'Is this snogging?’
On her 11th birthday, Anna Madden (Charlotte Burke) comes down with glandular fever (do kids get glanular fever anymore? It feels like that was quite an 80’s illness). Dr. Nichols (the always wonderful Gemma Jones, who you’ll probably know best as playing Bridget Jones’ mum), tells Anna that she must rest or she risks prolonging her illness.
In Anna’s febrile dreams, a house she drew in her waking life becomes real. She draws a sad boy, Marc, (Elliott Spiers) in one of the windows, and he becomes real, too, except she hasn’t drawn him any legs so he can’t walk. She only drew his sad face, neck and shoulders, but for some reason he has a body but legs that don’t work? The logic in the film doesn’t logic, but I guess because most of it is set in Anna’s dreams, it doesn’t matter.
It turns out that Marc is a real-life boy, who has muscular dystrophy, which explains the reason he can’t walk. Anna and Marc are both patients of Dr. Nichols. I assume Dr. Nichols breaks the old patient confidentiality thing for purposes of the plot. Marc and Anna continue to meet in the paper house and they form a friendship, though Marc tells Anna it’s not safe for her there.
Anna’s mother Kate (Glenne Headly) is a bit of a classic 80’s mother. She’s very dismissive of Anna’s worries and dries her wet hair like she’s trying to pull her head off. She’s also inconsistent, distracted and contrary.
Anna’s dad, (Ben Cross) who doesn’t even get a name, he’s just ‘Dad’ an absent recovering alcoholic features in the house as a nightmarish spectre, though real-life dad is a bit emotionally disconnected and says stupid things like, ‘don’t get sunstoke!’ when he opens the curtains.
Paperhouse is a very weird film, and it sort of sisters with films like Return to Oz and The Neverending Story. Had I watched it as a kid back in the 80s, I would probably have it listed as an all-time favourite. It’s Penny Crayon on Night Nurse. Watching it for the first time in 2025, I struggle to see why it’s such a highly rated favourite with both audiences and critics.
That said, there is some good stuff here; the dream version of the house that Anna draws looks exactly like something a child would come up with. The dream sequences really do feel like being in a dream, with the same weird it makes sense at the time logic. There are some genuinely creepy moments and frightening jump scares.
The developing romance between Anna and Marc is very sweet, and reminded me of the innocent crushes I had on boys in school.
The bad? The carelessness of Anna’s parents really irritated me, but I think they were written like that so that you are provided context for Anna’s social isolation (she does have friends, but she doesn’t seem especially bond with people until she meets Marc).
The performances are very earnest, but I could see the acting (I’m not including the kids here, as that’s not very fair).
Have you seen Paperhouse? What did you think?
Content warning: bad daddy
Final verdict: Anna, you in danger girl.
