When Dr. Pieter Fales' patients start receiving ominous letters and getting murdered by an unknown black-clad assailant, he and his daughter both come under suspicion.
Satisfying and somewhat effective mystery-thriller. It's another 1980s-era movie that's not entirely special but kept my attention throughout. Also fun to see Christopher Lloyd in a film early in his career (though had been on Taxi for a couple years before this release). 3.25/5
Who is killing the women in Marianna Hill's therapy group? Is it the creepy psychiatrist Klaus Kinski? His troubled yet cute daughter Donna Wilkes (who has a brief nude scene that I had been dreaming about since McLean Stevenson's forgotten sitcom "Hello Larry")? Marianna's grinning ex-husband Craig Wasson? What about a young Christopher Lloyd, the bitter handyman? Or even the even younger looking detective Joe Regalbuto? Hill plays an advice columnist who is having more problems than a week's worth of Ann Landers letters. She is receiving death threats, and someone is killing the women in her group with a large pair of scissors. The killer, whom I figured out right away, wears a fedora and coat, a striking silhouette in the un-scary killin...
A psycho targets a therapists patients in Los Angeles
Shot in March, 1980, this debuted five months after Friday the 13th" and comes in the tradition of 70s flicks inspired by Psycho, such as Haunts, Schizo, The Toolbox Murders and "Don't Go in the House." The doe-eyed protagonist is effectively played by Marianna Hill, who was 38 during shooting and still lookin good. You might recall her from her role as the lovely Dr. Helen Noel in the Star Trek episode Dagger of the Mind, as well as the woman that The Stranger manhandles in High Plains Drifter.
The first act introduces two possible suspects (Klaus Kinski and Chritopher Lloyd), but two more are revealed in the second act. I liked the focus on psychology and the insights there...