Paranoia

I have always liked Carroll Baker. 88 Films produced this remastered Blu-ray.

This film drowns you in colour- saturated scenes, the palette of the idle rich. The setting is exotic by design. At its centre are two sexy polished characters who treat desire as a blood sport: both manipulative, both magnetised by wealth and luxury, each working an angle that is primarily self-serving. I would say they depict narcissistic traits.

Both are also addicted to high-risk behaviours - one through racing cars, one through seducing and deceiving wealthy women. They weaponise their good looks and use them to control others. The power dynamics between this couple are fluid throughout the film, moving back and forth, as both are highly competitive in nature. When two people like this find each other, the attraction is almost inevitable-and so is the damage.

Play fast with someone who plays faster, manipulate someone who out-manipulates you, and the only place it leads is, yes, you guessed it – paranoia. Lenzi depicts the symptoms of a paranoid mind on screen brilliantly, including symptoms of hypervigilance which inevitably lead to stress and sometimes a reliance on drugs and alcohol.  The feeling of paranoia is transferred to the viewer, you may wonder who you can trust after watching this film, director Lenzi would say ‘no one’.