There are so many unintentionally hysterical moments in 1980's slasher "Schizoid" that I had a hard time getting bored. "Schizoid" is nothing new in the slasher film genre and it would be understandably forgotten if not for the magnetic presence of Klaus Kinski, who I expected to give a toweringly hammy performance. He is up for it yet his performance is gentler and the other actors are, surprisingly, hammy and over-the-top.
A savage killer adorning a black hat and black coat is killing women from a therapy group with a pair of scissors. Sometimes, the killer taunts them and then kills them. One such scene features a woman from the group riding her bicycle who is hit by the killer's car. She survives her fall and then runs into an abandoned house and you can guess the rest. Is it Dr. Peter Fales (Kinski) who lives in a mansion with his very troubled and near-suicidal daughter (Donna Wilkes, who later had the lead in the equally trashy and entertaining "Angel")? Dr. Fales seems creepy from the start indicated by Kinski's bulging eyes, and he stares at his daughter who disrobes and takes a shower. Whatever incestual innuendoes exist are forgotten as the film progresses.
Newly divorced Julie Caffrey (Mariana Hill) writes an advice column dispensing romantic advice and gets threatening letters in the mail - she is our main protagonist and a member of the group. The film gets sillier when we get Julie's ex-husband (Craig Wasson) who has a thing for redecorating his office with new wallpaper, and a maintenance man (Christopher Lloyd), also a patient in the group, who is eager to fix Julie's boiler!
"Schizoid" is straight up stupidity as a thriller and as a whodunit (my guess of the murderer's identity turned out be wrong). Its saving grace is Kinski who looks savage and cruel and has sex with his female patients! This could have been a phenomenal psychological thriller under the right hands. What we get is another anonymous slasher film.
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