Audience Member
Frightmare is also known as Paranoid, and no it isn't the Frightmare from 1974 and it's not the Paranoid with Jessica Alba. This movie stars a bunch of no-name actors and actresses and is directed by an inept shmuck. Direction is not a word that should ever be used in the same sentence as Frightmare since it goes almost nowhere and it's all over the place. Frightmare aka paranoid is so bad that trying to even come up with an explanation for why it is the way it is or why it goes the way it goes is nearly impossible. This movie is about a group of high schoolers being targeted by a mad serial killer dubbed "The Conscience Killer". There is also something about a haunted house attraction and Sarah's deceased twin sister. The cops in this movie are the worst type of police. When the high schoolers, Sarah, Michael, Jason, and some blonde chick I don't give a shit about go to the cops to tell them about some bloody clothes they find in an abandoned house, the cops go over their criminal records and don't even bother to go check it out. The acting is another thing, the acting is almost battlefield earth level bad except it's better than battlefield earth. But, then again, literally, anything is better than battlefield earth so that's not really saying much. I'll give the movie credit where credit is due, so here are 3 pros:
1. The killer looks cool as hell
2. The kills are pretty good
3. Shaunda Lee Mudson was a decent actress
Those are the only pros for this movie. The rest of this film was a complete disaster. I want to get into almost all the problems of this movie that I can so I can maybe either influence you to stay away from this movie or go and buy this movie to laugh at how much of a failure this is.
#Editing -It's edited so horribly that almost NOTHING makes any sense. It also looks like it was edited in windows movie maker or some software that's probably defunct now as we speak. The film has its fair and share of sped-up shots to add "menace" to the film but, it doesn't work.
#Cinematography -It is too hard to even describe how bad the cinematography is because it is all over the place, almost every shot is different from the other, it's just a complete mess.
#Sound quality -The sound quality is the least insulting thing about this movie but it's still horrible. The music is at normal volume, but the character's dialogue isn't. Half of the time, no matter how high you turn the volume up on your TV, it's hard to tell what anybody is saying. There is one scene when the killer kills that chick from the gym, he writes a letter, leaves it, and has some narration as he slowly creeps away, but you can't tell what the hell he's saying.
#Writing -The writing is BAD. Nothing more, nothing less. One example would be the party scene when one of the group, Michael gets killed. Nobody sees him obviously getting stabbed despite some of the party being only a few feet away from him. Another example is that Sarah says the conscience killer likes "big cities" and areas even though he lives in an abandoned house in the exact same town. What can he teleport from town to town? Last thing I'll mention is that the killer literally breaks into Sarah's house and then she later just brushes it off as if it were nothing. There are many others but those are the ones I felt were more appropriate to share.
#Inconsistency -One scene which I'll call "the abandoned house scene" is the biggest, well sort of biggest example of inconsistency. When they enter the house, it's night, but when they leave the house, it appears to be at least 5:00 in the morning.
Those are some examples of problems with this movie but believe me, there are many, many more! You genuinely have to see this movie to understand the type of film it is. It goes from a poorly made Urban Legend rip-off, to just...What the fuck am I watching? Go ahead, if you want to watch this film, be my guest. Just don't say I didn't warn you! There is a plot twist that I didn't see coming from a mile away, but for all of the wrong reasons since all of them look like they could be the killer since every single one of them is a mental case. Final girl, Sarah, who is a conspiracy theorist and obsessed with killers, Hellraiser, who is an annoying asshat who looks like he's 30, Norman, who looks like the type of guy to sell drugs to children, the blonde chick, or the inept police officers. Since we all know that the conscience killer isn't the main killer of this film, you can play a game of Cluedo to guess who is posing as the conscience killer and picking off the group. The conscience killer is a thing in this movie, yes, but he only gets 3 kills and a few scenes and is mentioned but that's it. Is this movie is so bad that it's good? Yes and no. 2.3/10 because it truly is a shitty one!
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
It was very boring. It felt like I was watching a Scream and Urban legend swindle. There was a couple of strange moments in this movie. For example, there is a montage of two guys freaking out, one guy jumping on his car because his haunted house attraction was shut down due to the murders, another guy in the bathroom throwing trash cans and staring at himself in the mirror for no reason at all. And there was a scene of the killer watching the news in an abandoned house. The killer does look cool, but the killer isn't cool because it's not actually "The conscience killer". Nope, It's somebody imitating him. The acting isn't terrible rather than just bland and really wooden. It's more funny than actually scary due to the awkward and odd motive the killer has, and the fact that the final girls closet leads to some sort of attic 😂. The killer's motive for killing was because he had a thing for the final girls' sister and because he wanted to be known for hosting the coolest haunted house events. Pretty stupid motive for becoming a sadistic serial killer. The editing and pacing are scattered all over the place, the camera quality isn't terrible but the cinematography surely is weak. There are some weird camera edits that can be distracting. The sound quality is so poor that even if you turn the volume up to 100 it will still sound like it's at 30, yet when someone screams the volume seems to increase. The soundtrack isn't too bad despite sounding like it was made in a crappy software such as garage band. And despite it's very occasional. And most of the time when it's there it's used for montages and flashbacks, and when the killer shows up in his attire. The scene where the killer reveals himself has no soundtrack whatsoever. There are also scenes where the conscience killer appears on screen and is wandering and is talking to himself and the voice is edited in a crappy demonic voice filter. The movie tries too hard to be atmospheric but falls flat on its face. It's also boring like I said. The characters aren't interesting, the editing is all over the place, and the movie just felt like an acid trip overall. I will give it a little bit of credit the killer looks cool, and the soundtrack is very well made despite sounding very cheap, the gore isn't too bad, and the camera quality isn't too bad either. But this movie is still a piece of trash and it's not worth your time. I'm gonna give this movie a 1/5. Good day!
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Could've been better but I wasn't bored so I can't really rate this film lower then 2.5/5.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A low budget slasher film but with a good plot
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This horror movie was ok.....I think it should have more back up music and effects!
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Not a slasher one would grant a second watch but its good enough for one time only.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
Full Review
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