One of the more interesting developments in the direct-to-video suspense films of the past half-decade has been the slow and unsteady rise of a new sort of subgenre: the Internet-stalker movie. Understandably, filmmakers wish to exploit the big, scary horror possibilities of the big, scary Internet, but these movies generally fail. Why? Because there is virtually no way to create suspense or fear merely by showing a person sitting in a chair and typing on a keyboard. Paranoia tries its best to make using a computer a terrifying act of sadism, but despite its best efforts, watching hulking villain Larry Drake (L.A. Law, Darkman) lurk through cyberspace, glaring maniacally and typing ferociously, is more likely to inspire derisive laughter than fear. Drake stars as a crazed, computer-literate mass murderer who stalks pouty-lipped direct-to-video vixen Brigitte Bako, first over the Internet while incarcerated and then in the flesh after being released from prison. Drake is released as a model prisoner, a plot point that raises two fairly serious questions: Since when are serial killers allowed unsupervised access to the Internet, and since when is the legal system's definition of "model prisoner" flexible enough to include psychotics who stalk their victims through cyberspace? It would be nice if Paranoia were scary or smart, or suspenseful enough to render pointing out such implausibilities petty nitpicking. But it's so relentlessly hackneyed, bland, and unsuspenseful that it's difficult to concentrate on anything but the absurdity of its silly little universe. Drake gives a decent performance, and Bako makes for a sassier-than-usual protagonist, but Paranoia should disappoint all but the least discerning horror buffs.