Jeremy of The Daily Rotation wrote, "Horror movies that get released in September without any screenings and very little marketing usually spells trouble. Especially if your film is directed by a known director, Jim Sheridan and stars Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz and Naomi Watts. Usually those would be the stars you’d really like to sell, but Dream House is a mess from production and no one could really save it. Its problems don’t lie with the director or any of its performers, instead they lie with the poorly written script and the washed up story that has been done a few times before. Everyone working on the project tried to change the ships path from destruction, but it was too far along to be saved."
