Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer

Psycho Therapy is one of those films where the characters all seem to have some sort of issue, with unpredictable results once they all get together. It all starts with somewhat successful author Keane (John Magaro) and his wife, Suzie (Britt Lower), having dinner with several friends at one of their homes. He talks about his next idea for a book with a story involving Neanderthals. 

Keane goes out the next day to talk with his agent, David (Ward Horton), at a local diner, who doesn't like his book idea and advises him to come up with something better. After he leaves, Keane is approached by Kollmick (Buscemi), who recognizes him and says he is a big fan of his work. After getting a hint of his next book idea, Kollmick suggests he write about the life of a serial killer. After arriving home, we see that Suzie is quite unhappy and announces that she wants a divorce. Keane decides to go out to a bar to process the announcement and runs into Kollmick again. He again presses the idea of writing about a serial killer and tells him that he is, in fact, a "retired serial killer"- he had committed murders in the past but stopped before being caught. This is an interesting concept, but we don't hear any back story on him; we sort of just have to accept what he says is true without hearing about any of the actual killings. He does say that he wants to help with the book by teaching him how serial killers act and think.

Keane invites Kollmick back to his home to discuss things further, expecting Suzie to be asleep, but she walks in on the two of them talking. She doesn't like a strange person being in her house late at night, so Keane quickly makes up a story that he is a marriage counselor. This is even a surprise to Kollmick, but Keane tells him to just play along. The next day, Suzie decides that she'll try a meeting to try and save the marriage, so Kollmick has to actually act like a counselor- he agrees to this if Keane will write his next book about a serial killer and let him be a consultant.

What follows is a rather dark comedy of errors, lies, and misunderstandings. To help with the book, Kollmick leads Keane around the city and talks about how killers stalk their victims and the mistakes that lead to their being arrested. He also fakes his way through some marriage counseling sessions, and Suzie actually thinks he has some good advice despite mainly asking, "Is that what you think?" While she might first feel a little better about the marriage, Keane's secretive behavior while researching the book with Kollmick soon makes her suspect that he may be plotting to kill her. In reality, Kollmick has decided it would be a good idea to kidnap the agent David, for unclear reasons.

This movie certainly has a good concept, but leaves much of it underdeveloped. Buscemi is certainly believable as a "retired serial killer," but we never hear any backstory of what he actually did, how or why. Keane's initial idea for a story about Neanderthals is actually made clearer (including a brief enactment in a cutaway) than that of the book about serial killers. We never even find out if that book even makes it to the writing stage.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-Ray
Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer (the disc volume label is simply titled "Psycho Therapy," some in the included featurette refer to it as "Shallow Tale") arrives on Blu-Ray from Brainstorm Media via OCN Distribution with their usual clear case with a still from the film printed on the reverse side of the cover sheet; there is no insert included. The static main menu plays the 1977 disco song "Yes Sir, I Can Boogie" by Baccara in its entirety- this song comes up a bit into the movie where Kollmick insists on playing it repeatedly in the car, saying that it "helps him focus." Hearing it over the main menu sort of spoiled the surprise of the song turning up, a criticism I've had of several discs even though it is a bit amusing.

Psycho Therapy is presented in a 2.39 aspect ratio, and the majority of the film is quite dark. Even scenes like the opening dinner party are set with rather dim lighting. The dual-layer Blu-Ray presents this competently with no obvious compression artifacts or banding. Overall colors tend to be on the warm side, with a hue of orange being the dominant color throughout.

The 5.1 sound mix in DTS-HD MA mainly keeps sounds up front, with centered dialogue and ambient sounds with music in the left and right channels. There are some ambient sounds in the rear channels but they never call attention to themselves. This seems to suit the material however along with the darkly-lit picture. I do need to give proper credit to the scene where Suzie announces her desire to divorce- she does this while in a dimly-lit kitchen chopping onions, the sound of which is one of the most unpleasant I've heard in recent memory. After processing the information, Keane asks her, "What are you going to do with all those onions?" She replies, "Nothing- I just like the sound." As I'd been cringing at that sound through the whole scene, that reply provided the best laugh in the movie.

Extras on Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write About a Serial Killer consist of:

• Behind the Scenes Featurette (HD, 18:09) has the main cast discussing the script (with a distorted audio level) and shows a bit of the production.
• Trailer (HD, 2:04) quickly lays out the concept with several review quotes shown onscreen.

Psycho Therapy could have delivered more than what we get here, but the results are still entertaining enough, particularly for fans of Steve Buscemi, as he fits the role of a retired serial killer quite well. This Blu-ray release offers up a healthy average video transfer and a DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio option to match. The A/V presentation might not be the most aggressive or outstanding, but it gets the job done. Bonus features aren't much to speak of beyond a tried-and-true brief and basic behind-the-scenes featurette with a trailer. Ultimately, this one is Worth a Look.