Schizo Movie Review

Schizo is a 1976 horror/thriller directed by Pete Walker and starring Lynne Frederick, John Leyton, Stephanie Beacham and Jack Watson.

The  movie begins with  a man called William Haskin(Watson). He looks in the newspaper and sees an article about a woman who is getting married. The man packs his bags and he also packs a big knife. The woman is called Samantha(Frederick) and the man she is going to marry is called Alan(Leyton). Her friend is called Beth(Beacham) and they have another friend called Leonard(John Fraser). Samantha has lost contact with her family since her mother's death. Haskin arrives in London. Samantha and Alan get married. At the reception, Samantha sees Haskin. He hides a knife in the cake. When it is brought out, Samantha is very upset. He is watching her house.

Samantha is alone at home when she sees someone outside. When she goes to the supermarket, she meets Leonard. He asks her about her family, but she becomes evasive. When she arrives home, she knows that someone has been in the house. She tells Alan about it. Alan looks around but there is nobody there. Samantha goes to see Leonard and she tells him that the man who is after her is called William Haskin. He was her mother's lover. Samantha's real name is Jean. She was seven when she saw Haskin murder her mother and he went to prison. Leonard tells her that he will find out where Haskin is. Haskin finds Leonard in his car and he kills him. Samantha finds a bloody knife and she freaks out. She calls the police but they find nothing at her house. Samantha has a housepkeeper called Mrs. Wallace and she is part of a group called the Psychic Brotherhood. Mrs. Wallace and her daughter, Joy, are attending. She asks Samantha to go too.

Joy is a medium and she has a message for Samantha. It's from Leonard. It says that the killer is in the hall where they are. It scares Samantha. Joy goes to the bus stop to wait and she gets killed by Haskin. Alan is angry when he finds out that Samantha attended the meeting. He thinks that it is rubbish. Samantha finds out that Joy is dead. Beth offers to help her find out where Haskin is. She traces him to a boarding house. Meanwhile, Mrs. Wallace gets killed. Sam finds her body. Beth goes into Haskin's room but he returns. He catches her and he attacks her. She manages to escape. She tells Sam what happened. They go to the police. Sam clears up the blood left from the death of Mrs. Wallace. She goes to get Alan at his place of work. Haskin is there. She tries to run but he corners her. He says that she is the one who should have been in jail. It was her who killed the mother. Haskin says he wanted to frighten her into a confession.

Haskin says that she is the killer. She pushes him off a ledge and he dies. Alan finds her and the police deal with Haskin's body. Everything goes back to normal. A postcard arrives from Mrs. Wallace. Sam becomes jealous of Beth and Alan. Sam and Alan are going on holidays. She packs a knife in her bag. She plans on killing Alan, so she is the one who is the schizo after all....

This was an entertaining thriller/horror. I liked the main cast and the story was interesting. I did see the ending coming but it was still good. There are some creepy moments and there is plenty of blood in this one. It started off like a stalker movie, but it ended up as something quite different. Samantha ends up being the psychopath, but Haskin is one also, so it is hard to feel sorry for either of them. If you enjoy 1970's horror, then this is well worth a watch. I will give it a 6/10.