DREAM HOUSE

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*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Spectre.

We open in New York City at a publishing firm. Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) is working in his office when his boss comes in with severance papers. Will has decided to quit to spend more time with his family and work on his novel. His coworkers toast him and wish him good fortune. On the way out of the building, another coworker wishes him well and gives him a number for a contractor as he cannot expect to do all the renovations by himself.

Will gets on a train out of New York into New England. He notices a man, Boyce (Elias Koteas) who says hi. Will gets off the train and crosses paths with his realtor who gives him a ride to his new home.

Will arrives to see his wife Libby (Rachel Weisz) outside talking to someone. He hides and amusingly throws a snowball her direction. They go inside, and Libby notes the kids went to bed. He can hear them giggling underneath a sheet though so he plays coy and pretend they are a new cushion. His daughters Dee Dee and Trish, bust out from under the sheet and hug their dad. Libby says they have been painting all day and shows him the staircase; a rose flower arrangement. Will loves it. Will races Dee Dee and Trish upstairs, saying it is time for their bath.

Later, after the girls have been put to bed, Libby and Will are in the kitchen. Libby asks about his new novel, but Will doesn't want to talk about it. "If I talk about it, it will disappear," Will says, though he notes he has all the ideas in his head. Libby is glad they moved, thinking it will be great for the whole family. Will notices a plant and asks who brought it, but Libby says it just showed up on the door.

The next day, Will goes outside and sees his neighbor Ann Patterson (Naomi Watts). Ann is divorced with a teenager daughter Chloe. Her ex-husband Jack (Martin Csokas) has joint custody and is not happy to see her every time he picks his daughter up. Jack sees Will and looks at him strangely.

Libby is painting the house when she calls for Will. She had found some height charts of two children from the previous tenants. Libby says she will not paint over them. The letters B and K are present.

Jack is in his office. He gets an email from his lawyer. Jack wants sole custody of Chloe. Though he put in the paperwork, his lawyer tells him his chances are not good.

That night, Will is working on his book when Libby brings him some tea. Dee Dee runs in scared and says she saw a man outside in the backyard. The family goes downstairs, and Will tries to dissuade Dee Dee nothing is there. A broken awning falls on the window, startling them. This seems to diffuse Dee Dee's worries.

The next morning, Will is outside about to work on fixing the awning, when he notices footprints that are not his. He travels around the house following them until the trail goes cold. Will is worried.

Will and Libby are getting ready for bed. Libby can tell he is worried but Will changes the subject by saying, "You are so beautiful. Stay that way forever." Libby smiles. "Sorry. Not possible. Not forever."

"Shucks." Will deadpans.

Will is woken up in the middle of the night. He hears voices, so he searches for them. Going downstairs in the basement, he sees people inside. He confronts them, and they rush out. He gives chase and asks a girl what the hell they were doing in his house. "You live here and you don't know about the murders?" the girl asks. Will says no and the girl's boyfriend looks at him and says "He's back." The kids race off and Will is confused by what they meant.

Will goes back down into the basement and looks at the shrine the kids made. There is graffiti, newspaper clippings, film negatives, and bloodied dolls. Will is greatly disturbed.

Will goes to the police to find out more about his house. Apparently a family was murdered there. A woman and her two daughters. The husband survived and was suspected, but there was no hard evidence. Will asks for more information, but the police won't give him any.

Will comes home and finds that Dee Dee and Trish are scared. They heard Chloe talking on her cell phone mentioning their house. "Everybody who lives in this house gets killed." Dee Dee says, parroting what Chloe said. Will says he will go talk to the neighbors.

Will goes over to Ann's house and sees Chloe at the door. Chloe gets her mom, and she and Will talk. Will mentions what Chloe unintentionally said about the house around his daughters. Ann says she will talk to her. Will asks about the previous owners of his house and Ann tenses up. She cuts the conversation short, unwilling to tell him anything either.

Will is down in the basement, painting over the graffiti. Libby comes down and asks why he didn't say anything. Will says he didn't want to scare her. Libby looks in a mirror. The graffiti was written in reverse. It says "Peter Ward slaughtered house."

Will and Libby are in the kitchen when Libby sees a man in the backyard. Will doesn't see anything at first but then the figure moves. Will goes outside and tries to confront the man, but he gets away.

The next morning, Libby goes to get the girls up from bed, but they are not in their room. She looks around downstairs but can't find them there either. Libby calls for Will, and he looks with her. Will hears noises in the girl's room and calls Libby back. They look in the closest only to discover a secret play room. The girls discovered it hours ago and have been playing with toys they found. They have names on them; Beatrice and Katherine. Will and Libby play with the kids.

Will looks at the newspaper clippings involving Peter Ward. He and Libby are greatly disturbed by what they see.

Will hears a knock on the door. It is Ann, bringing him stew as a housewarming gift. Libby calls out, and Will tells her it's their neighbor and she should come down and say hi. Ann tells him she should go and leaves.

Will goes upstairs and asks Libby why she was so rude to Ann. Libby shows why she didn't come down. She found a bullet hole in the wall. That is where one of the girls died.

That night, Libby reads Will a letter to the editor involving Peter Ward. It says he had been released to the a halfway house nearby.

Will travels to the halfway house and asks to see someone about a "client" of theirs. Will sees Peter Wards name and travels upstairs to his room. He finds a picture frame with his family. A man comes up to him and asks why he is in his room. Will explodes, thinking the man is Peter Ward, telling him to stay away from his family or he will kill him. The man reveals he is a transfer, Martin, not Peter Ward. Will apologizes for his outburst and leaves.

Will comes home when Libby asks him what happened. Will says everything is fine. Libby sees that there is a strange car outside, and she called 911. Will goes out with Libby, and the car tries to ram them on the front porch. Will tries to stop the car, but it drives off. The cops arrive. Will tries to tell them about the car, but they only tell him to calm down. Will goes back inside calling them useless.

Will goes to Green haven, the mental institution Peter Ward was sent. The warden shows him several tapes of Peter Ward going crazy. Apparently he tried to escape several times, claiming someone else killed his family. Will notices Ann on the tapes and is intrigued as to why she would be there. The warden then shows Will another tape with the face of Peter Ward. IT IS HIM.

Will is understandably freaked out and says it is not him. The warden explains that he, Peter Ward, was so in denial about killing his family five years ago, that he attempted to create a new identity. Using the codes on his name tag, he created the new name, "Will Atenton." The warden tells Will/Peter he is not well. "You fucking liar!" Will screams. Guards come in, and Will calms down. In an effort to prove he is not crazy, he calls Libby. "You want to speak to my wife?" Will asks. The warden shakes his head no. Will leaves but on his way out he notices several people that are dead ringers for the people he knew at the publishing company in New York. Will doesn't know what to think.

Will comes home to his house and sees how it really looks; old, decrepit, and sprayed with graffiti calling him a murderer.

Boyce drives by Will's house.

Will sits in the middle of his empty living room. He lets out a primal scream.

Will sits at the kitchen table. The world melds into what he thought was real. His daughters ask for a story, so he begins telling one. He starts acting weird, so Libby makes the girls leave and asks what he learned in Green haven. Will tells her that he learned he is really Peter Ward, and nothing he is seeing is real. He pulls Dee Dee to the height chart and asks for her full name, which is Beatrice. He then takes Trish over there and ask for her name, which is Katherine. Libby is actually Elizabeth, Peter's wife. Libby still thinks he is under the weather with a fever and puts him to bed.

Will wakes up to Libby screaming. Their daughter caught his fever. Dee Dee and Trish are having trouble breathing as their parents hold them. Will notice blood. They are bullet holes from when they were shot. The girls die, and Libby screams at Will to do something, slapping him. Will screams, "They're dead, and you're dead!" Libby looks at him in shock, saying it is not true. Will tells her to look at Dee Dee's back. It's a bullet wound. Libby is shocked.

Will hears a knock at the door. The police pull him out. There is a condemn order on his house. Ann placed it. The police board up his house. Ann looks at Will. "You can still see them can't you?" Ann says. Will nods. Ann tells them that his family is buried. Will sits down at a nearby tree, not able to process it all.

Later in the night, he tries to break back in when a figure stops him. It is Boyce saying he is watching him. He knows he is a "murderer."

The next morning, Will goes to see Ann, who lets him in. Will asks her why she didn't say anything about him really being Peter Ward. Ann tells him he wouldn't of believed her anyway. "Did I do it?" Will asks. "No." Ann says.

"How do you know?" Will asks. "I just do." Ann says.

Chloe comes down and is more at ease with Will. Chloe asks if he can still see his family, which he nods to. "Can you tell them how much I miss them?" (Chloe was friends with his family). Will promises too. Will asks if she put the plant at the house. Chloe said she did because it was the 5 year anniversary. Ann has to take Chloe out, but leaves Will in the house, so he can have a bath.

Will takes a bath and dreams about his dead daughters.

Will is getting dressed when Ann and Chloe come home. Jack shows up to take Chloe away even though he is early in his visitation. He claims its because she is in danger due to Peter Ward being around. Will comes down as Chloe agrees to leave with her father. Will apologizes but Ann says it is not his fault. Ann leaves to get Chloe but gives Will a name of a psychotherapist who treated him.

Will goes to see Dr. Greeley (Jane Alexander) who asks about his book. "There is no book. I'm living in a fantasy world." Will says. Will wants to know why he keeps seeing his dead family. Greeley says it may be his mind trying to cope with the truth. Will says he wants to know who killed his family, even if it was him.

Will breaks back into his home, something Ann sees. Will is confronted by Libby who is happy to see him. Will gets mad, asking to know what happened. Libby tries to remember. She heard someone come up the stairs, and she thought it was him. She saw the girls get shot then she did. "You shot me." Will says. Libby says no, but Will shows her the scar. Libby is horrified and hugs him, telling him it can't be true. They hear a noise downstairs. It is Ann. Ann tells Will he can't stay here, as it will drive him insane with grief.

Will's memory finally comes back, giving him the truth he desired. The figure that came up the stairs was Boyce. He was outside talking to Libby when it happened. Will/Peter tried to bust in the door and save his family. Boyce shot his daughters then Libby. He then struggled with Boyce down the stairs and Boyce dropped his gun. Libby tried to shoot Boyce but shot him instead. Boyce got away, and it looked like Will/Peter killed his family the whole time.

"I didn't do it." Will says to Ann. Just then Jack shows up with a gun, apparently to dispatch vigilante justice. Will tries to calm him, but a second figure appears. Boyce. The two knock out Will and Ann.

It is here we finally find out what REALLY happened. Peter Ward's family was a case of mistaken identity. The real target was Ann Patterson. Ann was divorcing Jack and was going to get custody of Chloe. Jack was enraged that she got his money, his daughter, and his house so he formed a plan. He arranged for Boyce to come kill his wife. But Boyce went into the wrong house, killing Peter's family instead, and inadvertently making it look like Peter killed them all.

Jack drags the two down to the basement. Jack then shoots Boyce in the legs for screwing the job up 5 years before and calling him a "child killer." Jack is going to make it look like Will/Peter killed Ann then set the house on fire. The narrative will fit because everyone believes Peter to be a killer anyway. The ghost of Libby is watching by and calls for Will (using his real name "Peter") to get up. Will gets up and hides from Jack, as Jack is setting the basement on fire. Jack notices Will is gone and looks for him. Will fights Jack, beating him up and saves Ann. Will carries her out of the basement and the burning house.

Boyce comes too and pours gasoline down the stairs to trap Jack. Jacks shoots Boyce in the head, killing him. But Jack is caught on fire and is burned alive.

Chloe comes to find her mother and hugs her. Will stares at the house and walks back in to save his "family" despite Ann's protests.

On the second floor, Will sees Libby and his daughters. Libby tells him to go, but Will doesn't want to leave them. "I know." Libby says. Will kisses his kids and wife goodbye and tells Libby he loves her.

"I love you. I'll always be with you. But you know that." Libby says.

A massive fireball knocks Will/Peter to his senses, and he goes back downstairs but not before retrieving a journal he hid earlier. He exits the house alive as the place is fully engulfed. Ann looks at him as he walks away.

An undisclosed amount of time later, Peter (fully cured and back to his real name) is in New York City. He passes a bookstore where his #1 novel Dream House (a book based on his experience of his family being murdered and being falsely accused of it) is in the store window. He stares at it for a moment then continues on walking. While he is far from okay, he now has the closure he desperately needed, and he will be able to move on and live his life.