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Schizo (1976)

Country of Origin: UK
Year of Production: 1976
Running Times: 109m
Length:
Format:
Colour Format: Technicolor
Ratio:
Sound:

DIRECTION

Director: Pete Walker

PRODUCTION
Production Company: Pete Walker (Heritage)
Producer: Pete Walker
Production Supervisor: Clifford Parkes
Production Manager: Edward Dorian

SCRIPT
Script: David McGillivray

DIRECTION
1st Assistant Director: Brian Lawrence
2nd Assistant Director: Glynn Purcell
3rd Assistant Director: Iain Cassie

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Peter Jessop
Camera Operator: Peter Sinclair
Follow Focus: John Metcalfe
Gaffer: Ted Davis
Stills: Frank Bellingham
Lab: Technicolor

EDITING AND POST-PRODUCTION
Editor: Alan Brett
Post-Production Supervisor: Matt McCarthy

MUSIC
Music: Stanley Myers

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Peter O'Connor
Boom Operators: Jack Davis, Peter Brown
Dubbing Mixer: Tony Anscombe
Sound Recording: Cine-Lingual Sound Studios Ltd

COSTUMES AND MAKE-UP
Make Up Supervisor: George Partleton

VISUAL EFFECTS
Title Design: Bill Palmer

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Art Director: Chris Burke

OTHER CREW
Assistant to Producer: James Kelly
Production Secretary: Ginger Corbett

LOCATIONS
Locations: London, England, UK

STUNTS
Stunt Coordinator: Steve Emerson

CAST

Lynne Frederick (Samantha)
John Leyton (Alan Falconer)
Stephanie Beacham (Beth)
John Fraser (Leonard Hawthorne)
Jack Watson (William Haskin)
Queenie Watts (Mrs Wallace)
Trisha Mortimer (Joy)
Paul Alexander (Peter McAllister)
Robert Mill (Maitre d')
Colin Jeavons (Commissioner)
Victor Winding (Sergeant)
Raymond Bowers (manager)
Pearl Hackney (woman at séance)
Terry Duggan (editor)
Lindsay Campbell (Falconer)
Diana King (Mrs Falconer)
Wendy Gilmore (Samantha's mother)
Primi Townsend (secretary)
Victoria Allum (Samantha as a child)
David McGillivray (man at séance)

PLOT SUMMARY

Former ice dancing champion Samantha's marriage to Alan precipitates a violent series of events when a man from her past, William Haskins, begins stalking her. He was wrongfully imprisoned for her mother's murder during Samantha's childhood and is now trying to shock the truth out of her ? who really killed her mother?

If House of Mortal Sin (1975) saw Pete Walker's career taking a slight stumble, then Schizo was him falling flat on his face. Taken from an uncharacteristically meandering script from David McGillivray, this sub-standard slasher desperately wants to mimic the Italian gialli but lacks the style to pull it off convincingly. Passable performances from Frederick and Fraser can do nothing to compensate for the absence of Walker's regular homicidal matriarch Sheila Keith and the cast is eventually beaten into submission by the lacklustre script. Occasionally, Walker unleashes the gore, but it's all done so half heartedly that one can't help but wonder why he bothered. Only a spooky seance scene impresses, Walker staging a moody, claustrophobic sequence that is ultimately ruined by hysterical over-acting.

UK
Theatrical Distributor: Columbia-Warner
Video Distributor: Warner Bros. Home Video

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Niles International
Video Distributor: Media Home Entertainment; VCI Home Video

Sweden
Rating: 15

UK
Rating: 18 (UK video cut by 1 min 3 sec)

USA
Rating: R

1976
November
Day Unknown: UK – theatrical release

1978
March
13: Sweden – theatrical release

Schizophrenia... When the left hand doesn't know who the right hand is killing!!

Amok
Blood of the Undead
Esquizofrenia - Argentine/Spanish title
Schizo - French title
Skitso - Finnish title
Skräckens våld, I - Swedish title
Terza mano, La - Italian title
Traumas - Portuguese title

SEE ALSO
Profondo rosso (1975)
Psycho (1960)

MAGAZINES

Films and Filming January 1977 p.34 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin December 1976 p.256 (UK)
credits, synopsis, review

Screen International 27 November 1976 p.24 (UK)
review

BOOKS

Aurum Encyclopedia of Film: Horror p.317
credits, review

Creature Features Strikes Again pp.336-337
credits, review

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

axes, flashback, maniacs, obsession, psychoanalysis, psychopaths, séances, serial killers, skating, slashers, sports, stalk and slash, stalking, throat slitting, weddings

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009