Patrick

Patrick (1978)

The movie opens with a grown man named Patrick finding his mother in the tub with her lover. He doesn’t react well to this and tosses in a heater, which electrocutes the both of them. Three years later we find him lying in a hospital supposedly brain dead. A beautiful nurse and recently separated woman named Kathy comes to work for the hospital, with Patrick being her first patient. While everyone thinks he is a vegetable Kathy beings to suspect he can interact with the world around him with his mind. Of course convincing anyone of the telekinesis is exceedingly difficult when everyone thinks she has lost her mind. Things get really creepy as Patrick develops feeling for Kathy and those around her start to have accidents because of his jealousy.

I like this movie quite a bit. It isn’t at all what I expected which might be why it was so much fun for me. The story starts off strong and remains interesting throughout the duration. The characters are well developed and realistic, which makes the weirdness going on around them all that much more disturbing. This is a dialogue heavy movie, but never feels slow because of the great writing. Many fans of the horror genre think that a well-written movie is one that provides plenty of quotable lines and snappy, glib dialogue. But this movie is filled with characters that speak like real people, which goes back to my earlier point about the characters, it just makes the movie that much more effective. The cast is filled with native Australians that I’m not familiar with, but that give impressive performances. Susan Penhaligon carries the movie in her role as Kathy, with many of her scenes being opposite the Patrick character. Speaking of which I of course I have to mention Robert Thompson as the comatose Patrick. He spends almost the entire movie lying in a bed staring at the ceiling and somehow manages to be superbly creepy in the title role. Hell maybe it is the fact that he manages to lie perfectly still for so long that gets me.

After the first five minutes of the movie there isn’t that much in the way of special effects and even that wasn’t much to speak of. I did dig some of the old school effects used when Patrick kicks the doctor out of his room towards the end of the movie. But this simply isn’t an effects heavy film and relies more on the excellent story and performances for it’s impact. I did enjoy the locations for the movie, especially the hospital. The filmmakers did an excellent job lighting and shooting the movie around the locations using them to great effect. Do yourself a favor and pay attention when watching Patrick because this is a nice looking movie.

This is a well-made thriller with an unconventional story line that I think should appeal to anyone looking for something different. It is worth every bit the cost of a purchase and is a movie I’m glad to have in my collection.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer