Back to trending
Paperhouse

Paperhouse

Drama · Fantasy · Horror · 1988

A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.

Movie details

Paperhouse

“A drawing that became a dream. A dream that became reality.”

1988 Drama · Fantasy · Horror 1h 32m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.5 / 10

Community rating

A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Paperhouse?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Let's Scare Jessica to Death

Horror · 1971

Newly released from a mental ward, Jessica hopes to return to life the way it was before her nervous breakdown. But when Jessica moves to a country house with her husband and a close friend, she finds a mysterious girl living in there. Jessica's terror and paranoia resurface as evil forces surround her.

Mr. K

Mr. K

Drama · 2025

Mr. K, a traveling magician, finds himself in a Kafkaesque nightmare when he can’t find the exit of his hotel. His attempts to get out only pull him deeper, entangling him further with the hotel and its curious inhabitants.

The Mothman Prophecies

The Mothman Prophecies

Drama · 2002

Reporter John Klein is plunged into a world of impossible terror when fate draws him to the sleepy West Virginia town of Point Pleasant, whose residents are being visited by a great winged shape that sows hideous nightmares and fevered visions.

The Last Wave

The Last Wave

Drama · 1977

A Sydney lawyer defends five Aboriginal people in a ritualised taboo murder and in the process learns disturbing truths about himself and premonitions.

Colossal

Colossal

Drama · 2017

A woman discovers that severe catastrophic events are somehow connected to the mental breakdown from which she's suffering.

The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It

The Haunting Hour: Don't Think About It

Horror · 2007

Cassie, a 13 year old Gothic girl, is trying to fit in at her new school. To entertain herself, she plays a series of pranks on the popular kids and her younger brother, Max. When she goes to a Halloween store looking for new tricks, she finds a little book called "The Evil Thing"

Night of Dark Shadows

Night of Dark Shadows

Drama · 1971

Recently married, Quentin and Tracy Collins have just moved into Collinwood, a New England estate that has long been in the Collins family and which Quentin has just inherited. They soon find themselves plagued by spirits of past residents.

Northfork

Northfork

Fantasy · 2003

The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the responsibility of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.

I Kill Giants

I Kill Giants

Fantasy · 2017

Sophia, a new high school student, tries to make friends with Barbara, who tells her that “she kills giants,” protecting this way her hometown and its inhabitants, who do not understand her strange behavior.

Hereafter

Hereafter

Drama · 2010

Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.

Where it lives

Watch in your region.

Cinema release signals and current streaming, rental, and purchase options for your region.

Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Bernard Rose

Written by

Matthew Jacobs

Charlotte Burke

Charlotte Burke

Anna Madden

E

Elliott Spiers

Marc

Glenne Headly

Glenne Headly

Kate Madden

Gemma Jones

Gemma Jones

Dr. Sarah Nicols

Ben Cross

Ben Cross

Dad

Jane Bertish

Jane Bertish

Miss Vanstone

S

Sarah Newbold

Karen

Court is in session

Put Paperhouse on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Arthouse Gremlin

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.