Marianna (Messiah of Evil) Hill stars as a recently divorced advice columnist who attends group therapy sessions ran by her shrink (and secret lover) Klaus Kinski. Meanwhile, a maniac in black gloves is stalking and stabbing members of the group with a pair of extremely sharp scissors. Hill is also receiving threatening messages in the mail that are possibly from the killer. The line of suspects includes Kinski’s potentially crazy daughter (Donna Wilkes from Angel and Jaws 2), Hill’s jealous ex-husband (Body Double’s Craig Wasson), and a patient with a hot temper (Christopher Lloyd).
Schizoid is notable for being one of the first Golan-Globus Cannon productions, and for being an early entry in the ‘80s slasher craze. Because the subgenre hadn’t really worked all its kinks out yet, it often feels like a ‘70s giallo, thanks to the black-gloved killer. Still, there’s enough slasher movie touches (POV shots, horny teens, a healthy dose of nudity, a cool electronic score, etc.) to fit comfortably within the confines of the label.
Although it’s not entirely successful, Schizoid is a solid enough effort. The pacing kind of stalls out once the police investigation gets underway, and the ending is a bit drawn out. It’s not enough to completely derail the movie or anything, but the finale is sorely lacking the pizzazz of the first act.
It helps that the cast is stellar for this kind of thing. Kinski underplays his role to a surprising degree, which helps give his character an unpredictable energy. Hill makes for a much more mature Final Girl than we are used to seeing. The underrated actress (who was terrific in High Plains Drifter) delivers a fine central performance that connects all the crazies together. Wasson is spot-on as the asshole ex and Lloyd does a good job imbuing his character with a sense of potential menace. My favorite performance though came from Wilkes, who plays Kinski’s sexpot Lolita daughter. She has a great nude scene where Kinski pervs on her that is some truly unsettling shit.
Speaking of unsettling, the stalk n’ slash scenes are well done. The opening scene where a woman on a bike is chased down by the killer really cooks. Director David Paulsen (who also did the solid shocker Savage Weekend) delivers the kills in stylish fashion, and it makes you wish he continued on with the genre instead of heading to television where he produced shit like Dallas, Dynasty, and Knots Landing. Come back to us, Dave, we miss you.
A cop played by Murphy Brown’s Joe Regalbuto gets the best line of the movie when he says, “The law works in mysterious ways!”
AKA: Schizo! AKA: Murder by Mail.
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