Paralysis is an interesting exploration of a young woman’s steadily declining mental state with some noteworthy moments. It’s marred, however, by a glacial pace that takes simply too long to get where it is going and becomes rather repetitive. Cut half an hour from its runtime and there is a solid film about mental illness as haunting here.

Haley Stone (Allison Lobel, required to carry the film, since over ninety percent of it is her alone) has isolated herself and lives alone after her brother committed suicide in her house half a year before.  She speaks with her mother and therapist on the phone, but otherwise lives a disconnected life.  Propers to the film – we see Haley interacting with her brother Nicky (writer/director Levi Austin Morris), who seems to be a stabilizing force in her life, for over twenty minutes before we learn he is dead and she is either hallucinating or haunted.  It will be another half an hour of Haley walking around, breaking down, seeing things and finding Nicky in strange places before she finally calls a paranormal investigator.

The title actually comes from Haley’s sleep paralysis. A strange, monstrous woman, the Night Hag (Bethany Koulias in rather effective makeup), is in the shadows of her house at night, paralyzing her when she wakes up, scaring her at all hours.  So now Haley has two things either haunting her or being evidence that she has lost her mind.

Finally, Anissa, the paranormal investigator (Lisagaye Tomlinson) shows up at Haley’s house. After a tour, she attempts EVP and we hear neither Nicky nor the woman but a malevolent male voice whispering.  The rest of the film unfolds and we learn the source of the trauma, the cause of the haunting and see Haley on the road to recovery.

The performances in Paralysis are not bad, although often Lobel is not given much to do other than look terrified.  As I said, there is an interesting story here, but it gets buried under recurring semi-nightmarish moments that neither add to the tension nor the plot nor the characters.  Credit to the cast and crew for attempting to make a film about trauma and mental health. I hope future endeavors improve pacing and plotting.

5 out of 10