Paranoïd

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.

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.

I bought "Frightmare" for six bucks at Circuit City thinking that it was the early 80's version. Imagine my surprise when I pop in the DVD and find a straight to video horror film from the year 2000! I'm a fan of said independent films, so I wasn't upset. I decided to give the film its due diligence.

The Good:

• Some pretty good scares in this movie. A lot of them are "jump scares" and "loud music tomfoolery," but this film should give you a jump or two, at any rate.

• Some decent atmospheric elements. The Haunted House is pretty cool. Some of the "stalking" scenes (the one at the beginning and the one in the middle) are suitably creepy and fairly well done.

• The two main actresses are actually decent actors. The rest of the cast, however, are not very good at all. Said actresses also provide ample "eye candy," if you like tight outfits, leather pants, etc. =) - The killer's outfit/mask/demeanor is also suitably creepy.

The Bad:

• Really bad editing. The movie jumps around a lot. Some of the editing tricks are neat, but overall, it pulls you out of the movie. The editing also makes the plot confusing at times.

• Soundtrack is suspect. The "creepy music" is good, but the soundtrack often relies on a drum machine/bad techno score to fill in the quiet parts. It doesn't work very well.

• The "twist" at the end had the ultimate potential for coolness, but the aforementioned bad editing made it fall flat. This is the wasted potential I'm referring to.

• Sub par acting. As I mentioned earlier, the two main actresses are good, but the rest of the cast comes off like a bad high school play.

Other notes:

Note the names of the main characters...Freddy, Jason, Norman, Michael and Hellraiser. Subtle.

You can see a lot of "Scream" influence in this film. It's interesting to see what is inspiring the next generation of filmmakers.

Overall:

I give it a 4 out of 10. Lots of wasted potential here, but the movie is very watchable if you enjoy these types of low budget, independent films. I don't regret spending the six bucks at all.

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

Saw this movie, had more fun when I broke my leg! This movie plain sucks - horrific acting, horrific directing, so many fatal mistakes you should think this movie was done by a bunch of school students. A complete waste of time and then some.