Synopsis
Hide the Scissors.
When Dr. Pieter Fales' patients start receiving ominous letters and getting murdered by an unknown black-clad assailant, he and his daughter both come under suspicion.
1980 Directed by David Paulsen
When Dr. Pieter Fales' patients start receiving ominous letters and getting murdered by an unknown black-clad assailant, he and his daughter both come under suspicion.
Klaus Kinski Donna Wilkes Marianna Hill Craig Wasson Richard Herd Joe Regalbuto Christopher Lloyd Flo Lawrence Kiva Lawrence Claude Duvernoy Cindy Donlan Jon Greene David Assael Richard Balin Fredric Cook Kathy Garrick Gracia Lee Tobar Mayo Jonathon Millner Frances E. Nealy Kimberly Jensen Jay May Cindy Riegel Tony Swartz
Murder by Mail, Esquizofrenia, Schizoid: Asesinato por correo, Psicópata, O shizofrenis me to psalidi, Schizoïde, Шизоид, 精神病患者, 줄리의 공포
when your horror movie features Klaus Kinski aggressively fucking a stripper against a water heater in the first twenty minutes, it's immediately at a disadvantage because it's obviously not going to get any scarier than that
"I keep wondering how many of these things I gotta see before it starts turning my stomach…"
Shortly before his creation of DALLAS, KNOTS LANDING and DYNASTY, David Paulsen brought us SCHIZOID.
A generic low budget slasher with several murders, but it’s biggest crime is the complete waste of talent and being incredibly boring.
Klaus Kinski is really creepy, but the creepiest thing by far was Christopher Lloyd’s mustache.
"Whoever is writing this is obviously capable of murder!"
"what's a pretty girl like you go to a therapist for?" excuse me, pretty girls can have issues too
When members of a therapy group start getting murdered, there are no shortage of red herrings. Suspects include the studly shrink sexing up all the female members (Klaus Kinski), his deranged daughter who seems destined to be a teen runaway street walker (Donna Wilkes is ANGEL), the angry loner of the group (Christopher Lloyd), and a jealous ex-husband (Craig Wasson) - who is the kind of Perry White hands on newspaper editor that believes in personally installing his office's drywall. Now before you question Kinski's medical ethics slipping off with his pants, please let me point out that this is the smallest world in the history of the cinema. Like a really questionable Sims game, in which twelve people have…
The interview with writer/director David Paulsen (Nightmare Weekend) is don't miss material, IMO. He's got the funniest Menahem Golan stories and from what I've seen and heard--his imitation is spot on. Hadn't seen this one in awhile, so checked that out first. Commentary revealed some juicy BTS elements especially with our boy Klaus Kinski. Exploitation historian Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson (editor of Mondo Digital) are reliably frank, but also fair when it comes to speculative information and hearsay.
7.3/10
The 80s trash that I love. Sits squarely between a 70s giallo and an 80s slasher/crazed stalker movie - we're talkin' Eyes of a Stranger, Windows, Eyes of Laura Mars, etc. etc. Not one of those that meander around and struggle finding interesting scenes. It's paced well, even in the stretches of family dilemmas because Kinski makes it inherently interesting. Dirty and nasty. Also features Craig Wasson (the lead from Body Double), and a small, fun bit from Christopher Lloyd.
21-year-old Donna Wilkes gives a really impressive performance as a 'teenager' who blames her pervy psychiatrist father (and his patients) for her mother's death.
I looked up her filmography and thought this might be a fun time as I continue 80s Thurs&Friday.
But first, one of the twenty or so movies I watch over and over to unwind from watching movies all day. Then, sleep.
Those of you out there who have watched your fair share of MST3K should be familiar with the concept of “Deep Hurting”. Schizoid is the veritable embodiment of that expression. Every character in it is a bland asshole. Even poor old Klaus Kinski seems half asleep and phoning in his terrible line deliveries. There’s like 3 weak kills spaced out though the whole wretched film leading up to its asinine finale. This makes Deadly Manor look like Terrifier 2.
I don’t know what’s going on with me. It would seem I only want to watch toxic crud I don’t enjoy. I feel listless and disengaged. A miserable ghost haunting my own life. I don’t necessarily WANT to voraciously consume this…
“You haven’t kissed me good night in a long time.”
A bit off-putting watching real life monster dad Klaus Kinski give lingering looks to his undressing daughter (a 19-year-old Donna Wilkes) in an early scene from Schizoid. Kinski is playing…Kinski...in that his eyes are darting all over the place, he’s overly aggressive, furtive, awkward, and constantly smoking. But he is ostensibly playing Dr. Fales, an analyst who leads a catty, dysfunctional therapy group. Members of this group start dying at the hands of a black gloved, scissor wielding psycho. What sets this apart from most slashers is that the women being stalked and murdered are not coeds, they’re grown women, married and divorced, not over the hill, but nearly at…
Klaus Kinski and Donna Wilkes star in this 80s slasher. A columnist is receiving threatening letters from a stalker and various members of a therapy group are being killed off one by one. By a giant pair of scissors no less.
Klaus Kinski does a great job playing the creepy therapist who has a questionable relationship with his daughter and is inappropriate with his clients. (who in their right mind would go to this guy for help??)
There is a swanky and sporadic score that gives the film a chaotic rhythm at times.
Some scenes balance on the overly dramatic/boring side and tend to be a little drawn out. Luckily the cast is pretty solid so the boring parts aren't quite as painful (appearances from Christopher Lyod, Marianna Hill and Craig Wasson among others).
Not great but still pretty solid nonetheless.
Giallo style American slasher from Cannon group sounds pretty decent and it actually is, but not exactly perfect. It's got a Los Angeles setting with a group of women friends who are part of psychotherapist Klaus Kinski's therapy group. And Klaus's therapy extends to one on one sessions with the women as well. A black-gloved killer in a cheap sedan with a long pair of sharp scissors in the glove box tracks the women one by one. The idea that women getting well through their group therapy sessions threatens the status quo and therefore they must die is kind of a sick concept that could have been drawn out better, but when you get down to it, couldn't they all? Some creepy moments in here.
1980 In Review - September
Someone is killing off the members of a therapy group that advice columnist Julie is a part of. Is it the weird psychiatrist that is leading the group, his mentally unstable daughter, or someone entirely different? Julie better find out as fast as she can because it looks like she’s the next to die.
I am sure I just watched this movie the other day, actually that was Phobia, a film almost the same, that was released days apart. This one is just as poor, surprising really because Klaus Kinski is in it and I expected some sort of performance from him to at least make it enjoyable, but he was awful. He spent the entire movie as though he didn’t want to be there. Everything about this was poor, the acting was terrible, the only thing notable that stuck out to me was Christopher Lloyd’s moustache.