Allan C
Bland slasher film outside of casting the always bizarre Klaus Kinski as a psychologist whose group therapy patients seem to be getting offed one by one by a faceless killer with scissors. Who could be the killer? The main character is an advice columnist who becomes increasingly alarmed after receiving a series of threatening letters. It’s not a super interesting mystery, and the kills are not very original either, though there is a decent supporting cast that includes Craig Wasson (BODY DOUBLE), Christopher Lloyd (BACK TO THE FUTURE), Joe Regalbuto (MURPHY BROWN), and Donna Wilkes (ANGEL, JAWS 2). There’s a strange incestuous subplot involving Kinski and his daughter Wilkes, which was thrown in as a red herring as to who the killer was, but that would have made a more interesting movie than what we ended up with. If you’re in the mood for a lesser-known slasher, skip this one and instead watch a better one, like PIECES or HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
11/27/24
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Steve D
D level slasher with little to it.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
08/17/23
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Lucas S
I would give it half a four star it's okay but still recommend it
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/05/23
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Charles T
Who is killing the women in Julie's (Marianna Hill) therapy group? Is it the creepy psychiatrist Pieter (Klaus Kinski)? His troubled daughter Alison (Donna Wilkes)? Julie's grinning ex-husband Doug (Craig Wasson)? What about Gilbert (a young Christopher Lloyd), the bitter handyman? Or even the even younger-looking detective Jake (Joe Regalbuto)? Hill plays an advice columnist who is having more problems than a week's worth of Ann Landers letters. She is receiving death threats, and someone is killing the women in her group with a large pair of scissors. The killer, whom I figured out right away, wears a fedora and coat, a striking silhouette in the un-scary killing scenes. Julie is also messing around with the chain-smoking Pieter, resulting in a sex scene I could have gone all my life without seeing. Pieter is sleeping with a stripper/patient, and he, uh, "analyzes her feelings" against a hot water heater, resulting in another sex scene I could have gone my whole life without seeing. The finale takes place in Julie's newspaper office, as the film makers drag the proceedings out by assembling all of the suspects together, like an Agatha Christie novel, except with shootings and stabbings instead of a parlor full of upper class Brits and a brilliant detective.
Filmed and released in 1980, this has all the makings of a slasher film. The few killings here are not all that gory, but violent. The name cast try their best. Paulsen's direction is void of suspense as he hopes his mediocre script will carry the film. Instead, it becomes gimmicky and silly, but trudges along like this is Shakespeare. Between the awful synth score, the scissors have their own theme when they appear, and Kinski's overbaked performance, a viewer must take this with a grain of salt. I cannot recommend this.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
10/09/23
Full Review
dave s
Schizoid should take pride in the fact that it takes all of the components required for a really bad horror film and includes them all under one title. The cinematography is horrid and periodically out of focus, the music score sounds like it comes from a 70s porn film, the dialogue is stilted and laughable, the performances are wooden, the constant POV shots are seizure-inducing, the plot is ridiculous, and the outcome, where all of the suspects manage to show up at the same place at the same time, is absurd. Other than a handful of unintentional laughs, there's clearly not much reason to waste time on this mess.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
03/30/23
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Audience Member
Weird, disjointed, and enthusiastically inappropriate slasher/thriller from the Cannon Group, Schizoid features a relatively restrained performance by Klaus Kinski, and just enough nudity and violence to satisfy most genre fans. Cult film queen Marianna Hill's oddly compelling presence and fairly juicy supporting roles for audience favorites Donna Wilkes, Christopher Lloyd, and Craig Wasson help jumpstart the picture's overall plodding tone.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
Full Review
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