Review of Paperhouse (1988) by Gordon T — 11 Jan 2010
"jive," "middle-brow" critics said PAPERHOUSE is "the thinking man's Nightmare on Elm Street.".
The "jive, "middle-brow," "Society-type" critics need to go jump in a lake because NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET itself is a "thinking man's film" as much as PAPERHOUSE is.
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is the most original film of the early 1980s; the only reason DREAMSCAPE usurped NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is because WES CRAVEN tried to sell the ELM STREET SCRIPT to a studio that went-on and stole his idea after rejecting his script.
Anyway, PAPERHOUSE is an "art-house" type film that works as an exhilarating child-hood fantasy augmented by Hanz Zimmer's equally exhilarating score.
Obviously PAPERHOUSE is "low-budget," yet the engaging direction and acting supersede the budgetary dramaturgical-limitations.
Kind of like when THE ELEPHANT MAN played the BROADWAY STAGE, "they" didn't use any make-up and asked "us" to imagine John Merrick's disfiguring condition; "we" forgot that there wasn't any make-up and enjoyed the production regardless.
This review of Paperhouse (1988) was written by Gordon T on 11 Jan 2010.
Paperhouse has generally received positive reviews.
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