Schizo (1977)

Admirable film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Samantha (Lynne Frederick) is a celebrity ice skater whose fabulous life includes media coverage of her marriage plans. Too bad that William Haskin (Jack Watson)--convicted of killing Samantha's mother (Wendy Gilmore)--reads the newspapers. Samantha's a neurotic mess herself, so nobody really believes her when she says she's being stalked--until, that is, the body count starts going up.Speaking of bodies, Frederick's and Gilmore's are on full display.Schizo is like an Italian Giallo; there is plenty of blood and nudity. The first half of the film is the setup and it drags a bit, but things get going and it is a fun ride even though I suspect that we are being set up for a twisted ending.And, boy did we get one.

It seems a terrible indictment that Walker's films were treated so badly at the time of release for it is undeniable that, especially considering their low budgets, they achieve everything they set out to. Being a cinema goer of the period, I of course was also guilty in that I never went to one on it's UK release and have only caught up with them more recently. The time was probably not quite right for the large audiences but now that I have seen most of the Italian giallo, I can sit in wonder and gleefully enjoy this 'terror movie' and it's surprisingly generous amounts of bloody gore and violence. The acting is at times ponderous, John Leyton of sixties pop singing fame, struggles here and there but perhaps his part is underwritten. Lynne Frederick makes a few odd gestures but these are eventually explained, as is everything else in this exciting and clever little movie.

Forget any notions that the film is a serious look at schizophrenia, premier British 70s exploitation filmmaker Pete Walker's Schizo is a belated entry in the rash of British rip-offs of Psycho which appeared in the wake of Hitchcock's own medically dubious masterpiece (compare Berserk, Paranoiac etc.). Walker's film has a pretty young celebrity supposedly being stalked and members of her close circle bumped off by the sad-sack killer of her mother, released a couple of years ago from prison. But things are not all that they seem...The small genius of Walker's film is that it reverses the idea of who is the villain in contemporary Western society. Usually, the role is played by a lonely, middle-aged psychotic man who puts the beautiful young things at risk; in Schizo, he has been framed by the beautiful young celebrity herself, who suffers from a split personality - one moment she's all sweetness and light, the nation's favourite skating star and tabloid fodder; but beneath she's a murderous Ice Queen, jealous and capable of the utmost acts of brutality when faced with anything which upsets her equilibrium. There's a certain barmy truth in Walker's vision of with whom the danger really lies in our bleak post-industrial society. An intriguing sub-plot shows how religion or spiritual belief has been denigrated into a brotherhood of superstitious women, who haven't the foggiest idea of what is actually going on.Lynne Frederick - a celebrity who herself went supremely off-the-rails when left a cool £4.5 million as Peter Sellers' widow - is prophetically cast as the Ice Queen; and there's a wonderful supporting turn by the great Queenie Watts as the psychic-mongering help.Schizo is not one of Walker's best films - it doesn't reach the heights of lunacy of House of Whipcord or Frightmare, nor does it match the near-contemporary Italian giallos which is seeks at times to mimic; yet it has some games to play with notions of villainy in tabloid cultures.

Ho-hum.............what to make of Pete Walker's "Schizo"? Considering the 70's period, and its tightish budget, it's got to be said that it's not a bad effort overall. In fact, it could easily be looked upon as a fore-runner of similar less effective efforts in the years that followed. The scenes are good generally, and the pervading sense of menace is quite effective for most of the time. Best scene of all is the creepy seance, when the medium's reactions suddenly catch the viewer by surprise. Performances, however, are somewhat mixed. Lynne Frederick provides a nondescript lead who seems to drift through the whole thing, whilst trying to remember where she's left her shopping list! Better are Stephanie Beacham, John Fraser and John Leyton. Top performance, however, comes from Jack Watson, and he alone makes the film seem better than it probably is. All in all, a worthwhile viewing for fans of the slasher-type movie, but don't expect any subtle nuances or frills!