Dreamcatcher Escapes Horror, Makes Signs, And Asks K-Pop Fans To Switch To Them In Mid-June 2021…

K-Pop — Dreamcatcher Recall

Dreamcatcher keeps themselves busy with a flurry of content both current and upcoming in the midst of summer.

Summer is in full swing in South Korea, but the heat and the continued caution needed to deal with the ongoing pandemic hasn’t slowed Dreamcatcher at all. Fans highly anticipated the conclusion to the previous week’s Horror Hospital episode for their reality show, hoping that Siyeon, Yoohyeon, JiU, and Gahyeon would provide as much entertainment (and courage) to accomplish the group’s mission. But as is the case with Dreamcatcher and Dreamcatcher Company, the group has a tendency to drop content unexpectedly, and Dreamcatcher Mind wasn’t the only thing that they had to show fans this week. As always, I’m here to recap everything that happened this past week in Dreamcatcher world, so let’s get right into it!

SuA’s weekly appearances on SBS Youngstreet radio have become a continuous treat for fans, and this past week was no exception. This time around, along with fellow guest Sleepy, SuA sat across from AB6IX’s Lee Daehwi, and they discussed, among other things, the three worst ways to confess to someone that you like them — through a group chat with other people, unexpectedly through a PowerPoint presentation or similar, or on the street, station, or other public place with people around. For her part, SuA absolutely hated all of the options, and picked the worst to be option 3 despite her recognizing this happens all the time in dramas. No matter what the topic is, SuA’s energy always seems to surprise Youngstreet’s various DJs right from the start, but then that’s probably part of the reason why she’s been able to parley a two week appearance into a two month one — and entertainment writers have been taking notice. As always, be sure to download the episode from the SBS Youngstreet site, and get some support for Dreamcatcher’s Main Dancer.

[embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/252281[/embed][embed]https://www.vlive.tv/video/252281[/embed]

A couple of vLives made their way to Dreamcatcher fans this past week as well — one that was intended to be short but wasn’t, and one that actually was a quick check-in. Yoohyeon’s brief chat with fans before choosing to post on Weverse was a talk where she discussed being unable to sleep, dodged a few more attempts at getting her to spoil things for any upcoming comeback(she’s getting better at it!) and agreed that Mondays were just not the best.

Gahyeon’s “short” vLive, on the other hand, ended up being over an hour, with her also not giving anything away for any potential comeback, but also talking a bunch of different topics, such as various movies and dramas she watched when she was young and how her response to them has changed, whose idea it was to go to the “Horror Hospital” in Dreamcatcher Mind (more on that in a bit), and proper, healthy reasons to go on a diet. She also gave fans a bit of a fun moment by accidentally finding the voice changer instead of “real-time” mode on the app, giving us a glimpse into what Gahyeon would be like with a deeper voice. All in all, with how busy the group appears to be lately, it was nice to hear from a couple of the members this week no matter how long it lasted.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-89atzp9oBA[/embed]

But it wasn’t just two of Dreamcatcher’s younger members that we heard from this past week. Oldest members JiU and SuA dropped a Special Clip this week, choosing Rain and JYP’s song “Switch To Me”. This Special Clip was totally spoiled by none other than Dreamcatcher’s CEO during a vLive last month, so fans have been expecting some kind of content from the duo, but I have to admit I hadn’t thought they’d pick a song with the classic vibe and concept of the original duet. This wasn’t the first time that the song has been covered — after all, TWICE members/rap line Dahyun and Chaeyoung put up one to give their CEO a bit of cover love — but I do think that JiU and SuA’s version added a bit of their own take on the original video. In that, JYP and Rain spent the entire time trying to impress someone they both liked and wanted to date with increasingly exaggerated methods.

We didn’t get that MV storyline here, but what we did get was the “Odd Couple” vibe from the original, with JiU and SuA providing the right amount of funny hijinx and light-hearted corniness that gave it its own charm. It also helped that the production crew wasn’t afraid to break the 4th wall in order to add to that mood, with blatantly obvious filming crew shots of the music video and a couple outtakes/bad effects that would have been cut from any normal video. The result was an overall fun video that was more than just a performance — it really highlighted the chaotic partnership that Dreamcatcher’s two eldest have when they get together, something that at times sets the tone for how the rest of the group responds to things. A nice bonus was hearing JiU actually rap, which we almost never get to see without her ending up laughing at herself. Overall, this was such a nice treat to see even expecting that it was coming and I highly encourage multiple watches just to catch some of the fun stuff JiU and SuA got to do.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqJL9oHVTY8[/embed]

But even with that, Dreamcatcher wasn’t done releasing content on their channel this week. In an unexpected surprise, we got a Dreamcatcher’s Note from Siyeon, Dami, and Gahyeon, where they engaged in making neon signs for hanging in their dorm. We’ve seen some of these “slice of life/creative” Notes in recent months from the group, from making pottery to messing with a waffle iron, so seeing another one was right in line with what they’ve been releasing. We got a bunch of different artistic takes on signs (with Siyeon’s “bird-fish” hybrid representing “Liberty” being the most interesting) along with plenty of good-natured banter among a trio we don’t often get to see put together. The results were nice to see, and added to getting to know the group just a bit better beyond onstage performances and offstage, yet still formal, appearances in variety — always a good thing when trying to draw in fans.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BxTqD3WljM[/embed]

Speaking of which, fans will get a couple opportunities to see Dreamcatcher near the end of the month —online at the 27th Dream Concert, where Dreamcatcher last performed “You and I” in the rain for Dream Concert 2018, and in a long-delayed fansign on June 27th for “Alone in the City” and “The End of Nightmare” kit versions, the latter of which will have potential face-to-face interactions. For the fansign, offline interactions with fans have been a long time coming, so Dreamcatcher is likely to be as excited as Korean InSomnia are to finally get to see people again. While international fans won’t necessarily be able to participate, they can at least pick up a paid ticket for Dream Concert 2021 on June 26th, 17:00 KST via online streaming service and check out Dreamcatcher’s performance along with a bunch of other artists, as well as apply to submit a design for a support banner Dreamcatcher Company is planning to post for the group on that day.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhjSseMDhQg[/embed]

But even with all these nice surprises as far as Dreamcatcher news and content went, many fans were looking forward to the conclusion of Dreamcatcher’s foray into the abandoned hospital that was started during the previous week’s Dreamcatcher’s Mind episode 3. With two teams and four members left to explore and retrieve the puzzle boxes in a horror-filled set of rooms, and the pretty extreme reactions we got out of Handong, Dami, and SuA, I know I was wondering what would happen next.

Here’s the TL;DR of what happened at the conclusion of “Horror Hospital”:

• Siyeon and Yoohyeon ended up rolling through their part of the mission with mostly unbothered ease, in part because Yoohyeon brought up the idea to do the mission in the first place as an idea for things to do for the show.

• Combined with Yoohyeon and Siyeon’s recent interest in haunted house type videos and settings, Dreamcatcher’s vocalist duo ended up having more fun than fear, getting into some fake blood to put on themselves and reacting with entertained amusement at all the attempted scares.
• SuA provided some much-needed filler time with impromptu masked choreography and a scare attempt on Siyeon and Yoohyeon as they walked back from their mission.
• JiU and Gahyeon took on the last of the hospital rooms on the second floor, and while they retrieved the puzzle box fairly quickly, were constantly jump-scared and freaked out by multiple attempts by a ghost and special effects set up by the crew. Where Siyeon and Yoohyeon provided almost no fun scare material to work with, JiU and Gahyeon made up for it in spades in repeated screaming and fearful reactions.
• In a heart-warming finale, the boxes ended up all containing a piece of a puzzle that assembled into the InSomnia logo, a metaphor for Dreamcatcher searching for and finding their fans.
• Missions/Challenges cleared:

• Basement Blood Storage Room

• 2nd Floor Surgery Room

The remaining teams to go into the Horror Hospital were on two extremes as far as reactions go, but no less entertaining. Siyeon and Yoohyeon, as mostly unfazed as they were, still provided some funny moments during their foray into the rooms, from thanking the ghosts for their efforts to responding with animal sounds and curiosity about the spirit of a cat meowing in the distance, to Yoohyeon sneaking in a “like and subscribe” advertisement to the Dreamcatcher YouTube channel, and more. There’s always that bunch of folks who are able to separate their instincts from their ability to enjoy a haunted house setting, and Siyeon and Yoohyeon definitely fell into that category.

But there are those that let their imagination run away with them even in the midst of their knowledge that the “haunted house” settings aren’t real, and that is what JiU and Gahyeon had to go through multiple times in order to get that last puzzle piece. For as much as they were scared for this part of the mission, it was probably a good thing that Handong didn’t have to go it alone up here, as a moving cart, a runaway wheelchair, and a ghost that got repeated and frequent screams out of JiU and Gahyeon made for two very frazzled oldest and youngest members of Dreamcatcher. The fact that the two of them swung the pendulum of “entertained and laughing at the fear setups” and “being completely freaked out over those same fear setups” provided plenty of entertainment material without getting to be too extreme or stale. I’m fairly certain JiU and Gahyeon re-watched this footage with no small amount of humor and a bit of embarrassment that they got so easily and repeatedly jump-scared.

In the end, despite all the fear, intimidation, and sometimes humorous reactions at exploring the Horror Hospital, the episode ended on a nice, soft note. The formation of the boxes’ puzzle pieces into an InSomnia logo displayed both the importance that Dreamcatcher sees for their fans as well as their affection for them. In a way, the fact that Dreamcatcher overcame their fears to “find” their fans is a bit of a symbolic action. Nobody knew how a re-debuted, non-traditional rock concept girl group would do in South Korea, and there was certainly no small amount of fear and trepidation at Dreamcatcher members having to wander into such partially-uncharted territory in the K-Pop industry. But after four years, we can see that together, Dreamcatcher has achieved quite a bit for where they are, and has established themselves as a known, and more importantly, successful/stable entity. They’ve found their comfort and niche along with their fans, and the fandom, I’m sure, will continue to support them as best as possible.

We had a ton of news and events to report on this past week, and we’re not even all the way through June! I’m sure we’ll see plenty more from Dreamcatcher before the month is up, and I’ll be here, as usual, to summarize what happens. Be sure to drop a follow and a clap if you like what you’re reading, and spread the link around to your fellow fans about this weekly recap! Stay tuned to here for next week’s recap of the latest Dreamcatcher Mind episode, and more.