4 Years After ‘Home Alone,’ Macaulay Culkin Starred in an Adventure Fantasy That’s Pure Nightmare Fuel

Everyone has that one movie they watched as a child that features a severely traumatizing image. Maybe it was when Artax drowned in The NeverEnding Story, or maybe it was the “Night on Bald Mountain” sequence in Fantasia. But one nightmare-fuel-ridden film that time has forgotten is The Pagemaster. The Pagemaster stars Macaulay Culkin — four years after Home Alone — as Richard Tyler, a boy who would rather bury his nose in statistics books than dare to get himself into any danger. When his father attempts to build a treehouse for him, Richard rattles off a statistic about how 9 in 10 people die from falling off a tree.

Finally, fed up with his doom and gloom, Richard’s father sends him to buy some nails for the treehouse, but a rainstorm sends him into the halls of a library. Richard eventually slips and hits his head…which somehow transports him into a fantasy world ruled by the Pagemaster (Christopher Lloyd). Richard starts seeking the exit, which leads him to encounter characters from famous books, and a heaping dose of nightmare fuel to boot.

‘The Pagemaster’ Seems Hellbent on Traumatizing Its Audience

It’s very clear from its premise that The Pagemaster was geared toward trying to encourage its younger viewers to read. However, it might have left them with a lifetime worth of nightmares as nearly every book Richard finds himself in ends with a dangerous situation. He picks up The Hound of the Baskervilles and is chased by a giant, angry hound. He enters The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde, and has to escape the wrath of Mister Hyde. Picking up Moby Dick lands him in the middle of Captain Ahab’s final battle with the titular whale, who is depicted as a massive beast with burning red eyes and a razor sharp horn. (It’s enough to put the whale from Pinocchio to shame.)

The live action sequences aren’t much better, especially when it comes to librarian Mr. Dewey (also played by Lloyd.) Despite Richard insisting that he just wants to use a phone, Dewey keeps pressuring him to pick up a library book — even grabbing him by the shoulders and insisting that he looks like a horror reader. This segment is not only a far cry from the warmly eccentric persona Lloyd had as Doc Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy, but it also probably ensured none of the younger viewers would ever set foot in a library.

‘The Pagemaster’ Was Riddled With Production Problems

The Pagemaster might have put Richard through a literary gauntlet, but its production turned out to be just as nightmarish. Producer David Kirschner attempted to claim sole credit for the screenplay and story, but David Casci took offense as he had written The Pagemaster under contract with the Writers’ Guild of America. Things were further confused when a novelization of The Pagemaster was released. Kirschner is credited, but the novelization uses Casci’s script. (Both have screenplay credit in the final credits.) Things only got crazier when The Pagemaster wound up being part of a lawsuit involving Steven Spielberg. Plantiff Jay L. Rappaport claimed that one of Spielberg’s associates stole a visual effect he had pioneered for The Pagemaster. Despite this turmoil, The Pagemaster made it to theaters…and wound up bombing at the box office, with mixed reviews. The Washington Post‘s Rita Kempley loved it, but Roger Ebert called it “a sad and dreary film.”

Despite its misfortunes at the box office, The Pagemaster did manage to assemble a collection of talented actors for its voice cast. In his travels through the Pagemaster’s world, Richard befriends a trio of anthropomorphic books: Fantasy (Whoopi Goldberg), Adventure (Patrick Stewart) and Horror (Frank Welker). Leonard Nimoy lent his voice to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, further strengthening The Pagemaster‘s connections to Star Trek. This prestige also extends to the live action sections, which were directed by Joe Johnston. Johnston slowly builds up dread throughout the events leading up to Richard’s descent into animation; when he’s riding to the store, trees snap and fall in his way, and the dark corners of the library are often penetrated by flashes of lightning. (Those same instincts would serve Johnston well in his remake of The Wolfman.) The Pagemaster might not be as beloved as its fellow ’90s-era children’s movies, but it takes the cake when it comes to the nightmare fuel. If you love books, you might second guess that love after a viewing of this fantasy adventure.

The Pagemaster is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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