Paperhouse (1988)

(In French, On Cable TV, September 2022) As fantasy films go, Paperhouse is more oneiric and horrific than most—it revolves around a little girl whose drawings become dreams that can affect reality, with 1988-vintage special effects trying to keep up with that premise. The fantasy aspect becomes dark at times, as the girl maybe invents people and maybe resolves conflicts in her life through dream combat. Director Bernard Rose clearly tries his best here, but Paperhouse strikes me as the kind of film that could benefit from a state-of-the-art-SFX remake to free up the imagination of the screenwriters and let the film go to the end of those ideas. Until then, it does remain a bit of a curio—a little-known late-1980s fantasy film closer to the dark fantasies of Guillermo del Toro or Neil Gaiman, with a keen interest in getting into a child’s inner world. Still, it’s not bad—surprisingly interesting, in fact.