Redwarmin This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Nonureva Really Surprised!

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

morrison-dylan-fan Keeping a TV recording of the very good The Borderlands by the side,I started look for another title to watch for a British Horror double bill. Catching me completely by surprise,my dad revealed a rarely mentioned Hammer Horror he had picked up,which led to me turning paranoiac. The plot:After the deaths of their parents in an air-crash the ties that bind the Ashby family together start to snap. Sinking into depression with the rest of his brothers and sisters, Tony Ashby appears to end it all by jumping off a cliff into the sea,an act which none of the other family members see take place.Taken care of by Aunt Harriet,Simon starts becoming increasingly aware of how fragile his sister Eleanor is in the mansion. Wanting all the inheritance for himself,Simon begins playing games that get Eleanor to question her sanity.Fearing that she's starting to see ghosts,Eleanor and the rest of the family discover that "dead" Tony is actually alive. As everyone appears to accept that he is telling the truth,"Tony" starts playing a paranoiac game… View on the film: Cracking under the pressure of her family and the re-appearance of Tony, Janette Scott gives a great performance as Eleanor,whose stuck in the mansion status leads Scott to getting Eleanor to lunge out in violently fearful,and abrasively passionate ways. Bringing light into the Ashby family,Alexander Davion gives a sharp, icy performance as Tony,whose handsome looks Davion sands down to a reveal calculating bite. Joined by a simmering Sheila Burrell as Aunt Harriet,Oliver Reed gives a cracking performance as Simon,who Reed balances between wrapping cruel mind-games round Eleanor, and falling down to the madness of the Ashby family.Beginning the themes that would re-appear in the excellent Amicus Giallo The Psychopath, director Freddie Francis & cinematographer Arthur Grant blend the Gothic smoke of Hammer Horror with dazzling Film Noir stylisation, with the isolation of the Ashby mansion being reflected in water and deranged family members spying on each other in shadows. Backed by a spidery score from Elisabeth Lutyens, Francis brings frightful doubt into the mansion with crisp side shots giving the impression of ghosts/mysterious figures,and a digging deep inside the foundation,allow Francis to unmask fiery secrets.Loosely based on Josephine Tey's novel,the screenplay by Jimmy Sangster wonderfully uses each Ashby family member to set the other one off to psychological horror,from the fury of mourning from Harriot,to the screams of Eleanor and the cackling weirdness of Simon. Whilst the ending is too neat and tidy,Sangster brilliantly makes Tony a Noir loner trapped in a horror nightmare,with the "love" Eleanor has for Tony edging towards a risqué undertone,and the ambiguity of this Tony being real or fake making each of the Ashby's feel paranoiac.

jamesraeburn2003 A memorial service is underway in a small coastal community for John and Mary Ashby who were killed in a plane crash eleven years ago. In attendance are their two surviving children: Eleanor (Janette Scott) and Simon (Oliver Reed); their Aunt Harriet (Sheila Burrell) and Francoise (Liliane Brousse); a nurse caring for Eleanor who appears to be going insane. Her other brother, Tony, committed suicide soon after their parents deaths and she has never recovered from this and, recently, she has sworn to have seen Tony lurking around the gardens of High Tor, the family estate, at night. Simon is all too keen to have his sister certified because he knows that would entitle him to her share of the family estate, which is due to mature in a few weeks time. Then the man Eleanor saw, Tony (Alexander Davion), shows up and he manages to convince the family lawyer, Kosset (Maurice Denham) and Aunt Harriet that he is who he claims to be. Naturally, Eleanor is overjoyed but, in reality, the man is an imposter planted by Kosset's son, Keith (John Bonney), so he can plunder the family fortune himself. Meanwhile, Simon is not prepared to lose the money so he makes a murder attempt on both Tony and his sister. Tony finally reveals that he is an imposter to Eleanor, but he has fallen in love with her and she with him. Eleanor's sleep is disturbed by the organ in the family chapel playing in the middle of the night with a child's voice singing, which is very similar to that of her dead brother's. Tony and Eleanor go to investigate and find Simon seemingly in a state of trance sat at the organ. But, the chapel door flies open and a figure in a clown mask attacks Tony with a meat hook. Who is this person and what are the reasons for these rituals in the chapel? Is Simon hiding a guilty secret from long ago and did Tony really commit suicide all those years ago?First of three psychological thrillers - or "mini Hitchcocks" - that Oscar-winning cinematographer turned director Freddie Francis made for Hammer. This was his third feature but his debut for the studio and it was this film's success that firmly identified him as a horror director much to his chagrin. Nevertheless, it is fair to say that he was loved by fans of the genre as much as those who admire him as one of this country's leading lighting cameramen rather than as a director. It is certainly not among his best work in the latter capacity since for a film of its length - 83 minutes - it is rather slow moving and while it may have been bone marrow freezing stuff back in 1964 it isn't today. Nevertheless, it is still worth watching for the excellent cast: Oliver Reed in particular who is stand out as the drunken, thuggish Simon Ashby who has a skeleton in his family's closet and stops at nothing to lay his hands on his little sister's money. Check out a scene in a pub where in a drunken rage he nearly starts a brawl - his aggression in playing this scene is utterly convincing and frightening, I assure you! While Reed is suitably over the top, Scott is lovely as the fragile, vulnerable woman being driven insane yet her performance is restrained as is Burrell's as the Aunt so they go neatly together. There are some sequences shot in the awesome visual style that distinguished his better genre films. For example, the scene where Simon has killed Francoise and put her body in the pond. There's an inventive under water shot designed to give the impression of it being from the dead woman's point of view with Reed peering into the pond and dropping a pebble in with her. There is a particularly suspenseful scene where Eleanor's car slides over a cliff with her inside as a result of Simon sabotaging the breaks and Tony has to get her to safety before the vehicle crashes hundreds of feet into the sea. The night time scenes with the organ playing as the camera prowls around the country mansion are suitably eerie and Arthur Grant's b/w camera-work and Elizabeth Lutyens' music combine to create an air of the sinister and mysterious.

Michael_Elliott Paranoiac (1963) *** (out of 4)A brother (Oliver Reed) tries to drive his sister insane so that he can collect their full inheritance but he's in for a shock when their dead brother returns. I wasn't expecting too much out of this film but I found myself quickly caught up in the rather interesting story, although I wish they had kept the secret hidden a tad bit longer. The second secret didn't work as well but it's still a nice little film with elements borrowed from Vertigo. Reed's horribly over the top performance doesn't help matters.

José Luis Rivera Mendoza (jluis1984) Freddie Francis has built up an amazing career in cinematography earning multiple prizes and awards thanks to his excellent visual work in movies like "The Elephant Man" (1980) and "The Straight Story" (1999), but he also has a less known (but not less interesting) career as a director that started in 1962 when he co-directed "The Day of the Triffids". Later he would become a regular name in the horror genre, directing films for both Hammer and Amicus, the two most important horror film production companies of the 60s. "Paranoiac" was the first film he did for Hammer, and in many ways ranks as one of his best works."Paranoiac" is the tale of the Ashby family, a wealthy clan that has been struck by tragedy twice; first with the death of both parents and later with the suicide of the youngest member of the family, Tony Ashby. The remaining siblings, Simon (Oliver Reed) and Eleanor (Janette Scott) have grown under the care of their Aunt Harriet (Sheila Burrell), but both are emotionally (and psychologically) unstable as Simon is a drunk sociopath who enjoys torturing the weakened Eleanor, who lost the will to live after Tony's death. However, one day a man appears claiming to be Tony (Alexander Davion), and his appearance will shock the Asby's world to its core.This obscure thriller about death and insanity may not be one of Hammer's best known films, but it's certainly one of the most interesting. Written by Hammer regular Jimmy Sangster (loosely based on Josephine Tey's novel Brat Farrar), the film explores the reactions of the Ashbys when Tony reappears, and it certainly honors its title as the film's theme of Paranoia surrounds every member of the Ashby family. Sangster builds up an interesting tale of mystery and suspense that gets benefited by a well-developed group of characters.Director Freddie Francis once again excels with the cinematography (by Hammer regular Arthur Grant) of the film and gives the movie a style that mixes British melodrama with old school Gothic horror. The use of black and white (totally against Hammer style) enhances the feeling of paranoia and isolation that surrounds the Ashby family (Francis would return to this in his next film, "Nightmare"), and while it's not what one would expect from a Hammer film, it actually suits the movie better than color.It's true that Jimmy Sangster's characters carry the film, but a lot of the credit should also go to those who performed them. Oliver Reed gives a tour-de-force performance as Simon, in a brutal, raw and realistic way that one wonders how much of the real Reed was there. Janette Scott gives an appropriate performance, although her over-the-top melodrama at times goes on too much. Alexander Davion is quite effective as the mysterious Tony, and Liliane Brousse adds the film the sensuality and glamor needed. Finally, Sheila Burrell completes the cast with an excellent performance as Aunt Harriet.This low-key thriller is an excellent example that Hammer was more than Van Helsing and Frankenstein, and has withstood the test of time very well. Hammer fans may miss the typical "Hammer style" elements but the film manages to work very well without them and arguably, is better that way. It has a nice rhythm and pace for the tale, but at times it moves on too fast leaving the feeling that the film is quite short (it has in fact, a runtime of only 80 minutes). The melodrama of the film may turn off viewers expecting a scare-fest, but it gives the film a personality of its own and gives space for the characters to develop.Francis' career as director may be uneven but "Paranoiac" is a solid thriller that still delivers the chills and along with the superior "Nightmare", is part of a less-known side of Hammer films that explored the horror genre away from Monsters and vampires. Fans of Gothic horror and mystery films will be definitely pleased with this two films. 8/10. Very Recommended.