Woodyanders
Newspaper advice columnist Julie (a fine and appealing performance by Marianna Hill) receives death threats in the mail from a mysterious person. Meanwhile, the female members of a therapy group run by peculiar psychiatrist Pieter Fales (a surprisingly restrained portrayal by a hilariously miscast Klaus Kinski) are being bumped off by a scissors-wielding maniac. Are these two things connected? Writer/director David Paulsen relates the compelling story at a steady pace, generates a reasonable amount of tension, delivers a satisfying sliver of bare distaff skin, and makes good use of the gritty urban locations. Alas, Paulsen skimps on the gore and Kinski is less than convincing as a womanizing heel. Moreover, Craig Huxley's overdone quivery synthesizer score proves to be more distracting than effective. Fortunately, the sturdy cast holds the picture together: Donna Wilkes as Pieter's troubled estranged daughter Alison, Craig Wasson as Julie's morose, yet amiable ex-husband Doug, Richard Herd as jaded homicide detective Donahue, Joe Regalbuto as Donahue's more sensitive partner Jake, and Christopher Lloyd as creepy handyman Gilbert. Norman Leigh's glossy cinematography provides a pleasing polished look. A rather flawed, but overall pretty solid and enjoyable little flick.
gridoon
It's crudely made, badly acted and crummy-looking. It has some of the stupidest dialogue you'll ever hear (sample: a man reads a threatening letter. First he says "I'm sure it's a hoax" and three seconds later he states that "It's obvious that whoever wrote this is a lunatic and capable of killing"!). And YET...(SPOILERS FOLLOW)I was determined to give this movie a "*" rating, but maybe it deserves another half-a-star because I was fairly certain the killer was Klaus Kinski and it was ultimately revealed that he wasn't. What remains unexplained is how could such an obviously perverse man be the psychiatrist (!) of a much more sane and well-balanced woman.
cOOtje-3
While watching this one, I kept thinking about that anecdote Claudia Cardinale recalls in Herzog's documentary about Kinski. They were doing a love-scene together (she claims he was nice, humble and respectful towards her) and all of the sudden, Herzog brought in an ocelot. Kinski freaked out, as good as slaughtered the poor animal (endangered species!!!), and refused to work again for the whole day. "He was such a nice man", she then goes on. And I'm sure his daughter has similar tales of warmth and paternal joy to tell. What's the point I'm getting to, It's clear what Kinski is doing in this film: his character is allowed to gratuitously bonk every single women in the film, even ogle his own naked daughter and beat up a few others. It must have been a relief for such an intense person to not have to act. And still he is able to sleepwalk through this lame excuse for a slasher movie.It isn't even funny (except for that bathtub-scene, where the director must have suddenly realized he was going to miss out on a screaming face unless he came up with something -you'll never believe that one-). I watched it in fast-forward, and those were a long fifteen minutes. Avoid if you can, sleep through it if you must.
Mister-6
Okay... "Schizoid". What can you say about a movie where the scariest thing in it is the title?Seems that people are dying in this California community and all of them seem to be patients of psychiatrist Kinski. Everyone in this film seem to be some level of nut (it IS California, after all) so there are more herrings here than in a barrel at the fish market. So, who's doing the killing?All too obvious, I'm afraid. If you watch this and have a rudimentary knowledge of how these slasher flicks work, you'll pick out the perp right after you see them. If not, you deserve every lame moment that you get thrown at you.No stars, not even in pity. The only "Schizoid"s here are the ones behind the camera that thought this was a good idea.
AD
