Psycho's Movie Reviews #311: Paperhouse (1988)

Paperhouse is a 1988 British dark fantasy film directed by Bernard Rose. It was based on the 1958 novel Marianne Dreams by Catherine Storr. The film stars Ben Cross, Glenne Headly and Gemma Jones. The original novel was the basis of a six-episode British TV series for children in the early 1970s which was titled Escape Into Night.

Plot

While suffering from glandular fever, 11-year-old Anna Madden draws a house. When she falls asleep, she has disturbing dreams in which she finds herself inside the house she has drawn. After she draws a face at the window, in her next dream she finds Marc, a boy who suffers with muscular dystrophy, living in the house. She learns from her doctor that Marc is a real person.

Anna sketches her father into the drawing so that he can help carry Marc away, but she inadvertently gives him an angry expression which she then crosses out, and the father (who has been away a lot and has a drinking problem, putting a strain on his marriage) appears in the dream as a furious, blinded ogre. Anna and Marc defeat the monster and shortly afterward Anna recovers, although the doctor reveals that Marc's condition is deteriorating.

Anna's father returns home and both parents seem determined to get over their marital difficulties. The family goes on holiday by the sea, where Anna finds an epilogue to her dream.

Release/Reception/Box Office

Film critic Roger Ebert gave Paperhouse four stars out of four and called it "a film in which every image has been distilled to the point of almost frightening simplicity" and ended by saying "this is not a movie to be measured and weighed and plumbed, but to be surrendered to."

On the television show Siskel & Ebert, Paperhouse received a "Thumbs Up" from Roger Ebert who commented "I suppose Paperhouse will be classified as a fantasy thriller, but I thought it was a lot more than that. A dream movie that uses images so real and so concrete, they seem more convincing than most real-life dramas." He also commented how effective the soundtrack was. He said that Paperhouse showed that director Bernard Rose was extremely talented. Gene Siskel gave the film a marginal "Thumbs Down", but he agreed that Bernard Rose was very talented and said, "for about two-thirds of the way I was fascinated by this film." He also commented on how well the dream scenes were handled and said, "these seem to be legitimate fears that child might have." He stated that "when the film got more explicit... I thought the film went over-the-top with imagery and I got a little tired of it. Until then, I was fascinated by it."

The critics who have submitted their reviews to Rotten Tomatoes have given Paperhouse a "fresh" rating of 100%, but the users give it a "fresh" rating of 72%.

Box Office $241,278

My Review

Paperhouse is an immersive and interesting British horror/fantasy film of the 1980s that has enjoyed some measure of cult success since it was first released nearly 20 years ago. It's certainly an oddball movie, low budget and rather slow-paced, but my advice is to stick with it because it's a journey that does pay off. This is an imaginative tale about a girl who goes on a psychological journey into a make-believe world with some very odd characteristics.

It's one of those films which would be spoilt by saying too much about it. The main thing I can say is that this is classic British 'weird' - a genre with a fine literary tradition - and the titular construction is very well realised and memorable. The young cast give naturalistic performances, backed up by old-timers like Ben Cross, and the spooky atmosphere is second to none.

Four years earlier than Paperhouse we had seen A Nightmare On Elm Street open up a can of worms for the horror movie dream aspect. By the time of Paperhouse's release, the format was already looking tired as two sequels to Freddie's jolly had been and gone and a wave of imitators had blighted our screens (anyone remember the awful Dream Demon for instance?). This may go some way to explaining why Paperhouse, a brilliant, and hauntingly poetic movie, upped and vanished from the radar. Its director is Bernard Rose, who four years later would direct Candyman and put him in the shop window of the horror faithful. Thus prompting many to seek out some of his earlier work and getting Paperhouse talked about again. Not everyone took to it, for it's not overtly horror in name. It contains genuine moments of terror, but its themes and atmosphere are more in keeping with something like Pan's Labyrinth than with Candyman, Candyman, Candyman.

Paperhouse is open to interpretation by the individual viewer, it toys with ideas such as what is the reality here? Is Anna in limbo, is it coincidence that she is sick? There's a number of issues that on the surface are not obviously addressed, but they can be if you open up to it and use a thought process. Don't get me wrong, this is not a complex movie, it's thoughtful, even cheekily daring, but it's not a cranial head scratcher that doesn't make sense. In fact, rightfully so, the wonderful breath holding ending ties up any loose ends, but this again is if you have invested fully in the movie. There's psychological aspects to it as well, Anna is about to enter puberty, a notoriously "difficult" time, not just for the child, but for the parents too, most notably the father of girls. This appears, in my line of thinking, to be very much at the heart of Paperhouse. Certainly the father/daughter axis is the crux of the piece, but metaphors and some scenes beg for analysis. In tone it's easy to draw a line to two other undervalued "horror" movies from the 1980s, The Lady In White and The Company Of Wolves, so fans of those films should definitely check this out. What you or I make of Paperhouse is what makes the movie so special, answers to questions are not given, just hints. It's fine writing from Matthew Jacobs who adapts from Catherine Storr's novel Marrianne Dreams.

The film also looks terrific thanks to production designer Gemma Jackson. The two-story house and its isolated grassy surrounds are suitably creepy, but as Anna starts to add things to her drawing, this in turn lets Jackson work her magic. The contents of the house range from the eerie (ice-cream maker/radio) to the poetic (a room full of lighted candles), while a blue bicycle is almost abstract in its intricacy. Involved on the acting front is only a small cast that features Charlotte Burke as Anna, Glenne Headly as her Mother, Ben Cross as the father, Elliott Spiers as Marc and Gemma Jones playing Dr. Sarah Nicols. This was the only film Burke ever made, which is sad because she's fabulous. Starting out brattish and borderline annoying, the character quickly pulls us on side as her confusion gives way to a grasp of the situation; that in turn makes her resourceful and brave, thus fully involving the audience. That's testament to Burke's performance and marks it down as one of the better turns from a British child actor.

More fantasy than horror but definitely evocative and haunting. A real smart little movie begging to be seen more now in these post Pan's Labyrinth days. 8.4/10