Patrick

R4 DVD

Umbrella Entertainment

In room 15 of the mysterious Roget clinic is a young comatose patient named Patrick. His doctor (Robert Helpmann) thinks he's nothing more than 170 pounds of limp meat hanging off a comatose brain. However, a young nurse Kathy thinks that there is more to Patrick than meets the eye. It seems that since Patrick has lost consciousness, he has compensated for the loss of his five senses by developing psychic powers including psychokinesis (the ability to move and influence things at a distance) and he begins to influence, perhaps even control, those around him.

His doctor performs unusual experiments on his patient desiring to locate the point at which death intervenes in the coma state. These experiments range from constant sensory tests to electro shock. Helpmann plays the role in a truly magnificent manner with venom and high camp, he is the doctor from hell.

The head nursing sister has being slowly decaying at the Roget Clinic and is seemingly obsessed with the sex life of her nurses. She explains to Kathy, when she first arrives, that previous nurses have taken the job to explore their sexual perversions from rubbing themselves with faeces to necrophilia – it is surely one of the strangest job interviews ever seen on screen.

Patrick is in the clinic as he killed his parents in a state of Oedipal rage, he was jealous of his mother’s relationship with her love so threw a heater into their bath in a rather dramatic scene. It seems he has regularly fallen for other nurses and strange things have happened to their partners. He now falls in love with Kathy and nothing with stand in his way. His obsession turns to rage as she goes on dates and attempts to reconcile with her husband – everyone is now at risk from Patrick.

Made in 1978 Patrick was immediate cult film success even though it seemed to be first appreciated internationally. Indeed it was released in Italy to rave success with a soundtrack by Goblin. It was nominated for Best Film at the 1978 AFI Awards and was the winner of the Best Director prize at the prestigious Sitges Fantasy Film Festival in Spain. Patrick has continued to attract a large cult following for many it is the perfect Ozploitation film.

It is one of the more innovative cult titles celebrated in highly successful 2008 documentary on Australian cult cinema “Not Quite Hollywood”. It is packed with suspense, horror and some quite astounding shocks. One of the things which made Patrick so successful was the look of the film. There are some truly unnerving set pieces which have entered the history of cinema as great horror film moments including the heater in the bath killing and the momentous climatic death leap Patrick makes from his bed. A constant mood is created throughout the film by an eye for detail, emphasis is placed on Patricks gaze and his unblinking eyes and this creates an eerie and uncomfortable feel. There is also a nice reoccurring motif about electricity which, of course, has major consequences later when Patrick starts to use his skills in a more direct manner than just influencing those around him. The acting is superb if not eccentric, Helpmann as the deranged doctor in charger is superb as is the obsessive matron.

In many ways Patrick anticipated such later psychic thrillers as Scanners and is still a very successful cult horror film with a lot to offer. While many attempts were made to make knock off sequels (an Italian one comes to mind), nothing compares to the original.

While Patrick has been available on DVD in the past, this really is the definitive edition featuring a new high quality anamorphic transfer and a collection of exclusive special features including "A coffee break with Antony I. Ginnane" - an all-new featurette on the making of Patrick, a rare archival on-set interview with Director Richard Franklin, audio commentary with Director Richard Franklin, an excerpt from dubbed US version. Other features include The Man Who Wasn't There" – a PDF file of the unproduced Patrick sequel treatment, original Australian and US trailers, a stills and poster gallery, Ginnane trailer reel and more Umbrella Ozploitation trailers. The Antony I. Ginnane trailer reel is great fun with trailers from some of his more unusual films such as Survivor, Dead Kids and so on, many of these have not been released on DVD and so hopefully the trailers may be signs of things to come !

This review will appear in Volume 2:1 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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