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Paranoiac

Paranoiac

Thriller · Horror · 1963

Eleven years ago, the wealthy Ashby family was shattered when Mr and Mrs Ashby died in an airplane crash and their grieving son Tony committed suicide. All who remains is cruel Simon, an alcoholic in desperate need of funds; his mentally fragile sister Eleanor; and his protective aunt Harriet. Simon is just weeks away from receiving his inheritance, but there's a hitch in his plans when the long-believed dead Tony suddenly arrives.

Movie details

Paranoiac

“Shocking! Horrifying! Macabre!”

1963 Thriller · Horror 1h 20m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.7 / 10

3.5K votes

TMDB

6.6 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Eleven years ago, the wealthy Ashby family was shattered when Mr and Mrs Ashby died in an airplane crash and their grieving son Tony committed suicide. All who remains is cruel Simon, an alcoholic in desperate need of funds; his mentally fragile sister Eleanor; and his protective aunt Harriet. Simon is just weeks away from receiving his inheritance, but there's a hitch in his plans when the long-believed dead Tony suddenly arrives.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Paranoiac?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Freddie Francis

Written by

Jimmy Sangster

Janette Scott

Janette Scott

Eleanor Ashby

Oliver Reed

Oliver Reed

Simon Ashby

Sheila Burrell

Sheila Burrell

Aunt Harriet

Maurice Denham

Maurice Denham

John Kossett

Alexander Davion

Alexander Davion

Tony Ashby

Liliane Brousse

Liliane Brousse

Françoise

Harold Lang

Harold Lang

RAF Type

Court is in session

Put Paranoiac on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Big-Idea Head

“Its refusal to behave is the point.”

The strange choices create the kind of friction that follows you out of the theatre and into the argument.

The prosecution The Sentimental Softie

“Oddness is not depth.”

A film can break every rule and still leave nothing behind but the memory of how hard it tried to be singular.