left up to your imagination. With these types of endings, the episode can seem a lot scarier than if they just flat out showed what the Dream Catcher did to Meg.

Another thing I liked about the episode was the Dream Catcher himself. People say that the idea of a monster that attacks you while you sleep which can then affect you in the real world isn't the most original as the Nightmare on Elm Street series had already used this idea decades prior. However, just because the villain isn't entirely original, doesn't mean there's no creativity in them. For example, once the main characters enter the dream world, it is covered in sticky spiderwebs and the villain is revealed to be a spider themselves. I honestly think this is a really clever idea! Dreamcatchers themselves kind of already resemble spider webs to begin with and they supposedly catch bad dreams in them like a spider catches a fly with their webs. Because of this, having a spider themed dream world actually makes a lick of sense.

There is one issue I had with the episode though and that is with the Meg character. To me, it seems like they were trying to make her this really over the top "Mean Girl" type of character similar to the protagonist in another Haunting Hour episode titled "Wrong Number". However, I don't feel like it's played up enough for this to work.

Overall, Dreamcatcher is an interesting episode that takes a concept and puts its own little spin on it that really paid off. While its nothing that spectacular compared to other episodes in this season, I still enjoyed this episode okay and I think it's worth a couple more viewings. Before I give the overall grade, I'd like to point out one more thing.

Am I the only one who thinks that Jeff the Killer and the Dream Catcher look very similar to each other? Also, which character came first? The world will never know!

Overall Grade: B