Paperhouse DVD > Reviews > Pencil or Crayon... You'll Be Drawn In Too!

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Loved it
Story	Outstanding
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	taut, surrealistic and gothic flavors, wonderful horror, great story
Disadvantages:	dated and low budget appearance, extremely difficult to find

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

"With our thoughts, we create the world." ~ Buddha

Anna Madden (Charlotte Burke) is an 11 year old girl more comfortable drawing alone than playing with others. Reclusive, angry, a difficult rebellious, but seemingly normal child. Her distant father (Ben Cross) and Kate (Glenne Headly), her mother, don't seem able to relate to their daughter. Dr. Sarah Nicols (Gemma Jones) does not understand the illness that begins to take over Anna's life with seemingly simple fevers and a sore gritty throat.

Anna doesn't admit to that second fainting fit during a simple game of hide and seek. She seems to the impartial viewer to be avoiding the possibility that these symptoms might be signs of something large and potentially dangerous to her health. She just wants to escape into the world she draws. There she is powerful and things are simpler; easier to understand... easier to control. But something is happening to her, something subtly sinister and inexplicable.

In a house behind a gate rendered by childish hands lives a boy who cannot walk. Here she meets Marc, a child who is also a patient of Dr. Nicols'. Anna's new friend, Marc (Elliot Spiers), draws too and he understands her like no one else she knows. Together, they meet, play, and talk in the Paperhouse where all that Anna draws... becomes reality. Is this dreamlike paper world drawing her in permanently? Can her drawings affect those in the waking world... even herself? Is Marc a figment of her imagination or a real child with his own life and problems reaching out to her through this nightmarish, yet miraculous, world created from paper and pencil? Are they both the victims of some bizarre and fatal illness?

~~~ My Thoughts ~~~

This 1988 horror film was directed by Bernard Rose and adapted from the book "Marianne Dreams" (Catherine Storr) by writer Matthew Jacobs. The film, of course, differs from the course the book runs, but this film is still one of the best... and least known, horror films I've ever happened across. It is, without a doubt, Rose's best work to date, and devilishly hard to find! It was never released to the US on DVD, which is a great shame! I'd like to see enough people become aware of this marvelous film that it becomes readily available to viewers.

The strange off-kilter world in which Anna finds herself during her fainting spells and dreams seems surrealistically vivid. Solid in a frighteningly realistic manner that almost lives and breathes like some alien entity. Wonderfully Gothic, the tension builds well as viewers question the realities revolving around this seemingly ordinary British schoolgirl.

The characters and real-world setting seem a bit dated, and the picture quality is not the best. There is a definite air of the B-film to Paperhouse, and Glenne Headly's accent is pretty atrocious. It moves at it's own pace, which can feel slow or uneven to some viewers. With only a 92 minute run time, Paperhouse draws us in to its world in deceptively innocent ways and never have simple children's drawings felt so ominously dark and powerful.

Wonderfully taut and filled with that truly imaginative horror of living a reality no one else believes is happening, Paperhouse tops the list of my favorite horror films. In my opinion, the pacing adds to the film's over all appeal, helping to tighten tension and keep us off-balance. Paperhouse is ripe for the plucking as a truly wonderful cult classic. If you are lucky enough to happen across a copy of either the VHS or the even more difficult to find DVD... invite it to come home with you!