Paranoia (1997) User Reviews

Well-acted, well-made, slightly twisted thriller.

[capkronos · 6/10 · 28 July 2003]

Brigitte Bako gives a winning performance as Jana Mercer, a beautiful, sarcastic interior decorator who witnessed her family being murdered as a child by psycho Calvin Hawks (Larry Drake). Twenty years after the original crime, Jana (a night owl with a ultra-secure penthouse apartment) is again harassed via computer by Calvin, who informs her he's getting out on parole very soon and wants to be reunited. Unable to convince the authorities he's after her again, Jana retreats to the country with her new cop boyfriend. Guess who else shows up?

Drake is amusing and creepy as the psycho who tracks her down, slits a librarians neck ("Just because I could.") and tells another woman "Fear is the distance between pain and nothing!" It's silly that a mass murderer would have a laptop and advanced internet access IN his prison cell and would be getting out on parole after killing three people (hell, or nowadays, maybe it isn't), but, that aside, this has several surprising and effective plot twists, some witty dialogue, a pretty twisted flashback and nice attempts at establishing characters.

Last 10 minutes of film almost redeem the first 80

[AlabamaWorley1971 · 5/10 · 15 November 2006]

To be honest, I mostly rented this to get a glimpse of one of my favorite almost-completely-unknown actors, Stephen Gevedon. After the first few minutes of truly horrendous dialog, I watched it on fast-forward until Stephen appeared! But one thing I will give this movie: it has a twist ending that's actually GOOD, makes sense, and works well. Ms. Bako is very beautiful and does her best with the aforementioned bad dialog. Sally Kirkland tries her best, but does not succeed very well. Larry Drake does his "I'm not Benny from L.A. LAW" serial killer thing. (This is not a spoiler; he is on the poster brandishing a big ol' knife.) I wish I could give this 2 1/2 stars on Netflix, but your choices are only 2 or 3, so I gave it 2.

Hmmmmmmm.......

[chaplins_charlie · 4/10 · 23 May 2003]

This movie was weird!! This psycho killer Calvin(Larry Drake, whom I surprised wasted his talent on this one)kills a little girl's family. The little girl manages to escape from being killed by hiding in the hallway closet. Anyways, the killer gets only 20 years in jail for killing three people(Yeah right, he would've gotten the chair or something but then it wouldn't be a movie)and after the girl is grown up, the killer manages to contact her via email.(I never knew they let prisoners have laptops and access to the internet. Impossible? Only in Hollywood)So the killer gets out of jail and stalks her so that he can kill her and finish the job. The ending was the most pointless and dumbest endings I've ever seen in a movie, and the scene where the killer(Drake) is having sex with a teenaged boy in the woods, is beyond gross.(Makes you think, was he a killer or a perverted child molester?) The beginning was pretty good and the rest was just a waste of time. If you have absolutely nothing else to watch, then maybe this movie might do!!

We don't need this!

[gazineo-1 · 3/10 · 20 March 2002]

Ludicruous, almost amateur thriller about a killer (Drake) who gets out of the prison just to terrorize a young woman (Bako) who is the only survivor of the last crime of the bad guy. Weak plot, predictable all the way, extremely boring and with some campy performances, especially Drake, absolutely unconvincing and far - fetched. Don't lose your time and your money. I give this a 3 (three).

Low rent psycho thriller

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 19 July 2017]

PARANOIA is a pretty uninteresting late addition to the run of psycho-thriller movies that had begun with FATAL ATTRACTION over a decade previously. This story has a young woman, played by Brigitte Barko who gives an indifferent performance, the sole survivor of a massacre by a serial killer which slaughtered her family. Years later, she's trying to live a normal life when she discovers that the killer is about to be released on parole. This low budget oddity singularly fails to deliver any thrills or suspense, but the narrative structure is quite interesting and there are enough twists to keep you mildly involved. The great Larry Drake, best known as the baddie in DARKMAN, gives the best performance as the killer.

pathetically written

[JBoze313 · 28 November 2000]

This movie is a big joke. First off, the acting is horrible, the look of the movie--it has the look of a very VERY low budget movie. The actors are miscast horribly. I could go on for days. Anyhow...the movie is fake. I mean, you have a girl named Jana who is the only survivor when her entire family is killed by a serial killer. We see this happen, and then we see her much later in life. She lives alone in an apartment, and usually stays locked up during the day, all paranoid and stuff...only contact with the outside is when she has her online therapy sessions with a female doctor. She is supposed to be this woman who was so traumatized, and her life is totally screwed up because of what happened. Does she act paranoid and mentally unbalanced like she should? Nope. She pretty much acts like a normal everyday person...she works out of her home as an architect and designer, but she goes out at night to meet with some guy she's working with. All alone in New York City, I think...and she's fine going out at night all alone. No way. Not only that, but she meets some guy who says he lived two houses down from her when her parents were killed, and the day she meets she tries to have sex with him...lets the guy into her apartment right away, etc. She should be untrusting of people...she even tells the guy herself that she can't ever trust people...yet she lets the guy in her bed the first day they see each other after 20 + years. Yea right...

The serial killer, who is now in prison, contacts Jana from prison. Funny thing--I never knew they gave prisoners laptop computers with internet access and fax machines. Wow! Anyhow...the guy contacts her, and she freaks out because of it...so she calls the corrections agency and they say--oh he was only sentenced to twenty years. 20 years for 3 murders? Wrong. The funny thing is, when Jana calls--she was surprised to see how much time he had left in prison. If her family was murdered, don't you think she would have known how long he was put away? It goes on from here--and it gets dumber and dumber.

This movie is horrible. If you ever see it in the rental place, STAY AWAY! I hate this movie so much, I think I;m going to contact the writer, and tell him to leave Hollywood, and do it quickly! .05/10

Unbelievable acting, weak plot, below average movie

[Abominog · 3/10 · 10 September 1998]

Jane Mercer is the sole survivor after the serial killer has brutally slaughtered her family. The girl is living in fear and loneliness isolated from the whole world. The only contiguity is her brief interviews with the shrunk and Internet. Until the night when someone has established communication with Jane via computer. She realizes that her interlocutor is the ruthless murderer who has killed her family. And to her horror she finds out that he is going to be released from his confinement very soon.

An interesting movie

[cutie pi · 2/10 · 11 August 1999]

I rented the film Paranoia expecting a much better film. I felt that the plot was very weak. I expected a scary thriller and this movie did not scare me in the least. I did think the acting was good but the plot was terrible. I did, however, enjoy the line that was something like "Do whatever you want Jana...I have some Chinese food that's getting cold." I also thought the big black guy that was only in two scenes was interesting. What was his purpose?

I've seen a lot worse for 3 bucks!

[faxman · 6/10 · 9 March 1999]

I enjoy finding offbeat titles at the video store. Most that I find are pretty bad in the horror market. This film isn't Shakespeare, but Larry (DR Giggles) Drake is fun to watch. ** 2 stars. Give it a look on a rainy day.

Plodding, stagy thriller... Nice and offbeat

[VinnieRattolle · 8/10 · 16 May 2012]

Paranoia is the type of film people either love or hate. It's slow, it's talky, it's cheaply made and quite frankly it's a little bit strange. All part of the appeal, in my opinion.

Jana Mercer has become a recluse after a psychopath (Larry Drake -- who else?) broke into her home and murdered her entire family when she was a child. Now grown, Jana returns to her childhood neighborhood just as the loony is inexplicably paroled.

This is a movie that's rich with back-story and stagy dialogue. Jana is a fully realized and fleshed out character, admirably played by b-movie vixen Brigitte Bako, who comes off a little wooden but mostly BECAUSE of the character she's portraying. Larry Drake is a b- movie pro who gets to elegantly spout off a slew of creepy dialogue. The movie's got some oddball stuff going on which seems to be in reference to other things (Dick Van Dyke Show, witchy stick, gafilter fish, etc.), though almost 15 years after I first saw the film, I still don't get all the inside jokes. And did I mention the ending packs a wallop of a twist?

If you skimmed this review and think the film might be up your alley, it probably is. Unfortunately there are no DVD special features, which sucks because it's the type of film which would benefit from insight from the writer/director.

suspenseful and Brigitte Bako is hot

[Farleyed · 10/10 · 13 May 1999]

This movie is somewhat suspenseful. Larry Drake plays a psycho who stalks Brigitte Bako, an actress who's best known for being naked in all her movies. He stalks her over the internet which is a new twist.