Candyman is one of my favorite horror films of the '90s and that film's director, Bernard Rose, is what drew me to this film. An outcast girl, lashing out in part due to her anger at her alcoholic father (who is away from home on work assignment), doodles a house in her notebook, featuring a sad-faced boy in the upper window. She begins to dream herself into the landscape she's created, soon becoming friends with the boy and discovering that whatever she draws in the real world, appears in her dream life. Of course, she colors a bit outside of the lines accidentally, endangering her and her new friend. I really wish I would have seen this film when I was 11 years old or so; it might be a revered personal favorite now. Unfortunately, seeing it for the first time when older reveals a movie that's of two minds about whom it's targeting. It operates on a younger level mostly, but some of the sequences in her dream world would be kinda disturbing for a young kid. Too much of the film’s narrative is left unexplained, such as a psychic connection with a fellow patient her doctor is caring for, much of the family’s background, etc. That said, Paperhouse has some wonderfully creepy and stark imagery, and it’s often an honest portrait of being an outcast kid on the verge of adolescence with a fairly adult message – there are no pristine fantasy worlds and wherever you go, you bring your baggage with you. Pity about the much-too-pat ending.
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