DVD Future (http://dvdfuture.com/review.php?id=1501) With almost every film released, a director (or writer) will infuse his/her thoughts, ideas and mentality into the picture. That small spirited touch grows into the heart, mind and spirit of the feature, giving the film a powerful soul for which it can voice its own opinion. Not all films have a strong voice ("Strange Wilderness," for example), but those that do are well heard. The only tragedy is that sometimes, the loudest of these films are independent features--injected with the passion of the director and writer, the turmoil of making the film and the love of the cast and crew. More often than not, unfortunately, these films are skipped by most mainstream viewers. "Schism" is indie filmmaker John C. Lyon’s latest film, his first feature-length endeavor. It details the very personal story of a man who’s losing his own mind through the rough turmoil of Alzheimer’s disease. The story begins with Neil, a middle-aged man who’s been hospitalized after falling and breaking his hip. He begins to heal, but for some reason, the hospital, and his family, won’t let him go home. He befriends some of the other hospital patients and quickly learns that some sort of conspiracy may be under way. Of course, that’s only what Neil thinks. Like many dementia and Alzheimer’s patients, Neil’s mind is not functioning properly. He can’t remember as much as he used to and begins to see and hear things that just aren’t there. In many ways, it’s like the world is shrinking in on him and he can’t seem to keep up with it. Alzheimer’s disease has been documented in quite a few features, the most recent film of which is "The Savages," but more often than not, the film is seen through the eyes of the children, grandchildren and other relatives involved. Lyons takes a vastly different direction, crafting a tale from the inside, through the eyes of Neil, who’s experiencing the world in a very different way. Neil’s family is only seen a few times in the picture, and it’s extremely brief. The rest of the time, Neil is attempting to piece together who he is and what is happening around, and to, him. This helps create a true sense of loneliness. Even though there are friends at the hospital, Neil is alone. His family has abandoned him, not intentionally, and he feels isolated--alone with his thoughts, which are quickly dwindling away. With this idea, Lyons is able to construct a deeply saddening view of what it’s like to grow old--to go from a thoughtful, inspiring and intelligent adult, to an emotionally, mentally and physically weak elderly person. There is a sense of happiness and peace we must all reach with this thought, but the fight to stay the way we were is exhausting and tragic. The film is intentionally slow moving, with a very dry first and second act. It was a little hard to get through, but necessary in order to construct the crux of the final act. Neil slowly begins to embark on an odyssey of his own mind. It’s a terrifying ride, with numerous scares and jolts that are likely to unsettle some viewers. The film is crafted, in many ways, like "Jacob’s Ladder" with horrifying imagery tightly packed within a simple, but increasingly complex story. Lyons uses the slow pace to build suspense, much in the same way David Cronenberg uses it in some of his own mind bending films like "Videodrome" or "The Brood." The performances, for an indie, are rather solid. Terry Smith delivers a terrific performance as the increasingly unstable Neil. His eyes do a lot of the performing, giving the character a nice sense of sadness, melancholy and fear. Don Kirsch’s performance as Neil’s friend Roger is also great. Despite his age, he gives the film a youthful spark that, when taken away, drives the picture into a suspenseful realm. Design for the film is minimal (and occasionally inconsistent), but Lyons does add a few neat visual and audio tricks to keep the suspense moving throughout the picture. The cinematography is easily the film’s strongest suit with great visuals at every corner. Like his previous film, "Hunting Camp," Lyons manages to craft a big budget look with only a few thousand dollars. Again, the tone and style is very similar to David Cronenberg, with stark, static shots coupled with keen lighting and striking setups. Editing is equally top notch, though the film is still a tad too slow in the beginning. But there are numerous truly cinematic, inspired cuts throughout. It’s rare to see such refined editing in a low-budgeted indie. The story is well written and constructed, though some goofs are present. Neil breaks his hip and seemingly has had hip surgery, yet he’s confined to a wheelchair for the rest of the picture, which takes place over a few months time. Having experienced this type of surgery twice with my mother and once with my grandmother (who is experiencing a very similar descent to Neil), I know that a patient is usually walking around after only a few short days. Other than this very minor script error, and few smaller errors here and there, this is an incredibly solid feature. "Schism," for many, will be a very personal journey. It’s a film designed for anyone who’s ever experienced losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s disease. Personally, I’ve experienced it twice, once with my grandfather several years ago and now with my grandmother, his wife. "Schism" is a touchingly tragic, poignant and moving tale that’s likely to stay with you, and perhaps spark some debate, long after the credits roll. This is one film with a very loud voice, and it’s begging to be seen. Film Report Card: Entertainment Value: B Film Value: B+ Final Grade: B+

Film Threat (http://www.filmthreat.com/reviews/10895/) John C. Lyons’ film “Schism” begins with a soporific evening in front of the television, where main character Neil Woodard (Terry T. Smith) inches his way into the basement of his house to investigate the source of unusual noises. A split-second glance of a possible intruder sends Mr. Woodard off-balance, causing him to fall and fracture his right hip. Before he (or you, the viewer) can say “what just happened,” Neil finds himself in recovery at a specialized facility for individuals in similar situations and of the same age group: a short hop, skip, and jump away from senility and eventual death. Neil settles in with a group of senior citizens at the center (who are there to live out the rest of their lives and not for physical rehabilitation). Days turn into weeks and then months. Though he demonstrates improved mobility and overall physical health, it becomes evident that Mr. Woodard will not be returning to his old life—his family won’t consent to it. Their continued concern over his physical and mental well-being compels them to discourage his release in the foreseeable future. Approximately halfway through the film, “Schism” takes a David Lynch-esque nervous jog down dark corridors as Mr. Woodard’s emotional and psychological state begins to deteriorate. On top of signs of forgetfulness, Neil experiences hallucinations, including a youthful manifestation of his late wife, a ballroom-dancing couple, and visions of Roger (Don Kirsch), one of the center’s residents (who may or may not have come to a frightful end). Thematically and narratively, “Schism” presents itself as “the story of one man’s descent into Alzheimer’s dementia”. I do not wish to sink into the issue of “unreliable narrator” and its implications (what Neil sees vs. reality, how he perceives time vs. actual time). Instead, I prefer to consider the more immediate message and sentiment Lyons’s film delivers. According to Suicide.org, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Institute of Mental Health, the elderly is “disproportionately more likely to die by suicide.” If “Schism” is remotely accurate in its portrayal of growing old, it’s no wonder that someone sixty-five and older has a higher chance of self-termination than someone sixteen to twenty-five years of age. To discover that the world is not everyone’s oyster or that aiming for the stars could catapult someone into the ceiling might be enough to push a young adult to desperate Shakespearean measures. But to feel unwanted? To involuntarily relinquish self-agency as one had known it, and then admit to oneself that one’s own memories cannot always be trusted? I cannot begin to imagine what it must feel like, but as Lyons gingerly yet plainly suggests in his film, at some juncture, fear and defeat have to be confronted and accepted.

Dread Central (http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/schism-2008) "If the thing were there -- and if I were not dreaming -- the implications would be quite beyond the power of the human spirit to bear. What tormented me most was my momentary inability to feel that my surroundings were a dream." -H.P. Lovecraft Too often in horror we get lost in the notion of death, that the loss of life is the worst thing that can happen, when in effect this is far from the truth. I can think of so many other instances where the thought of death would serve as a blessed release. The slow deliberate loss of one’s grip on reality is paramount within the echelon of horrors born of the human mind, whether they be real or fictitious. All we have is this life, the people, and our experiences. No chainsaw or machete on the planet could compare to the unyielding madness that comes from such illnesses as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. A purist may argue that a film like Schism has little or nothing to do with the horror genre, but they would be comprehensively wrong. The antagonist within Schism may not be a hockey mask killer, but it is just as relentless. The madness may not have its origins encased in prophecies of tentacle coated terrors from a void hidden between the stars, and yet its devastation is just as complete. Schism dances within the delicately tactile world of real horror. The realm of the fantastic in this type of film is that each and every day people actually have this happen to them. The story centers on Neil Woodard, who is sent to live in a nursing home after he injures his hip. Accustomed to living alone, Neil is being forced into an alien lifestyle that affords him no control over the situation. He is a product, he is a number, he is just another old person in an extended care facility. Neil knows this and hates it. You can tell from the depth of the wounded he wears on his face that Neil was a strong independent person who never saw this sort of situation in the cards for him. He feels betrayed by the outside world. How could life do this to him? How did he get here? How long till he gets out? Neil’s solace comes from the others whom are in his same situation. They are similar souls living within the home. Intrusive at first, they are unwilling to let Neil stay hidden beneath his shell. Soon a bond is formed between Neil and another infirmed patient named Roger. The two soon become inseparable. Time passes, and as the days pass into weeks, Neil comes to begrudgingly accept his new life. Yet things are not as they seem. Neil’s family visits and calls sporadically, and when they do come, there is a distinct disconnect between them and Neil. His children have different lives, and eerily enough a different story as to what is happening within Neil’s world. Neil is confused. In reaching out to his family, he is repeatedly shunned. The world makes less sense to him, a resentment grows, and his only recourse is to attach himself further to the new people and environment he is forced to dwell along side him. Director John C. Lyons uses Neil as our narrator without voiceover. We do not literally hear the inner mechanizations of Neil’s mind, but we do see every thought and feeling vividly play out across his face. Terry T. Smith is amazing in his flawless portrayal of Neil. He uses his ever emotive eyes and face to speak volumes. Under Lyon’s direction, the skin and age of Neil is so vividly photographed and depicted, that we are able to almost feel his aging as our own. Remove the hyperbole of Bruce Campbell’s Elvis from Bubba Ho-tep and you get the core idea of what we are dealing with here. One of my favorite things with the Coscarelli film was the natural, deep connection we felt for Jack and Elvis. As cartoony as their characters may have seemed, the friendship evolved and was presented strongly via the character and the conversations that defined them. Schism presents this sort of idea without the supernatural, hypernatural world of Bubba; good friends face down an unimaginable horror that they are unable to ignore or escape from. The supporting cast does a decent job with filling in the story with a bit of color. I just wish that they had been given some better dialogue in the film. There are moments where they are talking that Lyon’s dialogue is just shy of “Golly Gee Willikers”, and it is a disservice to the care that is given to everything else in the film. The banter between the core group of friends is at times hilarious, sometimes sad, and sometimes painful. I know that one does not want to walk down the Grumpy Old Men lane, but the when the conversations should be at their best, they just come up bland, and awkward for the actors to deliver. In developing the characters Lyons does allow them to occupy a lot of the screen time, and there is a good 15-20 minutes that could be trimmed from the film. I found myself amused at the quaint moments within the film, but there were so many of them that the film tends to sag in the middle. Neil arrives, makes friends, and begins his steady decent into dementia; the story is strong enough. I feel that the lackluster dialogue is linked with the elongated runtime. The characters and relationships feel forced and awkward at times, and thus as they are not evolving in a naturalistic manner. We spend a lot of time being with the characters, but evolving them slowly and awkwardly. A richer spate of conversations, especially between Neil and Roger, would have grown the friendship with more realism. Personally, I would have loved to see Schism done as a silent film. Instead of filling our ears with cutesy elderly banter, we should have instead been forced to bathe in Lyon’s impeccable direction and cinematography. Lyons and his partner, Dorota Swies, share the cinematography credit for the film. As you watch them work their magic on the screen, you would have to be blind and cinematically ignorant not to see the influence of Stanley Kubrick. This film has some of the most fantastic lighting I have ever seen in an independent film. We hitch a ride behind Neil’s eyes as he falls further down the mental rabbit hole, and are treated to horrific images and scenarios that are all the more effective because they are not the product of an alien presence, psychotropic drug, or sensory deprivation. No, Neil’s one way journey leaves you shaken and ultimately touched because it is concrete. From the audacious opening scene on we treated to Lyon’s kinetic camera style. The damn things just keeps moving, but never in that uber-hip, ultra-annoying shakeycam style. Instead we are treated to circular tracking shots, continuous shots, and sweeping crane maneuvers that make one feel uneasy about the world forming around them. Just as David Lynch captured the essence of the dream, Lyons has triumphed in depicting the quiet queasiness of mental anguish. The final sequences of the film are as touching as they are astounding. They never fail to keep the tension tightening on and around us, and at the very last minute show us a sublime revelation that will ask much of us as it answers. There is just as much revelation in the last moments of Schism as there is with the birth of the Starchild at the end of 2001. We are taken somewhere that is too close to home, somewhere dangerous, somewhere inescapable. Schism is a study in the inevitability of age, and the horror that comes with it. Lurking just off in the distance, hidden under the waves of time, we all must dance with the reaper at some point or another. It is our destiny to pay the life debt that we owe. It is unfortunate that some of us are going to travel down the intellectual inferno of dementia. Locked away with a cruel prison, we will then wait for death to deliver us from that perpetual evil of life without escape. In some regard the cruel twist of fate is that in the real world, the only one who can truly stop the horror is death itself.

DVD Talk (http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/38852/schism/) Independent filmmaker John C. Lyons' fourth film and first full length feature is an interesting movie. While on the surface you'd probably call it a drama, it definitely dips its toes into horror film territory though not in any way you'd probably expect. There are no monsters here, no knife wielding maniacs, nor any demons to contend with - merely a man who is losing control of his faculties as Alzheimer's disease begins to set in and take control. The film follows a middle aged man named Neil Woodward (Terrance Smith) who has a nasty spill that results in a fairly serious hip injury. Woodward finds himself with no reasonable choice but to enter a nursing home, though like most faced with this type of reality, he's none too happy about any of it. Upon arrival, he's as typically crotchety and cranky as you'd expect, intensely defiant and determined that soon enough he'll go back to his own home. What soon sets in, however, is the harsh reality that Neil is no longer at the top of his family's list like he once was. They seem to have more or less given up on him and as he comes to terms with this, he seeks comfort from the kind staff and the home's residents, many of whom are in a similar boat and have already come to terms with their situation. Soon enough, Neil starts to think there may be more to this than he at first realizes. His hip seems fine, yet he's not checked out of this hospital. While he thinks that there may be some sort of bizarre conspiracy afoot, we realize that his mind has stopped working the way that it once was and that because of his condition, he's dealing with some very serious dementia that won't ever go away. Not an easy subject to deal with, Schism takes the unique stance of telling the story from Neil's point of view. This allows Lyons' picture to portray a fairly chilling experience by putting us in Neil's shoes and bringing us along for his inevitable downward spiral. As Neil's faculties start to erode, we're shown Lyons' interpretation of what it must be like to suffer from such a condition and it's here that the aforementioned horrific elements come into play. The film pulls no punches in this regard, it does not paint a happy picture for Neil and while it never comes across as exploitative or trashy at all, it can get more than a little freaky at times. And rightly so. This is not a condition to be taken lightly, nor is it something that results in a perpetual 'happy place.' Thanks to Terrance Smith's completely believable performance we're able to feel for Neil as he goes through this inevitable, unwanted and permanent changes. We understand his fears, his misgivings, his frustration and his deep sense of loss and we also get a feel for the increasingly encompassing confusion that's setting it. This gives the picture some fairly tense moments of legitimate suspense, though in between are some appropriate moments of humanity and even a bit of humor. The film isn't all bleak, and it's well put together, very nicely shot, and quite competently edited. There are some pacing issues to deal with here and there but by and large this is a pretty compelling piece of independent movie making, and Schism is an entirely worthwhile effort.

The Film Chair (http://www.thefilmchair.com/wordpress/index.php/2010/02/01/schism-dvd-review/) Schism is a tough film to watch. It’s tough because the story, one of a older man named Neil who is stuck in a nursing home battling the onset of Alzheimer’s, isn’t something we like to talk about in our culture. Bring up eldercare at a party, or even in everyday conversation, and, well, I don’t even know what. I can’t say that I’ve ever even had a conversation like it. For families that love someone like Neil, such conversations are part of a difficult reality. What schism succeeds in doing is making us aware of what dementias really look like. In its own surreal way, schism shows it to us, warts and all. Families affected by similar circumstances know they’re not alone after seeing schism. And people who haven’t personally experienced what we see here are asked to consider, for 96 minutes, what it’s like to age in America. Schism stars Terry T. Smith as Neil, a man who is put into a nursing home after he falls on his basement stairs and breaks his hip. He’s not ready to give up his independence, but with his minds slipping away, he’ll never again be able to live on his own. His family, busy with everyday life, has no choice by to send him to an assisted living facility. There Neil is forced to adjust to new routines, new tests, and new medications, and his spiral into dementia doesn’t make it an easy transition. At the home Neil befriends a small group of residents, and takes a shine to one resident, Roger (Don Kirsch), in particular. Roger, too, has his share of set backs with medication adjustments and health problems. He says he doesn’t want to be a zombie like many of the others around him. And he never does become one. Roger passes, and when he does, Neil’s ability to distinguish reality from hallucination is considerably diminished. He starts to see Roger, who tells him stories about an infirmary and experimental tests on residents. Slowly, and sadly, Neil’s life begins to devolve into a series of delusions with moments of fatigued lucidity. It pains us to watch. However painful, watching an indie as heavy as schism proves that director John C. Lyons is able to make us feel something profound. As we see Neil turn from a coherent older man into someone crippled by his Alzheimer’s, we are heartbroken, frustrated, and helpless. Feeling something as deeply as schism forces us to have an experience that you can’t quite shake when it’s over. Much of the film’s burden rests on Smith’s shoulders, and through some miracle of local casting, Smith turns out to be an actor with whom we are willing to make this harrowing journey. His haggard but warm face make him easily to relate to. His stoic facade and sudden dramatic outbursts help maintain a level of intensity that keeps us in the moment. Smith’s performance hasn’t changed since I first saw schism at its world premiere at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2008. (You can watch a Q & A from a premiere screening on the DVD extra features disc.) The film’s dramatic lighting and its forceful score, two obvious highlights of this ultra low-budget production, remain as bold as they did before, as well. On the DVD version that I’m reviewing today, it’s the editing that changed my opinion of the film. This film was too dark at one time for a general audience. (I’m thinking of a particularly sad single-shot scene, “the ball”, which you can watch on the DVD extra features disc.) Now schism feels focused and character driven. Lyons, who I said had “a little Aronofsky in him” when I saw the premiere cut, lives up to a full comparison with this version.

SCHISM TIMELINE:

February 2006 - Started writing Script
September 30, 2006 - Production begins
June 30, 2007 – Production ends

Production Notes:
50 days of filming
50+ hours of footage
Self-financed

August 30, 2007 – Post-sound and ADR Begins
April 2008 - Original cut of Schism released to Festivals

Film Festival Selections:
April 17, 2008 (Edinboro Film Series)
November 5, 2008 (Guelcher Film Series)
December 4, 2008 (Zero Film Festival)
May 2, 2009 (Lancaster Area Film Festival)
July 3, 2009 (limited)
September 4, 2009 (Spirit Quest Film Festival)
September 8, 2009 (DVD premiere)
October 17, 2009 (Directors Chair Film Festival)

Summer 2009 - Final cut of Schism released on DVD