Schizophrenic or Psycho? (Spoilers)

The criteria for schizophrenia involves a few specific things, among them the patient claiming that the "vision" involves all the senses - taste, touch, smell, etc. I'm guessing Embry met all these areas. Plus Katie seems to truly believe he's there, grabbing her by the arms and shoving her into the cupboards...She convinces herself, and that suggests a whole other sickness other than mere denying she killed him to the police - she's denying it to herself. But this is where she's a complex character: she isn't a cold blooded murderer. She killed Embry because she couldn't take being abandoned again. And when she kills Handler it's because of the same thing. But it's too traumatic for her to confront so she denies it and believes they're still alive. I'm guessing that that means it's not pure psychotic, but probably leans more toward schizophrenia, because she buys into her own delusions, or hallucinations.
I love this film too, and was blindsided by the ending when I first saw it in the theater. I drove home numb, paralyzed in shock by it, and completely in love with it. Stephen Gaghan did a great job, as did Katie Holmes. This is probably the only "teen" movie I really appreciate on any higher "arty" level, because its purpose is to depict the world of college and its psychological impact on one person. It's not cashing in on pop culture or the young audiences. In fact this film really isn't aimed at teenagers, most likely. It's an adult drama, set in the upturned, emotional world of college. Great film.

I agree, this film is wonderfully filmed (the cinematography is gorgeous) and Katie Holmes shows she can carry a film brilliantly.
I agree also with the above poster that she is likely schizophrenic, but I also think other mental illnesses are present.
Another poster up here suggested the possibility that Katie has MPDD, which would explain the scene where she goes for the job interview.
The Katie we see is nothing like the one we see for the rest of the film, she is confident & articulate & smiles knowingly.
This might also explain why she has no memory of the murders. But she is definitely schizophrenic, and appears to have suffered a psychotic break when Embry broke it off with her.
The murder of Wade is another of these.



"I'd say this cloud is Cumulo Nimbus."
"Didn't he discover America?"
"Penfold, shush."

What was made most obvious was her abandonment issues, all the flashbacks of her as a child are of when her father abandoned her which shows she's clearly vulnerable and seeking stability in a relationship with a man. But the men (like her father) always end up abandoning her too, so she kills them. The way I viewed the movie, it seemed as if it triggered a multiple personality disorder, because she's able to carry on living life removed from the crime(s) she committed, and imagines the men are haunting her. It's actually quite fascinating on a psychological level, the way she kept seeing her dead boyfriend thinking he was stalking her was actually just her guilty conscience for having killed him...