Access Code (1984)
Computer Surveillance Conspiracy Thriller
Obscure VHS era paranoia thriller about the uncovering of a conspiracy to use satellites to control the population. Not a very interesting film.
Paranoia
Paranoia is a fear-filled state of mind where someone believes that the world is conspiring against them. Paranoia is listed as a psychological disorder by the American DSM. That said, most people at one point or another experience varying degrees of paranoia without it being pathological. These can range from full-on belief in conspiracy theories and alien lizard people to merely that a partner or co-worker may be up to something. Usually when we talk about paranoia, we refer to people fearing things happening based only on tenuous suppositions or slim imaginings.
What we are concerned with here is paranoid mood. That is to say, the sense created in a film that something is going on around the protagonist(s). This can range from conspiracies by the government or secret organisations, that aliens are stealing people’s bodies, that neighbours might be Satanists, serial killers or up to some form of no good, of alien abductions, medical experiments being conducted on people, of lurking monsters, that They (the government, the military, scientists, the medical establishment, alien lizard people, corporations, forces of conformity etc) might be out to get you. Or even that what you suspect about reality itself may be in question.
Some themes by their very nature lend themselves to paranoia – Body Snatchers, Secret Societies, Conceptual Reversal Twists and of course Conspiracy Theories. The tone of most paranoia films sit in an edgy state of mind where a person’s belief about the world around them may be an illusion that is abruptly peeled back to reveal something far more sinister. The paranoia will be evoked in terms of uncertainty and will often have a perfectly calm and rational alternate explanation that makes it seem that everything is in the protagonist’s mind. Many works of Black Humour also come with a sense of paranoia that is pushed to an hysteric extreme.
The Apartment Complex (1999)
Apartment Building of Weird Tenants
Tobe Hooper makes a film where Chad Lowe becomes the supervisor an apartment building filled with strange tenants. However, Hooper misses the intended black comedy tone by a mile
Apartment Zero (1988)
Sinister Roommate/Weird Psychological Games
Psychological thriller where an uptight Colin Firth gets a handsomely charming roommate in Hart Bochner who proceeds to seduce everybody in the building with sinister intent
Apollo 18 (2011)
NASA Moon Landing/Alien Possession Found Footage Film
Clever and well made Found Footage film about a NASA crew encountering something alien on The Moon’s surface. Falls somewhere between Alien, Apollo 13 and Paranormal Activity
The Arrival (1996)
Alien Infiltration and Takeover
An alien invasion and takeover film that was clearly inspired by the success of tv’s The X Files. This is a smart effort that emerges as something unworldly in David Twohy’s hands
The Astronaut’s Wife (1999)
Alien Possession
Charlize Theron becomes paranoid and suspects her space shuttle astronaut husband Johnny Depp of returning possessed by an alien. Essentially an SF version of Rosemary’s Baby
Bad Blood (1982)
True-Life New Zealand Mass Murderer
Film based on true-life New Zealand mass murderer Stanley Graham, a disenfranchised farmer who became a local hero after shooting several police and inspiring a massive manhunt
The Bar (2017)
Dark Comedy About People Trapped in a Bar During a Deadly Outbreak
Spain’s Alex de la Iglesia has become a specialist in comedies with a dark bite. This centres around a crosscut of characters trapped inside a bar during the outbreak of a deadly infection
The Barrens (2012)
Possible Jersey Devil Attacks
Saw series Darren Lynn Bousman downplays sadism in favour of a psychologically ambiguous film about a series of attacks possibly conducted by the Jersey Devil
Barton Fink (1991)
Writer's Block/Paranoia Black Comedy
Hollywood noir from the Coen Brothers, this takes us inside the crumbling mental state of a screenwriter in the 1930s. Like a David Lynch remake of Day of the Locust, this comes rich in the Coens’ black uncomfortable humour
Berberian Sound Studio (2012)
Sound Engineer's Paranoia
Imagine Brian De Palma’s Blow Out by way of Barton Fink. Set around the sound recording of a giallo horror, this mounts an impressive spiral down into claustrophobia and paranoia, even if it is never quite the horror film it keeps trying to be
Black River (2001)
Perfect Town Where Nobody Can Ever Leave
Modest and quite effective Dean R. Koontz adaptation in which Jay Mohr is trapped in a small town run by an A.I. that does everything it can to prevent him from leaving
Bleed With Me (2020)
Sinister Happenings at a Cabin in the Woods
A film where a girl goes to stay with her girl friend at a cabin in the woods but thinks her friend might be drugging her and taking her blood
Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)
Killer Lurks at a Party
Scathingly funny film where a party held by a group of self-absorbed twentysomethings turns deadly as it appears there is a killer in their midst
Body Snatchers (1993)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers Remake
Abel Ferrara’s remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers is an overlooked film that settles in with an undeniable creepiness that is just as effective as the earlier versions. The metaphor for the pod people is more diffuse in this one but that does not mitigate the film’s effect
The Brain Eaters (1958)
Alien Body Snatchers
A B budget variant on the 1950s an alien body snatchers film uncreditedly based on Robert Heinlein’s The Puppet Masters. Other films in this niche created great paranoid atmosphere but here the results only look cheap and tatty
The Brøken (2008)
Mirror Body Snatchers
Variation on Invasion of the Body Snatchers with body-snatching doppelgangers emerging from mirrors. Directed with an impressive air of subtle, brooding disquiet, this manages to run up some reasonable twists on an oft-told tale
Bug (2006)
Disturbed Psychology and Paranoia
One of the last films from William Friedkin, an astonishingly deranged descent into paranoia and madness, featuring an alarming performance from a young, unknown Michael Shannon
Bunker (2022)
Haunted WWI Bunker
Film that draws on the basics of The Keep and takes place in a haunted bunker in the British-German trenches of the First World War as soldiers face something that preys on their fears
The ‘Burbs (1989)
Suburban Paranoia Black Comedy
Joe Dante black comedy about a neighbourhood where everybody becomes paranoid about the weird new people moved in. The film’s bite gets lots amid everything being pitched at a clumsily shrill level of hysteria
The Changed (2021)
Body Snatchers Film
Tony Todd heads a B-budget body snatchers film about a neighbourhood being taken over by beings that promise a great transformation
A Cold Night’s Death (1973)
Mysterious Happenings at a Remote Research Laboratory
1970s television produced some remarkable genre works. One of the best was this – a work of eerie tension as scientists conducting experiments at a remote laboratory find something unseen is toying with them
Creepshow (1982)
Horror Anthology
Stephen King and George Romero collaborate on a horror anthology made as homage to the EC Comics, telling five tales that replicate the blacker-than-black sense of humour (and even the visual look) of the comic-book with hilarious results
Dark Star (1974)
Space Mission Gone Wrong Comedy
John Carpenter’s first film, made as a student project in collaboration with an also unknown Dan O’Bannon. A send-up of the boldly going space exploration of Star Trek, this features a ship where the crew are going stir crazy. The results are hilarious
The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1962)
Alien Infiltration
This was one of the last gasps of the 1950s alien body snatchers genre. Conducted on a low budget, this nevertheless comes with some modest effect as a scientist and his family face mysterious doppelgangers
Duel (1971)
Murderous Truck
The first film from Steven Spielberg, a tv movie that was released to theatres. Spielberg demonstrates style to spare in the gripping tale of a lone man on the road who finds himself stalked and followed by a murderous truck
A Fantastic Fear of Everything (2012)
Writer's Paranoia/Black Comedy
Featuring Simon Pegg as a paranoid writer seeing sinister happenings everywhere. This should have been a darkly funny comedy but the film winds everything up to a shrilly hysteric fever pitch
Fear, Inc. (2016)
Deadly Horror-Themed Reality Game
A variant on The Game where Michael Douglas had his life turned into a nightmare series of rubber reality games that were being staged for his amusement. This spins the same idea through a witty series of horror movie homages
The Forgotten (2004)
Erased Memories
Julianne Moore discovers her late son has been erased from photos and people’s memories eventually leading her to an explanation involving mysterious aliens
The 4th Floor (1999)
Disturbed Apartment Neighbour
A thriller that develops quite a degree of eerie suspense as Juliette Lewis moves into a new apartment and finds she is surrounded by some very strange neighbours
Fractured (2019)
Hospital Nightmare
Brad Anderson makes a paranoid nightmare as Sam Worthington takes his daughter to a hospital only for her to go missing and he to encounter a Kafka-esque bureaucracy that insists she doesn’t exist
Freaks (2018)
Psychic Powers
Not to be confused with Tod Browning’s shock classic, this starts with a mind-bending quality that leaves you wondering WTF is going on, before logically and ingeniously unfolding as a psychic powers film
The Game (1997)
Reality Games
David Fincher film in which Michael Douglas is wound into a conspiracy that makes him doubt everything around him. Fincher creates paranoia but the story eventually becomes an improbably contrived house of cards
Get Out (2017)
Sinister Small Town/Racial Mind Control
A rehash of The Stepford Wives recast along racial lines. It is a surprise to see a mainstream horror hit with a strong message about racism, not that Jordan Peele neglects the horror element either
Girl at the Window (2022)
Girl Thinks Next-Door Neighbour is a Serial Killer
From Mark Hartley, known for his documentaries about cult cinema, a film that borrows the premise of Disturbia where a teenage girl thinks her neighbour is a serial killer
The Glow (2002)
Sinister Health-Obsessed Seniors
This rehashes the basic set-up of Rosemary’s Baby but with a spin where a couple move into the perfect apartment only to find their neighbours are health obsessed seniors with a sinister agenda
Grimcutty (2022)
Internet Meme Boogeyman
A film about Grimcutty, a boogeyman that lurks inside an internet meme and thrives on causing parental fears. This sits on the edge of being almost interesting
The Hands of Orlac (1924)
Possessed Hands/Silent German Classic
Classic German silent film about a pianist who receives hand transplants and believes they are possessed. Superbly stylised direction from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari director Robert Wiene and with Conrad Veidt putting his all into the contorted mime work
The Hands of Orlac (1960)
Possessed Hands
The third film and least version of the classic horror story about a pianist who receives hands transplanted from a murderer and is driven mad believing they are possessing him
The Haunted Airman (2006)
Dennis Wheatley Adaptation/Paranoia and Possible Hauntings
Robert Pattinson (before he was a recognised name) as a convalescing pilot during WWII who is haunted by demonic spiders in an adaptation of a book by occult writer Dennis Wheatley.
Heartless (2009)
Pacts with a Possible Devil Figure
Fascinating British film about pacts with an ambiguous Devil figure. The film largely exists to push protagonist Jim Sturgess into as many morally uncomfortable places as possible
Hidden (2015)
Fallout Shelter Paranoia
A film from Duffer Brothers creators of tv’s Stranger Things. This is a fallout shelter drama where the Duffers create a strong paranoid mood but kill the film with a ridiculous twist ending
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958)
Alien Duplication and Takeover
Defying the sensationalistic title, this is actually a fairly reasonable entry in the 1950s alien body snatchers fad in which wives discover their husbands have been taken over by aliens come to Earth to repopulate their species
Impostor (2002)
Identity Bender/Philip K. Dick Adaptation
An adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story in which Gary Sinise plays a man who is dragged away by security accused of being an android replacement that has a bomb implanted inside him
Impulse (1984)
Mass Insanity Inducing Biospill
Reminiscent of George Romero’s The Crazies, this is a subtle, low key film about a small town as it is affected by a toxic waste leak that causes mass insanity
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Alien Body Snatchers
Classic of the 1950s alien invader genre in which a young boy discovers that the adults around him are being taken over by Martian invaders. Director William Cameron Menzies makes striking use of sets to further a sense of alienation
The Invasion (2007)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers Remake
The fourth film version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers starring Nicole Kidman, this badly miscues many key scenes and is missing all the paranoid mood of the original film
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Alien Duplication and Takeover
The finest film to come out of 1950s SF cinema, concerning an invasion of pods that replicate people but for their emotions. The sense of paranoia and psychological tension is unsurpassed
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Alien Duplication and Takeover
An excellent remake of the Cold War classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The original has now been smartly retooled for the 1970s and slots right into the Me Generation era with paranoia perfectly intact
Isolation (2021)
Anthology of Covid Lockdown Horror Stories
Ten different filmmakers from around the world combine to make an anthology of eight horror stories set during the Covid lockdown
It Came from Outer Space (1953)
Alien Body Snatchers
The very first alien body snatchers film. With Jack Arnold’s eerily haunted landscapes and a memorably literate Ray Bradbury script, this is one of the classic SF films of the 1950s era
The Last Winter (2006)
Environmental Horror Film
A strong and effective environmental horror film from Larry Fessenden in which the crew of an Alaskan drilling operation disturb something beneath the frozen ground
Little Joe (2019)
Body Snatching Plants
A modestly effective variant on the body snatchers theme with a scientist developing new plants coming to the realisation that the plants are taking over people’s minds
Lunatics: A Love Story (1991)
Gonzo Hallucinations
A head scractchingly strange Sam Raimi produced film in which Raimi’s brother Ted plays a man suffering from hallucinations who tries to come to the aid of the girl of his dreams
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
Brainwashed Assassin/Political Satire
John Frankenheimer film. concerning a Communist plot for creating a brainwashed assassin, Frankenheimer shoots with stark and blackly funny effect and this has duly become a cult classic
The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Brainwashed Assassin/Political Thriller
Remake of the classic Cold War thriller from Jonathan Demme that has been updated for the era of George W. Bush
The Manor (2021)
Sinister Retirement Home
Barbara Hershey plays an aging woman who moves into a retirement home. The film then develops an edgy paranoia about possibly supernatural happening around her
Metamorphosis (2010)
South Korean Franz Kafka Adaptation
Wildly experimental South Korean adaptation of the Kafka story about a man turning into an insect – a film shot entirely by the director in bed with the camera pointed at his feet
Monolith (2022)
Mysterious Objects
The title monolith is a cheat, this is however a creepy Australian film about a series of ultra-mysterious objects
Never Let Go (2024)
Evil Force in the Woods
Alexandre Aja film with Halle Berry and sons at a cabin in the woods facing an evil force outside. A work that screws with what we think is going on
Night Watch (1973)
Psycho-Thriller
Called the only horror film Elizabeth Taylor ever appeared in (although one would dispute that somewhat), this feels like a Hammer psycho-thriller made with an A-list cast
Nightwatch (1994)
Morgue Attendant's Paranoia/Serial Killer
Gripping Danish thriller in which morgue attendant Nicholaj Coster Waldau finds a serial killer is playing games with him. Filled with paranoia, sharp twists and lashings of black humour
Nightwatch (1998)
Morgue Attendant's Paranoia/Serial Killer
Ole Bornedal conducts an English-language remake of his Danish thriller Nattevagten. Rich in black comedy and dark twists, Bornedal demonstrates a mastery of Hitchcockian suspense
Nightwatch: Demons Are Forever (2023)
Nightwatch Sequel
Nightwatch about the paranoia of a morgue attendant on the night shift was a festival hit. After 29 years, the principals reunite for a sequel
The Number 23 (2007)
Numerological Obsession and Paranoia/Reality Bender
Demented Joel Schumacher film in which Jim Carrey sees occurrences of the number 23 everywhere and finds his life is being predicted by a book. Featuring one of the most absurd scripts ever written
Observance (2015)
Surveillance, Paranoia and Infection
A man surveilling a woman finds strange goings-on and becomes infected by something. This is essentially Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation played as a horror film; alas, while this does a fine job in the build-up, it lacks a third act that explains anything at all
Older Gods (2023)
Lovecraftian Cosmic Horrors
An original work that conjures a fantastic sense of ominous Lovecraftian cosmic horror as a man is haunted by a cult whose purpose is to wake a slumbering deity that is dreaming all of reality
One Point 0 (2004)
Strange Apartment Neighbours/Reality Blurrings and Paranoia
This travels into very similar places to Roman Polanski’s The Tenant – a paranoid tale about a man surrounded by very strange apartment neighbours. Apart from adding some reality blurring SF twists to the mix, this does little more than churn cliches
Pandorum (2009)
Space Mission Gone Wrong
Rare cinematic treatment of the generation ship story that conducts it with a modest degree of affectiveness. Produced by Paul W.S. Anderson.
Parents (1989)
Paranoia Comedy/Boy Thinks His Parents Are Cannibals
Bizarre black comedy directed by actor Bob Balaban that takes place in a paranoid parody of 1950s normalcy about a boy who believes his parents are cannibals
The Plumber (1978)
Sinister Handyman
Very odd early Peter Weir film about a strange plumber who moves in and takes over cautious Judy Morris’s apartment
Pod (2015)
Disturbed Veteran/Possible Creature in the Basement
Mickey Keating film in which two siblings go to help a brother who appears in mental distress and claims to have imprisoned a monster in his basement
The Power (1968)
Psychic Supermind
The second-to-last film produced by the legendary George Pal, concerning people hunted by a psychic supermind
Premature Burial (1962)
Edgar Allan Poe Adaptation
The third of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe films, the only one without Vincent Price. Here Ray Milland develops a fearful obsession of being buried alive
The President’s Analyst (1967)
Spy Comedy/Political Satire
Amid the mostly silly output of James Bond copies in the 1960s, this is one that comes with a sharp satiric bite in which president’s analyst James Coburn finds himself caught in the midst of a series of conspiracies
The Puppet Masters (1994)
Alien Body Snatchers
This adaptation of the Robert Heinlein novel was not a success when it came out but is a modest addition to the alien body snatchers genre with some undeniably effective moments
Race with the Devil (1975)
Backroads Pursuit by Satanists
This has been conceived as a 1970s car chase film mashed up with the 1970s fad for Satanism and occult where two couples in an RV inadvertently witness a devil worship ceremony and are pursued
Radio Free Albemuth (2014)
Philip K. Dick Adaptation/Possible Messages from Aliens
Adaptation of an autobiographical Philip K. Dick book that he wrote in an attempt to make sense of a series of bizarre hallucinations, this long-rumoured film manages, despite a low-budget, to mainline the brain-twisting nature of Dick’s writing better than any other adaptation
Repulsion (1965)
Portrait of Madness
A work of considerable brilliance from a young Roman Polanski with Catherine Deneuve as a woman slipping into madness in an apartment over the course of a weekend. What makes the film particularly disturbing is Polanski’s lack of a blurring line between reality and hallucination
Rosemary’s Baby (1968)
Satanic Impregnation
Classic film and one of Roman Polanski’s finest works, the comically paranoid story of a housewife who increasingly comes to believe that the child she is pregnant with was fathered by The Devil
Rosemary’s Baby (2014)
Satanic Impregnation
Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby was a classic film that popularised the modern interest in occult and deviltry on film; this sad remake is something that only parrots the cliches that have set in in the ensuing 46 years and clumsily mishandles all of Polanski’s comically edgy paranoia
Scream and Scream Again (1970)
Mad Scientist/Android Takeover Conspiracy
Cult Anglo-horror film with a series of vampire killings that lead to Vincent Price trying to replace bureaucrats with androids
Screamers (1995)
Evolved Androids/Planetary Journey/Philip K. Dick Adaptation
Modest and underrated Philip K. Dick adaptation that builds reasonable atmosphere during its journey across a planet and doubt as to who among the party might be one of a breed of evolving androids
The Second Arrival (1998)
Alien Infiltration and Takeover
Low-budget and fairly indifferently made sequel to David Twohy’s quite good alien invasion film
Seconds (1966)
Secret Rejuvenation Syndicate
An astonishingly bleak John Frankenheimer film in which a disillusioned middle-aged man is contacted by a secret organisation that rejuvenates him to become Rock Hudson
The Secret Village (2013)
Sinister Town
A low-budget film about a journalist’s modern-day investigation into a secret village located near Salem, Massachusetts that results in paranoia and suspicious treatment by the locals
Servants of Twilight (1991)
Pursuit by Crazed Cultists/Dean R. Koontz Adaptation
Dean R. Koontz adaptation with Bruce Greenwood as a private detective drawn into helping a woman protect her child from crazed cultists that believe he is the Antichrist
The Seventh Victim (1943)
Satanist Cult/Psychological Horror
One of the classic films from producer Val Lewton concerning a secret society of Satanists. An oppressive atmosphere of gloom and morbidity hangs over the film and, as always with Lewton, it comes with striking directorial effects that play on the imagination
Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
Psycho-Thriller/Friendly Uncle Might Be a Killer
Considered one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films, this centres around Joseph Cotten as the favourite uncle who comes to town as his niece increasingly suspects that he may be a serial killer
The Shrouds (2024)
Grave Camera Technology
At age 81, David Cronenberg is still on great form with this perversely fascinating work about the development of a technology that places cameras inside graves to observe corpses as they decay
Sneakers (1992)
Hi-Tech Thriller
Standout thriller set around the world of computing, one of the earliest techno-thriller to adapt to the new internet age
Society (1989)
Secret Society of Shape Changers
The directorial debut for Brian Yuzna, this has a satiric and weirdly paranoid tone but what makes the film is its sensational display makeup effects involving a secret society of shapeshifting orgiasts
Something in the Dirt (2022)
Mysterious Unexplained Phenomena
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have become must-watch directors in the last decade. This film, which was shot in their apartment during Covid lockdown, becomes the ultimate conspiracy theory rabbit hole
Spellbinder (1988)
Pursuit by Satanic Cult
Modest 1980s video release that builds with some unnerving effect as Timothy Daly grants shelter to Kelly Preston only to earn the wrath of a pursuing Satanic cult
The Stepford Children (1987)
Android Teenager Replacements
The second of three sequels to The Stepford Wives. I found the original implausible on any level and this is quadrupled when you get to replacing their children with android duplicates. A film that has been generated without anybody sitting and thinking about the premise on a practical level
The Stepford Wives (1975)
Android Housewife Replacements
Ira Levin’s original novel wherein the men of a town replace their wives with subservient android duplicates seems to have its satiric point blunted when it comes to the film adaptation
The Stepford Wives (2004)
Android Housewife Replacements Comedy
Frank Oz conducts a remake of The Stepford Wives, which becomes a broad comedy take on the gender wars in the modern world
Sublime (2007)
Hospital Nightmare and Hallucinations
Horror film in which Tom Cavanagh goes into hospital for a routine procedure only to emerge with his leg amputated amid increasingly more surreal things happening around the hospital
The Tenant (1976)
Apartment Block Paranoia/Identity Exchange
One of Roman Polanski’s least recognised films in which he both directs and plays the lead as a mousy man driven to a state of paranoia and the point he loses his identity by the neighbours in a Parisian apartment building
They Cloned Tyrone (2023)
Illicit Experiments in the Ghetto
A wonderfully paranoid film where drug dealer John Boyega discovers illicit mind control experiments are being conducted on a ghetto neighbourhood and that he is one in a series of clones