Review of Paperhouse (1988) by Vince F — 08 Jun 2008

A unique film with amazing directing. Considered to be a British horror flick, it never really came off as that, sure there was creepy and a few surprises, but it was more drama fantasy though I thought, kind of like a 80ies background for Pan's Labyrinth. Neat.

Directed by Bernard Rose,who later helmed Candyman, one of the 90ies saving graces for the horror genre.

It has an awesome execution about a young brash girl from a broken home who starts having fainting spells and gets bed ridden and one day starts a rough sketch with a house in a field surrounded by a fence. She faints and awakes in the dream, which is her drawing brought to life. The next time she adds a boy in the window, in the dream the boy is there, but cant walk cause she didn't draw legs, she then adds more and more things, but her illness gets worse and the dreams intensify, she also isn't aware the drawing is influencing her real life. You get the idea for the stuff that goes on in here. Very obtuse and compelling ideas I thought.

The scene where the little girl draws her absent father in the drawing and then go's against but half way through erasing his face she's interrupted and then forgets to erase the rest, falls asleep, and then well, some creepy guy is now there with a deformed face, the scene where you see the outline of ..someone.. standing on the hill.but nothing more and then here him yell "I'm BLIND" and quickly start running towards the house was a stand out scene, the black tint and awesome background with bluish stormy clouds was a sight to behold.

Just take my word for it, if you like film, you got to see this. Refreshing film making at it's best.