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Dreamhouse
Matthew Wilde, a master creator of horror movies, was seeing his nightmares come to horrifying life in this strange house--giant fireballs that barbequed human flesh, a phantom Porsche that drove its passengers to death and a teen-age sex queen who turned into a skeleton seductress.
285 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 7, 1989
3 people are currently reading
241 people want to read
About the author
Douglas Borton
10 books15 followersAka Michael Prescott and Brian Harper.
Douglas Child Borton, Jr. grew up in New Jersey and attended Wesleyan University, then moved to Los Angeles and pursued a career as a screenwriter. After working with several independent producers, he eventually switched to writing novels, a much less stressful occupation. He has published eight thrillers, from Comes the Dark (1999) to Mortal Faults (2006), and currently is at work on a new book. Today he divides his time between the Arizona desert and the Jersey shore.
Douglas Child Borton, Jr. grew up in New Jersey and attended Wesleyan University, then moved to Los Angeles and pursued a career as a screenwriter. After working with several independent producers, he eventually switched to writing novels, a much less stressful occupation. He has published eight thrillers, from Comes the Dark (1999) to Mortal Faults (2006), and currently is at work on a new book. Today he divides his time between the Arizona desert and the Jersey shore.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 15, 2023
The Wilde family intends spending their 2 months holiday in Otterton, a small town on the seaside. They rented a very interesting and unique house, Ragged Edge, last project of a famous architect. At the beginning of the book we hear that six Indians were brutally murdered in the woods. Who did it? The horror takes of when the ghost of those slain Indians seek out to take revenge. Dreams seem to come true. Can anybody stop their revenge? Who will survive the terrors soon to start? The author comes up with a real horrorfest here. Absolutely sinister entities haunt this town. Some of the best horror motifs I read for quite a while. This is 80s horror at its very best. A true gem. Highly recommended!
September 4, 2019
Dreamhouse may not be all that original in concept -- I mean, it is a haunted house story after all -- but it's executed in a uniquely fresh and fast-moving way that separates it from most haunted house tales of the era. For one, these hauntings aren't limited to the house itself, but are able to spread throughout the coastal California town, to the point where no one is safe. Horror screenwriter Matthew Wilde and his family have decided to vacation in this peaceful town, renting an old, strange house with crazy, nonsensical floor plans: weird dimensions and angles, hallways leading nowhere, etc. But is it really nonsensical, or is there a hidden reason for it all?
Right from the get-go the creepiness factor is high here, as whatever is occupying the house begins to immediately torment one of the children, able to take on different forms, feeding off the fears and nightmares of the Wildes. And their imagination. Considering Matthew Wilde writes hit horror movies for a living, he has quite the imagination. And the spirits/demons/I'm not telling will only grow more powerful in time.
Douglas Borton combines the best elements of haunted house tales and "evil in a small town" tales here, cutting out the fat of someone like King while still having well-drawn characters to root for, and not just the Wilde family. Several characters in town are fleshed out well enough so that you'll care at least a little when the bad stuff happens. And it will happen.
Dreamhouse may be filled with horror cliches, but I think they're presented in an entertaining -- and at times quite chilling and gross -- way. Sometimes it evokes the campier over-the-top horror of The Evil Dead or House, other times the more psychological terror of The Shining or Ghost Story. It's every bit as fun as it is scary, and that's about as much as I could ask for when reading a mostly forgotten 80s horror novel.
4.5 Stars.
Right from the get-go the creepiness factor is high here, as whatever is occupying the house begins to immediately torment one of the children, able to take on different forms, feeding off the fears and nightmares of the Wildes. And their imagination. Considering Matthew Wilde writes hit horror movies for a living, he has quite the imagination. And the spirits/demons/I'm not telling will only grow more powerful in time.
Douglas Borton combines the best elements of haunted house tales and "evil in a small town" tales here, cutting out the fat of someone like King while still having well-drawn characters to root for, and not just the Wilde family. Several characters in town are fleshed out well enough so that you'll care at least a little when the bad stuff happens. And it will happen.
Dreamhouse may be filled with horror cliches, but I think they're presented in an entertaining -- and at times quite chilling and gross -- way. Sometimes it evokes the campier over-the-top horror of The Evil Dead or House, other times the more psychological terror of The Shining or Ghost Story. It's every bit as fun as it is scary, and that's about as much as I could ask for when reading a mostly forgotten 80s horror novel.
4.5 Stars.
July 27, 2022
Matt and Cora Wilde, along with their two children, Eric and Beth, are moving to Otterton for the summer - renting the eccentric house called Ragged Edge. Matt is hoping the house will provide some much needed relaxation for he and his family, but what he doesn't know is that across the street, less than a mile into the woods, seven skeletons have just been discovered.
The bodies are those of a native tribe, the Aropai, the last of their kind. They were senselessly murdered, but not without cursing their killers first...
When they arrive, Cora likes the exterior of the house, but once inside is shocked at the bizarre architecture - passages leading to dead-ends, strange angles, weird geometric shapes; the house gives her a disturbing feeling, and it's not long at all before unexplainable, terrifying things begin to happen, not to mention all the terrible, brutal deaths around town.
Eric wakes in the middle of the night to a monkey that talks to him and tries to choke him to death. A local teen is hitchhiking at night, when he is picked up by a car with no driver, and no way out, as he is crushed inside, as if by a trash compactor. The town doctor finds a baby left on her porch, and she is ecstatic, as she has been trying to have one for years - only this is no ordinary baby. A giant fireball materializes out of thin air and engulfs a third of the town. The local bartender is killed by a robot wearing Matt's skin. A psychiatrist is eaten by a werewolf - and those are just a few examples of the horrors.
Meanwhile, no matter how much he sleeps, Matt is always exhausted and feels terrible upon waking. And he's growing increasingly and uncharacteristically mean and violent...
One night, the owner of the hardware store stops by to talk with Cora. He tells her that the architect, Cranston Collier believed "the ideal structural design could capture the life force of a dying man as it escaped the body and prevent its dissipation. The soul, in short, would continue, no longer as the soul of a body, but as the soul of the structure itself - it would be invested with new and undreamed powers, powers which would be understood and mastered only in death."
"So you're saying Ragged Edge is... haunted?"
"Yes."
"So who's the ghost? Collier didn't die here. Nobody has ever died here."
"Maybe you don't have to die in Ragged Edge. Only near it. They (the Aropai) were murdered less than a mile away. And if Cranston Collier accomplished what he set out to do, then their souls, instead of fading into oblivion, would have been drawn to this house."
Cora knows, deep down, that as crazy as it sounds, this man is right. And once she realizes that it's Matt's dreams they're feeding off of, she and her family are really in trouble - because they are not going to let their life-source go without a fight.
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I really liked this one, I'm all for Native American curses and haunted houses, so this was a win for me. I thought it was really fun and unique, and I loved reading about all the different ways they killed people.
The bodies are those of a native tribe, the Aropai, the last of their kind. They were senselessly murdered, but not without cursing their killers first...
When they arrive, Cora likes the exterior of the house, but once inside is shocked at the bizarre architecture - passages leading to dead-ends, strange angles, weird geometric shapes; the house gives her a disturbing feeling, and it's not long at all before unexplainable, terrifying things begin to happen, not to mention all the terrible, brutal deaths around town.
Eric wakes in the middle of the night to a monkey that talks to him and tries to choke him to death. A local teen is hitchhiking at night, when he is picked up by a car with no driver, and no way out, as he is crushed inside, as if by a trash compactor. The town doctor finds a baby left on her porch, and she is ecstatic, as she has been trying to have one for years - only this is no ordinary baby. A giant fireball materializes out of thin air and engulfs a third of the town. The local bartender is killed by a robot wearing Matt's skin. A psychiatrist is eaten by a werewolf - and those are just a few examples of the horrors.
Meanwhile, no matter how much he sleeps, Matt is always exhausted and feels terrible upon waking. And he's growing increasingly and uncharacteristically mean and violent...
One night, the owner of the hardware store stops by to talk with Cora. He tells her that the architect, Cranston Collier believed "the ideal structural design could capture the life force of a dying man as it escaped the body and prevent its dissipation. The soul, in short, would continue, no longer as the soul of a body, but as the soul of the structure itself - it would be invested with new and undreamed powers, powers which would be understood and mastered only in death."
"So you're saying Ragged Edge is... haunted?"
"Yes."
"So who's the ghost? Collier didn't die here. Nobody has ever died here."
"Maybe you don't have to die in Ragged Edge. Only near it. They (the Aropai) were murdered less than a mile away. And if Cranston Collier accomplished what he set out to do, then their souls, instead of fading into oblivion, would have been drawn to this house."
Cora knows, deep down, that as crazy as it sounds, this man is right. And once she realizes that it's Matt's dreams they're feeding off of, she and her family are really in trouble - because they are not going to let their life-source go without a fight.
------------
I really liked this one, I'm all for Native American curses and haunted houses, so this was a win for me. I thought it was really fun and unique, and I loved reading about all the different ways they killed people.
March 14, 2024
Fun splatterpunk by Borton, but ultimately, nothing too exceptional. Our main protagonist, Matthew Wilde, writes horror screenplays (hum, just like the author!) and after a grueling time meeting deadlines, takes his family (wife, two young kids) on a holiday for a few months. He thought he found the perfect place-- an old, funky house on the California shore by the little town of Otterton. Well, the family moves in and bad things start to happen in town...
Yes, this is a haunted house story, but one with a twist; that said, I do not want to go more deeply into the 'haunt' to avoid spoilers. It starts off typically enough; the wife has a bad feeling about the place ('but honey, look at the view!') but decides to stick it out. Their young son has an 'episode' shortly after they move in, thinking he was attacked by some demonic monkey; while it left bruises on his neck, the parents convince themselves it was psychosomatic. Then townies start to die in unbelievable ways...
While I liked the imagination on display, I really, really hate the tired motif of horror novels featuring horror authors, and that is the basis of Dreamhouse. Is Matthew some sort of alter ego for Borton, given that both author and main character write horror screenplays? As the back blurb states
What I did enjoy were the many movie name drops scattered throughout the novel; Borton knows his horror films that is for sure. This was my second novel by Borton and thus far I am not really impressed. The 'nightmares' are vivid and drenched in gore, but pretty predictable for all that, as was the ending. 3 dreamy stars!
Yes, this is a haunted house story, but one with a twist; that said, I do not want to go more deeply into the 'haunt' to avoid spoilers. It starts off typically enough; the wife has a bad feeling about the place ('but honey, look at the view!') but decides to stick it out. Their young son has an 'episode' shortly after they move in, thinking he was attacked by some demonic monkey; while it left bruises on his neck, the parents convince themselves it was psychosomatic. Then townies start to die in unbelievable ways...
While I liked the imagination on display, I really, really hate the tired motif of horror novels featuring horror authors, and that is the basis of Dreamhouse. Is Matthew some sort of alter ego for Borton, given that both author and main character write horror screenplays? As the back blurb states
Matthew Wilde was a master at creating horror movies...but now he and his wife and children, and all the folk in the town near the strange mansion he had rented, found that they were caught in a real-life nightmare from which there was no exit...
What I did enjoy were the many movie name drops scattered throughout the novel; Borton knows his horror films that is for sure. This was my second novel by Borton and thus far I am not really impressed. The 'nightmares' are vivid and drenched in gore, but pretty predictable for all that, as was the ending. 3 dreamy stars!
June 22, 2025
Matthew is a screenwriter for horror movies, and after a particularly stressful work schedule, he and his family take a vacation to an eccentric looking house called Ragged Edge. The issue is the house is haunted by the murdered souls of a lost Indian tribe and Matthew's dreams in the house are coming true...or are they?
This is bonkers! Boston throws everything into this from killer cars, nazis, yetis, spiders, flying cigarettes, teenage sex, t-rexs, and tons of blood and people getting massacred The writing is top notch, there is never a dull moment. The ending is non-stop carnage. It's definitely one to track down. Im going to find more from this author now.
This is bonkers! Boston throws everything into this from killer cars, nazis, yetis, spiders, flying cigarettes, teenage sex, t-rexs, and tons of blood and people getting massacred The writing is top notch, there is never a dull moment. The ending is non-stop carnage. It's definitely one to track down. Im going to find more from this author now.
January 4, 2013
My third book by Douglas Borton, Dreamhouse has a pretty good idea for a plot. A scriptwriter for horror movies, Matthew Wilde rents a house in a rural town and brings his family there for a summer getaway. The house has mad, impossible architecture, such as a fireplace which looks like it was dropped into place from a height, angled windows and doors, and a hallway which leads nowhere and dead ends with the walls, ceiling and floor coming to a point. Somehow the house begins to channel Matthew's dreams into nightmares -- nightmares which begin to come true for the people in the town.
This book had a lot of great descriptions. I know I tend to reference this a lot, but the Lovecraft influence is obvious in passages (like the 'gibbering' in the quote above), as well as the architecture of the house (can you say "Dreams in the Witchhouse"?). Despite the good plot and occasional good descriptions, this was my least favorite novel so far by Borton. I did enjoy it -- it read like a bad 80s horror movie, which is just good fun. It just wasn't as good as the other two I've read.
This book had a lot of great descriptions. I know I tend to reference this a lot, but the Lovecraft influence is obvious in passages (like the 'gibbering' in the quote above), as well as the architecture of the house (can you say "Dreams in the Witchhouse"?). Despite the good plot and occasional good descriptions, this was my least favorite novel so far by Borton. I did enjoy it -- it read like a bad 80s horror movie, which is just good fun. It just wasn't as good as the other two I've read.
June 20, 2025
3.5/5, rounded down.
This was my first read from Douglas Borton, and while I can't say it was an outright classic of the genre, I did have a pretty good time with it overall. Borton takes some well worn tropes (even back when this book came out), and while I wouldn't exactly say that he reinvents them, he does have a bit of a novel approach. His characters aren't the most well fleshed out, but there's enough there to get you through the story, and he does do a good job of setting up the small town, and introducing its many inhabitants. That's good, because then he has a large roster of people to kill off in pretty creative ways. That's where Borton really excels; unique deaths! He comes up with some very unusual ways to dispatch his characters, and the speedy pacing keeps things fairly entertaining throughout. The ending really gets bonkers, and every once in awhile, I just need more bonkers in my life, so I had a fine time with this.
This was my first read from Douglas Borton, and while I can't say it was an outright classic of the genre, I did have a pretty good time with it overall. Borton takes some well worn tropes (even back when this book came out), and while I wouldn't exactly say that he reinvents them, he does have a bit of a novel approach. His characters aren't the most well fleshed out, but there's enough there to get you through the story, and he does do a good job of setting up the small town, and introducing its many inhabitants. That's good, because then he has a large roster of people to kill off in pretty creative ways. That's where Borton really excels; unique deaths! He comes up with some very unusual ways to dispatch his characters, and the speedy pacing keeps things fairly entertaining throughout. The ending really gets bonkers, and every once in awhile, I just need more bonkers in my life, so I had a fine time with this.
October 14, 2020
Spooktober 2020 Book 14
Dreamhouse is an attempt to modernize the haunted house sub genre of horror, with splatterpunk take and a few twists and turns to bring stodgy Victorian ideas to the horror fans of the late 80s and early 90s.
As it stands Dreamhouse is actually a lot of fun. Borton writes with a quick pen so the pacing never lets up nor does the bloodshed. I’m a little too old these days to fully embrace the gory stuff that I once enjoyed but here I kind of liked it. Borton finds some interesting ways to off characters and each one is more unique than the last. And the plot itself had some moments that made this book feel at least moderately original.
Still though, Dreamhouse was published in 1989, which was really the beginning of the end of the end of nearly 2 decades of popularity of horror fiction, and it shows. Things feel tired and just kind of there. And while Borton is a better writer than most were in this era, his reliance on bloodshed over plot does eventually weaken what could have been an even better novel.
But I digress. I don’t read these books for literary merit or for life changing insights. I read this books to fuel my love for horror fiction. And in that case Dreamhouse does it’s job.
Dreamhouse is an attempt to modernize the haunted house sub genre of horror, with splatterpunk take and a few twists and turns to bring stodgy Victorian ideas to the horror fans of the late 80s and early 90s.
As it stands Dreamhouse is actually a lot of fun. Borton writes with a quick pen so the pacing never lets up nor does the bloodshed. I’m a little too old these days to fully embrace the gory stuff that I once enjoyed but here I kind of liked it. Borton finds some interesting ways to off characters and each one is more unique than the last. And the plot itself had some moments that made this book feel at least moderately original.
Still though, Dreamhouse was published in 1989, which was really the beginning of the end of the end of nearly 2 decades of popularity of horror fiction, and it shows. Things feel tired and just kind of there. And while Borton is a better writer than most were in this era, his reliance on bloodshed over plot does eventually weaken what could have been an even better novel.
But I digress. I don’t read these books for literary merit or for life changing insights. I read this books to fuel my love for horror fiction. And in that case Dreamhouse does it’s job.
April 1, 2020
Very fun read. Sort of all over the place, which does not always work, but here I think it did. Since its about a DreamHouse. Very imaginative, well written book. At times it seemed a little too much, but in the end I enjoyed it. The deaths were created by the dreams so it adds up, but adding twists to the "real time" events is what could have muddied it up some.
March 25, 2018
Gruesome, imaginative, and lots of fun.
November 12, 2022
Not a bad book with some well imagined deaths
Reminded me of Cry for the Strangers by John Saul
Reminded me of Cry for the Strangers by John Saul
June 13, 2024
Fun 80’s horror!!!
August 31, 2025
Holy sh1t - WHAT…A BOOK! I was buckled in for the entire ride of this crazy offering of a strange, possessed vacation house in the woods that ain’t your typical house haunting by any means. The last act of this book was white-knuckled terror that was worth every minute. I kept telling myself “This can’t get any crazier…” I was dead wrong! Definitely a must-have for horror fans!
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