To me it was fairly obvious what the title nonsense word "Schizogeny" meant. It's a simple combination of the words "schizo", referring to the split personality of Karin Matthews the insane psychologist, and "progeny", meaning the troubled kids and their problems with their parents, Karin included. For me this was a deep and emotional episode that was all about what I saw as mainly fear, and in the uncanny case of this story how an entire lifetime of unconquered fear and unresolved anger can consume a human mind to the point where a victim(perhaps) unwittingly becomes what they are most afraid of in order to escape it... And in this particular tale of old woe and angst all the accumulated suffering and mental anguish concentrated in one seriously disturbed human being literally takes root, twisting nature and subconsciously manipulating the dead vines and creepers of the very earth to wreck vengeance on the perceived abusers of vulnerable children, an outward physical expression of something distinctly spiritual. I thought it was a bit strange and over-the-top having a pointless woodsman hovering around. They could've took the time to explain how he knew about the stuff he claimed to... The touch of having a character like that was something almost fantasy-like. My favourite part is the scene in which the girl overhears an unnaturally deep and spiteful voice in the dead of night, verbally humiliating 'poor' Karin. I found it an intensely grim foreboding dark scene. I didn't really sympathise too much with either of the two teens, they didn't seem to have parents that were particularly cruel, it probably would have been a much more complex and involving story if they had. At first it makes you think it is they who are killing with supernatural powers. "Bobby" just seemed like a lazy punk with a perpetually stoned expression, and the girl was fine, she was just kinda there as the sweet, slightly-troubled girl in distress, I found her boring.. Perhaps it shouldn't have been, but my pity was for the villain. I didn't think she was 'possessed' by her dead father's spirit or anything that silly, to me far more intriguing and eerie is the notion that through years of continual unconfronted rage, she has obsessed so much over her hatred and dread of her father that at some point she's had a psychotic break, and 'empowered' herself by becoming him in her own mind. How do you keep the dead, the memory of the dead alive? To what extent will you go to do that? And in this case Karin's gone to the extreme of the extremes, she's gone over the edge. It was so cruel the way she was implanting the kids with the memories of her own abuse, putting them through her nightmare in order to keep the cycle alive. She sought revenge in the worst way. The haunting final scene, in which the long-suffering and damaged being that Karin has become is slowly pulled down into a cold mire of her own making is such a profound and heartbreaking visual metaphor to me. As she's sinking down into the murk it's almost as if a huger emptiness looms below her, like the earth itself has taken pity on her, and swallowed her up to finally extinguish the memory of her pain at last... Dramatic I know, but this story moved me. It's dark, disturbing, and to me also kind of beautiful. The psychological aspects of this episode, and how it touches upon themes of abuse and its far-reaching effects is where it really hits home. It's not perfect, but I think it's more than unsettling and evocative enough to satisfy. I love it the most for the emotional resonance.
Review of Schizogeny
