British cult film-maker Pete Walker's "Schizo" is quite a blunt, if nastily grimy little psycho shocker (with giallo touches) that doesn't provide much in the way of story surprises, but cements a growing sense of unease that's broken up by constant its unpleasantness.Samantha is an international ice-skater who's about to marry. This should be a happy time in her life; however she gets the feeling that someone is stalking her. Someone from her past, she would like to forget about. However that's hard to do when dead bodies start piling up and she believes it to be the man that slashed her mother to death, but no one seems to believe her.The ensemble cast bestows some strong performances, especially in its support with standouts like the gorgeous Stephanie Beacham and a cynical John Frazer. Even Jack Watson had a creepy presence about him. A sound turn by Lynne Frederick in the lead covering a neurotic side and John Leyton is acceptable as her husband. Walker sturdily strings together the taut set-pieces with his leering, but expressive camera-work. The narrative keeps everything rather shady, building an edgy psychological imprint with its stalk and slash structure. The script stays interesting (despite never being too revealing) and playing around with a sense of paranoia (stress used as an excuse), but the red herrings are too obvious to be effective, so when it comes to the double whammy it doesn't pack much of a blow or is particularly credible. Stanley Myers' unhinged music score is jaunty, but extremely haunting and disorienting in its spells.Nice cover artwork on the VHS case, but it does give a subtle clue to where the story might just head.

Not really prime Pete Walker; rather an attempt by the director to do a stalker / slasher picture, after the Italian giallo fashion.Walker does treat us to some surprising and vivid scenes, ample shock moments and a fine use of locations - mid-70s Britain is once again a fascinatingly grim locale, as in some many films of the era! However, the crucial 'twist' is rather poor, straining all credibility that the film had.The uncannily ubiquitous Jack Watson is actually quite sinister though, and Stephanie Beacham once more plays the very middle-class friend type as in other British horrors of the era. Lynne Frederick - to be wed to Peter Sellers the following year - is another of PW's sexy heroine-in-peril leads and, like many such characters, is not incapable or entirely cardboard. John Leyton, singer of the stupendously eerie Joe Meek-produced #1 hit 'Johnny Remember Me' (1961), is bizarrely cast as Frederick's husband, providing as much screen presence as the elusive Zeppo Marx. Sheila Keith is missing.While this is a definite retreat from PW's previous nasty fairy tales - "House of Whipcord", - it still has a certain appeal for those who don't mind a bit of well-crafted 1970s exploitation. Those who view films purely in terms of gender politics should obviously stay well clear!

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.

Pete Walker and his loyal scriptwriter David McGillivray were pretty much England's most controversial duo of filmmakers back in the glorious seventies. Opposite to Hammer's and Amicus' successful but politically correct horror movies, these two provided the British (and other) genre fans with provocative and violent films, stuffed with social criticism and obscene undertones. Their movies ("Frightmare", "House of Whipcord"...) aren't genius, but at least they always have originality and a handful of effective shock-moments. Same goes for this "Schizo", which remarkably blends an innovating slasher premise with some of the genre's oldest and most delightful clichés. Newly married ice-skating champion Samantha is stalked by the frustrated and pitiful lover of her murdered mother. Even though the the guy makes no real secret of his identity and even though his perpetrating attempts are amateurish, Samantha has great difficulties convincing her entourage she's in danger. "Schizo" basically is a simplistic horror movie (up till a certain point, at least), but it's praiseworthy how Walker & McGillivray make efforts to throw in psychological terror twists. The extended fright-scenes are well mounted and the make up effects are quite nasty despite the low budget production values. As usual in Pete Walker's movies, there's a twisted and very ingenious shock ending that marvelously illustrates the director's aversion to political correctness. Highly recommended!