SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Phillida Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Sam Panico Julie (Marianna Hill, Messiah of Evil, The Baby) writes the lonely hearts column for a newspaper, but she's suddenly getting more than letters from the lovelorn. An anonymous person is sending her letters threatening to murder people. And at the very same time, members of her group therapy session are getting stabbed and killed, one by one. Is there a connection?Schizoid has all the markings of a giallo - the main character is in the middle of a murder investigation and has no idea who is behind it, while many of the killings are from the murderer's POV. And let's not forget the black leather gloves!It's missing the insane devotion to fashion and interior design, but we can't hold that against it, as at least Dr. Pieter (Klaus Kinski, a legit real life maniac who always plays maniacs on screen) has an interesting home.Right from the beginning, when the ladies of Dr. Pieter's encounter group luxuriate in a hot tub, we get the idea that someone is watching. When one of them leaves, she is run off the road, chased into a farmhouse and repeatedly stabbed with a pair of scissors. Several days later, a couple that's trying to have sex is surprised by the body.Are the letters connected? Why do they mention a gun when the murders are done with a knife? Who is the killer? Is it Gilbert (Christopher Lloyd, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the Eighth Dimension), the weirdest person in her therapy group? Is it her ex-husband, Doug (Craig Wasson, Body Double) who argues with her every day because they work in the same place? Or how about Dr. Pieter, because he's Klaus Kinski? Beyond that, he's having sex with every single one of his patients, including a stripper named Pat (Flo Gerrish, Don't Answer the Phone) who he takes against a hot water heater! And hey - his relationship with Alison, (Donna Wilkes, Jaws 2, Angel) his daughter, feels super incestual. Maybe that's who the killer is!This film also follows the giallo tradition by having police officers that are so ineffectual that they depend on the heroine to do her own investigation with no protection and only a special phone line to help her.Alison and Dr. Pieter argue repeatedly, especially after he grows closer to Julie, bringing her home to dinner. She begins to dress in her mother's clothes or as a little girl and even steals her father's gun.The police put in the phone line, but every single call seems to be cranky readers who are angry about Julie's column. Then, Alison calls her from a payphone, gun in hand. Julie gets Alison to come visit her at her house, where her husband (she doesn't call him ex-husband) is doing some repair work. Alison throws out a whole bunch of the letters and brandishes her gun, but it's unloaded. Then, the phone rings.It's Dr Pieter, who demands to know where this number reaches Julie. He comes to visit, but someone takes a shot at him. We don't see who, but he assumes that it is Alison. The lights go out and we have no idea who is in the room with him. The phone rings again, but it's not Alison or Julie on the line. They're both tied up and a man is on the other line - but who!Should I reveal it here? I won't. But I will say that this movie is truly a giallo because it's the person that is the least likely suspect and the police come running at the last moment. And by that, I mean just in times for the credits.Director David Paulsen also brought Savage Weekend to the screen, but is more well known for his primetime soap opera work on shows like Knots Landing, Dallas and Dynasty.

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.

rosscinema If you've set your mind to the fact that your going to view this low budget thriller than please don't expect to see something along the lines of "Psycho" or "Wait Until Dark" because this is eons away from resembling anything that well made. With that, despite all of it's faults you might still find this to be passable in terms of a late night viewing because the recognizable cast helps this film...in volumes! Story is about a Los Angeles psychiatrist named Pieter Fales (Klaus Kinski) who is a widower and having trouble with his angry and unbalanced daughter Alison (Donna Wilkes) who blames him for the death of her mother.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Dr. Fales is in charge of a weekly therapy group and he's sexually involved with two members including Julie (Marianna Hill) who has an advice column in the local paper and has been receiving strange letters from someone who contemplates murder. When members of Dr. Fales group start popping up dead the police (Richard Herd & Joe Regalbuto) start to wonder who might be responsible like Julie's ex-husband Doug (Craig Wasson), Gilbert (Christopher Lloyd) the horny maintenance man, Dr. Fales himself or the uncontrollable Alison.This is directed by David Paulsen who was a television writer but had also made another slasher-like flick earlier in his career but never seemed to make the best of his film efforts. Let's just come right out and say that Paulsen seems totally unable to deliver anything resembling suspense and the murders that we do see are shot in an incredibly clumsy manner and the music that accompanies these scenes (what happened Craig Hundley?) has got to be the worst I've ever heard. Talk about annoying! Two things that I noticed while watching this stand in my memory like the fact that Kinski smokes through the entire film. Besides the fight sequence at the end I can't remember one scene where he doesn't have a cigarette either in his hand or his mouth. In one scene Hill finally takes one away from him and puts it out! The second thing is the size of Dr. Fales house...it's the biggest thing I've ever seen! Scarlett O'Hara would be envious! I know psychiatrists make a pretty good living but...HOLY COW! This wouldn't be your typical 80's slasher flick without nudity and Kinski himself has two sex scenes with a stripper and Hill but it's the shots of a nude Wilkes (TV's Hello, Larry and B-film favorite Angel) that is primarily the highlight. The familiar faces in the cast help the viewer get through this (admittingly) sub par effort including Kinski (one of my personal favorites) but also Hill who was always a good actress. Sure it's bad, but I think it's a watchable bad film.

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.