Don't be too misled by the promising names of co-authors Blake Edwards ("The Pink Panther", "Breakfast at Tiffany's") and Robert Bloch ("Psycho"), since this is a mostly dull and endlessly talkative thriller; - as sleep-inducing as the title suggests. Prior to going to his therapist sessions at 7pm, Charles commits a vicious stabbing murder out in the crowded city-center streets of Los Angeles. He phones the homicide department in advance, randomly selects a poor victim, and then vanishes in the tumultuous aftermath. While police sirens and panic gathers around the scene of the crime, Charles is quietly telling Dr. Janz about his anxieties and childhood traumas. He's not too traumatized to seduce the doctor's gorgeous niece/secretary, though!
The basic idea is great, and "The Couch" also starts out promising, with immediately the first sinister call to the police and the subsequent murder of a man who's just a spectator of a streets' salesman. Things go downhill very fast from there, though, mostly because lead actor Grant Williams is unable to come across as both menacing and pitiable simultaneously. A role like this requires to be creepy even when he's talking about his issues in therapy, or wooing the naïve young lady, but Williams can't achieve this. In fact, he's only genuinely menacing throughout the act of the first murder! For the next ones, he's nervous and unprepared, which makes him one of the weakest serial killers in film history. It's actually rather hilarious that you telephone the homicide department claiming, full of self-confidence, that a murder will take place at exactly 7pm, and that you then find yourself racing around town because you can't find a suitable victim. The finale is excessively overlong and disappointing.
The basic idea is great, and "The Couch" also starts out promising, with immediately the first sinister call to the police and the subsequent murder of a man who's just a spectator of a streets' salesman. Things go downhill very fast from there, though, mostly because lead actor Grant Williams is unable to come across as both menacing and pitiable simultaneously. A role like this requires to be creepy even when he's talking about his issues in therapy, or wooing the naïve young lady, but Williams can't achieve this. In fact, he's only genuinely menacing throughout the act of the first murder! For the next ones, he's nervous and unprepared, which makes him one of the weakest serial killers in film history. It's actually rather hilarious that you telephone the homicide department claiming, full of self-confidence, that a murder will take place at exactly 7pm, and that you then find yourself racing around town because you can't find a suitable victim. The finale is excessively overlong and disappointing.