Paperhouse (1988)

Director:

Bernard Rose

Writers:

Catherine Storr (novel)
Matthew Jacobs (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 February 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Horror | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

A drawing that became a dream. A dream that became reality.

Plot:

Anna is becoming lost in the loneliness of her own world when she discovers she can visit another, a...

Plot Keywords:

Dream | Fantasy World | Nightmare | House | Father

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Charlotte Burke	...	Anna Madden
Jane Bertish	...	Miss Vanstone
Samantha Cahill	...	Sharon
Glenne Headly	...	Kate Madden
Sarah Newbold	...	Karen (Anna's school friend)
Gary Bleasdale	...	Policeman
Elliott Spiers	...	Marc
Gemma Jones	...	Dr. Sarah Nicols
Steven O'Donnell	...	Dustman
Ben Cross	...	Dad Madden
Karen Gledhill	...	Nurse
Barbara Keogh	...	Hotel receptionist

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

West Germany:12 | Iceland:16 | Australia:M | UK:15 | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Devon, England, UK

Company:

Working Title Films

Trivia:

When it was decided two days before the film was theatrically released that the character of Kate should be British, Canadian actress Glenne Headly had to very quickly dub all of her dialogue using an English accent.

Goofs:

Factual errors: At the hospital, the chest radiograph that can be seen on the negatoscope is incorrectly positioned. It should be flipped horizontally, so the heart shadow mainly occupies the right half of the image (as if the examiner was in front of the patient).

Quotes:

Kate Madden: Go away please

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Sweets to the Sweet: The Candyman Mythos (2004) (V)

Val Lewton would be proud

I just watched this remarkable 1988 film which somehow managed to escape my attention previously. It may have been the Vestron distribution that worked against it - the company went under, and the film was not released on a mass scale.

I have not seen a "horror" film which involved children that impressed me as much as this since "Curse of the Cat People." "The Innocents" has just been knocked out of second spot which my viewing of this stylish film that puts "The Other" and "The Others" to shame.

The film concerns young British teen Anna, who suffers fainting spells, and in her dreams visits the house which she had drawn on paper. As the dreams go on, she meets a young male teen named Mark, whom she had drawn in the window on paper. At first she couldn't get to visit his room - he tells her she has to go back and draw the stairs.

I won't reveal more of the plot, it would be doing the film a great disservice, even though most viewers will probably be one step ahead. That's not a negative in this case, as it enables one to be more attentive to the production design of Gemma Jackson and the direction of Bernard Rose, which combine to depict incredibly stark visuals - there's no cheating with splashes of color and hazy or overlit photography that are often erroneously used to indicate a dreamlike state.

Charlotte Burke will tear at your emotions as Anna, a shame she made this her solo acting experience. Elliott Spiers is equally impressive as Mark, but he only made one more film. Glenne Headly - a New London, Connecticut native, does remarkably well in her role as Anna's mother, her accent is impeccable. This one is not to be missed.