Paranoid

Well, I must say that this wasn't the best horror flick I have ever seen. But then again...could this obviously low budget flick ever amount to one of the tops? I will say, however, that the acting wasn't all bad. I mean...how could the poor young actors do much with what was written to begin with. I was at least able to finish it. It seems to me that this is obviously a first film for the director...and how many of us could even do this well. The mask was cool, the girls were hot... Would I watch it again? Probably not...but at least people are talking about it. Even I would rent it based on the below comments just to see what all the fuss is about.

I thought this WAS done by high school students, to add to a previous comment, and even then it would still be bad. The acting is horrible, worse than any soap. Plot is stupid, and partially confusing in minor details. Camera work unsteady. Lighting dodgy. Bad acting. Bad acting. Did I mention the really bad acting?

Surprisingly the one saving grace (besides the cute lead actress) is the lack of skill in the murder scenes. Most don't have any horror music, so the only noise you can hear are the victims screams of terror ("No please don't kill me no NO!" etc etc). Done accidentally I'm sure, but very very eerie.

Overall stay away from this horrible p.o.s but... if you are stuck between this and "the return of the Texas chainsaw massacre", I'd still say go for this.... anytime.

3/10

sniff, sniff...what's that you smell? oh, look. it's a steaming pile of frightmare. this painfully inadequate attempt of a movie is truly terrible. usually, if a movie is really really awful...as bad as "ax 'em" (2002) per say, then i find something redeeming about the fact that it is absurdly lacking any quality that might suggest an iota of professionalism. however, unlike those gems, frightmare had a budget of more that 50 dollars. it has the quality of any made for tv movie (lights, a decent camera, etc), however the acting made me want to poke out my eyes in an oedipal act of anguish. and maybe the fact that it follows the plot to 'scream' so predictably, yet attempts to come off seriously, was what really got under my skin. it simply shouts mediocre louder than any movie i have ever seen.

It looks more like a series of moments thrown in without any sense of storytelling. What is the killer's relationship with cockroaches ? Who cares, it looks good ! What it this "article" everybody suddenly mentions ? No idea. Even the title is unappropriated, since there is no peculiar paranoid in this movie.

When revealed in a lame sequence, the "killer" barely has the built of the murderer we saw before. And the incoherent ending scores ten on the "Huh ?" meter. This is not just bad, it's also a cheat.

Rent something else unless you are in the mood for a real bad movie !

I'm a huge fan of the slasher movies of the 80's and the cover for "Paranoid" looked great so I put down my $6.50 to rent it. Overall the movie was fairly poor. The acting was bad, the dialogue was abysmal, however the killer's mask was really cool. The beginning titles were great for such a low budget flick and promised quality that ultimately this movie just couldn't deliver. Similar to Scream only made on a miniscule budget. There wasn't enough gore or scares in this movie to let it rise above the average slasher movie. I'd be interested to know if anyone understood the ending.