Why so much hype?

Let's be realistic.

Beautiful, moving film.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

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.

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.

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.

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?