Popular reviews

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  Review by FoundOnYouTube ★★★★ 3

  8/10

  People say that this is a horror film, but its really not. Its more of a fantasy-drama where 10 minutes of it become a horror film.

  The fact that our protagonist is a child gives this film a unique child-like nature to it, especially during the dream sequences. When Anna fixes up the house, she fixes it up in a way that every British child in the 80's would by putting an ice cream machine, a hanging cricket ball, and a stack of hamburgers for dinner in it. Even when this film gets to the dark parts, it is reminiscent of a nightmare that a child typically has.

  This is one of the first films that Hans Zimmer has…

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  Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★ 1

  If Guillermo De Toro fantasy images actually cointained real pain and horror. The episode with the father remains one of the more troubling represantations of childhood trauma put on film and everything else is not that far off that quality-wise.

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  Review by DirkH ★★★★ 4

  This was a return to an old love affair that didn't disappoint at all.
  It's hard to accurately classify this film. At its heart it's a fantasy film, with horror elements wrapped in a coming of age drama. It is a beautifully told story that is as enchanting as it is moving.

  A standout are the visuals. We are slowly pulled into a fantasy world, made out of the drawings of a young girl. The clever thing director Rose does here is to not go over the top, but to make it all look real, but out of proportion, much like a child's drawings. There is some horror here as well and it is very good. There is always some…

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  Review by Steve G 🇵🇸 🇾🇪 ★★★★

  You Gotta Be Fucking Kidding: The 1980s Horror Month - REWATCHES

  Paperhouse is a film that I've seen several times now, and is a film that seems to have its status as an oddity upgraded each time I watch it.

  There's a lot of intrigue around the people involved in this film in particular - how Bernard Rose, after showing such immense promise with this, Candyman and Immortal Beloved has regressed to almost nothing. The fact that Charlotte Burke would act in exactly nothing else after this. And also the tragic death of the film's best actor, Elliott Spears.

  What always interested me most of all about Paperhouse though is the one thing I dislike about it, and that is…

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  Review by Jude

  godly...like the exact negative of those awful roald dahl stories about how being a bookish kid gives you magic powers and makes you better than everyone else. escapism without escape and the limitations of dreams brought into focus so that we might understand the things they *can* do better, the pain of isolation and fear alleviated just enough by these brief moments of connection in the fantasies of the sickly. literally broke my heart, also straight up one of the most elegantly composed movies i have ever seen, zero exaggeration

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  Review by Kodiak ★★★½ 2

  Hi. Sorry I never review anything anymore. In case you’re not tired of the echo yet, I’ve been depressed and haven’t felt like writing anything in weeks. That’s probably why my followers have been dropping like flies, but thank you to everyone who’s stuck with me through my funk. I promise I’ll get back on the ball soon. 
  So I’ve had this on my watchlist for like three years now and saw it was on Prime so I finally got around to watching it. I was very pleased. It’s like PG but also carries enough adult themes to keep older audiences engrossed. I got a lot of PTSD, Dissociative Disorder, and paternal abuse vibes from this, and I mean, I…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black

  While questions about what constitutes a horror film are usually steeped in pretense, I feel like questioning Paperhouse's genre is a worthwhile way to analyze the film. For an extended segment in the middle, it does engage in a lot of horror tropes and suspense as a shadow version of Anna's father chases her and Mark through the dreamhouse, but much of the film engages in coming-of-age teen drama and fantasy qualities that have no scariness or other horror characteristics to them. I won't argue that you can't call this a horror film, but I will say that contrast muddles the pacing of the film. It gives a false climax as the children escape danger, but then drags on as…

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  Review by Hunter ᴴᴰ ★★★

  It had me up until the two person forward roll and kids making out. Scary and simple expressionistic set design and love me a good lighthouse. Some emotionally unsettling moments of dark children’s fantasy from the director of Candyman.

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal ★★★★½

  Part of me feels like this might have laid an influence of sorts on the writing of Neil Gaiman, but the inventive set pieces of Paperhouse make this ride unlike most other horror films from the era. Bernard Rose's skill comes clear with establishing atmosphere, but in capturing the vision of a child's nightmare it allows him to craft the perfect coming-of-age film within that realm of being within a dark fantasy - as if it were a children's story being read out to you.

  It's a shame that this film doesn't seem to be as widely known, but given where Rose has gone since this, I'm almost certain it'll acquire a bigger audience.

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  Review by Ethan Lyon ★★★★ 6

  Hooptober 6.0, pt.7- There was a crooked girl...

  4/6- 6 Decades
  3/6- Countries Represented (USA, UK, Italy)

  2nd Bernard Rose (after Candyman)

  A surprise addition to the Hooptober lineup, Rose's early horror effort doesn't reach the heights of Candyman (my favourite new watch from last year, and my vote for the best horror film of the 1990s), but it's still a bold and confident work that anticipates the writings of Neil Gaiman, especially Coraline. On her eleventh birthday, Anna suddenly falls sick. Convalescent, she discovers that a house she drew appears in her dream, and whatever she adds to the drawing appears too. Is it her imagination? Or is she in contact with another dreaming boy? And why is her…

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  Review by Freyr ★★½

  Some neat shots and production design.

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  Review by Brian Formo ★★★½

  There’ll never be a need for a live-action Coraline because Paperhouse exists. A visually arresting debut from Bernard Rose with interestingly obscured daddy horror (truthful to child’s repression), great dream world design, four weak endings too many and a hokey as hell soundtrack full of screeching guitars and piano organs. The first two thirds of Paperhouse is pretty great fantasy, though, so a definite recommend and can see why Rose was hired for Candyman.