| | | | Paperhouse
(1988) |
hat do you do when your dreams start taking on a reality of your creation?
That's what Anna Madden (played by Charlotte Burke) finds out when an illness of hers gives her the ability to start having control over her dreams through her drawings. Or is it her dreams that are controlling her drawings? Either way Anna is in for some dark and disturbing nightmares that cross over into her reality.
On her 11th birthday, Anna collapses at school, dreaming she finds herself out in the open, sees a house and runs towards it but before she can get there she wakes. Whilst her mother (played by Glenne Headly) is taking her home she says she faked the collapse so she could have her horseriding lessons (birthday present). A cross mother turns the car around and dumps her back in school but she bunks off for the afternoon with a friend. A game of hide'n'seek at a disused railway station goes bad when Anna collapses in an abandoned tunnel, again she dreams of the house, the house in the drawing she made earlier that day.
"Is anybody there? Karen!" she calls out, but there's no reply.
She wakes to the sound of police radios, flashlights, the flicker of blue lights and the darkness of the night, she'd been out cold for hours and a full-scale search was in progress. Taken back home by the police, Anna's checked up by a doctor, Sarah (played by Samantha Cahill) who tells her she's got to stay in bed for the rest of the week, Anna's miffed at that and the doctor tells her of another patient of hers that's been in bed for a year, Marc.
Thinking about Marc, Anna draws a sad face at one of the windows of the house, "too sad" she says and tries to rub it out but her eraser doesn't work on the drawing. Dreaming again she's at the house, "Is anybody there?" a boy appears at a window (played by Elliot Spiers) telling her to "go away don't you understand it's dangerous around here, dangerous".
Anna continues to draw and dream, drawing stairs and rooms to the house so she can go in and meet the boy, who's name we learn is Marc like the other patient of Sarah's and like the other patient he can't walk, so she draws things in the rooms so he isn't bored all alone when she's not there.
But Marc keeps warning Anna she has to leave because it's not safe there so she draws her dad next to the house so he can protect them, later on when she's angry she crosses out his face and the window where Marc is then crumples up the drawing and throws it away. After retrieving the drawing from the binmen she dreams again, the consequences of her actions with the drawing had disasterous effects in the dream world, the house is dark and Marc's room is wrecked.
He suggests she wakes up and amends the drawing but she can't wake up, suddenly there's a sound, "they've come for us" whispers Marc. Anna spots it's her dad (played by Ben Cross) on the hill nearby but there's something very wrong, he doesn't know who he is, he's blind, he's angry and he's after them with a hammer...
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Paperhouse is an excellent film that's difficult to categorize because of the horror/chiller aspect it has, sure there are scenes that will make you jump out of your skin and your heart stop but take the time to look beyond the scares and you'll see a wonderful story, not one of coming of age but of discovery, learning and living through illness.
The locations are almost perfect choices, a seaside location down in Devon in the UK with a lighthouse surrounded by a large evenly ploughed field. The sets are a visual treat, the house and all the things in it look like three dimensional physical drawings, strange shaped glasses on the table, a primitive computer that looks like something from the 70s and a bed with the head end larger than the foot end for example.
In a lot of cases the film of the book takes just a few elements and makes a new story but this one uses nearly the entire story in the book, it works, making the film a delight to watch because like the book this film won't age.
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The original book is called "Marianne Dreams" by Catherine Storr, with the original characters names being Marianne and Mark. A follow-up book was written, called "Marianne and Mark". 
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Has anyone ever found a copy of Matthew Jacobs' shooting script/screenplay on the internet or elsewhere? I ask because there are one or two things I didn't quite understand in the movie, unfortunately they occur in scenes where the film plot is a significant departure from what occurred in Catherine Storr's original book.
1. When Anna wakes up and goes to her bedroom window with a pair of binoculars, she scans the London skyline and exclaims "it's real". What is she looking at or referring to?
2. Given that there is always a time-lag between each event in the "real world" and its corresponding effect in the dream world; at what point in the "dream world" does Marc die? I was struck by the symbolism of all the candles in the room with the giant radio, a sudden draft blows them out; I felt this was the moment of death. Does anyone have a different interpretation? -Thanks to John Murray
The initial drawing of the house has some large, meanacing standing stones on the land around it, these are unfortunately ignored in the film, but in the book they play a very significant part of the story, they're the main reason Anna and Marc have to escape to the lighthouse, but without the stones the film manages to hold its ground well.
Paperhouse was Charlotte Burke's only film role.
Before this film, the BBC had already made a mini TV series adaption of the book back in 1972, called "Escape Into Night" which followed the book more closely than this film.
If you listen carefully enough to the radio when it's switched on, you can hear it giving away Anna's hiding place.
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The pencil used for the dream drawings is a special one, erasers don't work on it so any drawing that's been made can't be unmade.
After Anna has been picked up from school and is being driven home by her mother, Anna shows her a telegram from her father and then folds it up and puts it into her top pocket. After a short while, the camera angle changes to the drivers side of the car and we see Anna put the letter into her pocket for the second time. -Thanks to Mike (Derby UK)
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|  |  |  | | Paperhouse
Locations |
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Paperhouse was filmed on location in London and Ilfracombe, North Devon, England. [Thanks to Ian Butterworth]
The "Royal Britannia Hotel" in Ilfracombe, North Devon (Room 6) was used for the hotel scene at the end of the movie.
I couldn't find the lighthouse, although I did see the rock on which the lighthouse appeared in the distance at the end of the film; I think the lighthouse was probably superimposed on the top of the rock. [Thanks to Rick Mills]
I can confirm that the lighthouse was superimposed and only a ground floor was constructed in the location on the moor by the set builders.
The hide and seek sequence was filmed at a disused part of Highgate tube station.
The flat occupied by the Madden's was the Assistant Director's mother's flat and was in Kensington but I cannot remember the road.
No idea where the school was, sorry.
The rest was filmed at Pinewood.
Charlotte Notcutt (nee Burke) [Thanks very much, Charlotte]
The final scene, when Anna attempts to grab the rope ladder from the helicopter, was filmed a short distance (less than a mile) from Hartland Quay on the North Devon Coast. [Thanks to Anthony Cleary]
I couldn't find the lighthouse, although I did see the rock on which the lighthouse appeared in the distance at the end of the film; I think the lighthouse was probably superimposed on the top of the rock as a special effect or something. [Thanks to Rick Mills]
Can you help? Do you know any of the Ilfracombe, DEVON, United Kingdom filming locations used for Paperhouse, particularly lighthouse, paperhouse location? [Please send them in]
|  | | | | | | ![[16:9 -Widescreen Enhanced]](16_9.gif) | | Trailer, Notes |
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Unnoticably blending into the background, the orchestral score composed and conducted by Hans Zimmer enhances the moods portrayed throughout the film without you realising, the sign that the music is totally right.
The soundtrack CD contains these tracks:
1. Paperhouse Overture
2. Is Anybody There?
3. Sanctus (From Gabriel Faure's Requiem)
4. I'll Be Back
5. The Staircase (Stanley Myers)
6. Me and My Daughter, we Get on Like a House on Fire
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Soundtrack Available:
Used On CD
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