Horror Extreme Movie Catalog

A young nurse named Kathy Jacquard (Susan Penhaligon) gets a new job at a psychiatric clinic. She is assigned to a patient named Patrick (Robert Thompson). Patrick has been in a coma ever since he murdered his mother and her boyfriend 3 years earlier. Kathy goes through her daily routine, until bizarre events start happening to her and to those around her. Kathy slowly realizes that Patrick, while quite immobile, is nonetheless able to manipulate people and objects w/ his mind. Ms. Jacquard's terror and frustration grow as Patrick attacks any men in her life. This movie has it's moments, but I did find myself wishing for a little more in the way of action. No, I wasn't expecting explosions or hundreds of grisly deaths. However, a few more sinister, telekinetic fatalities would certainly have upped the suspense and helped to move things along. As it stands, PATRICK is a watchable movie w/ a decent story. Watch for Rod Mullinar (Thirst) as Kathy's husband Ed. Julia Blake is very intense as the matron...

Directed & Co-Produced by Richard Franklin who would later go on to direct PSYCHO 2, PATRICK is a watchable but unremarkable Aussie thriller which is loosely in the vein of CARRIE.
As a child Patrick murders his mother & one of her male friends by electrocuting them in the bathtub via telekinesis.
For some reason, after this Patrick is rendered comatose with massive damage to his cerebral cortex (the film doesn't even explain any of this) & for the last 15 years he has been in hospital (Well he wouldn't be surfing at Noosa, would he?).
Kathy Jacquard (Susan Penhaligon) is recently out of nursing school & one of her first patients is Patrick (Robert Thompson- who bears a remarkable resemblance to the US actor Gerrit Graham), described by a doctor as "160 pounds of limp meat hanging off a comatose brain". But Kathy soon discovers that Patrick is fully aware of what is going on around him, & communicates by spitting (once for yes, twice for no). The only problem is Patrick doesn't want the other staff to know he is aware of his surroundings.
To try & prove to her collegues that Patrick can "speak" Kathy has him telepathically type messages on a typewriter, but of course she is unable to use this as proof as well & soon Kathy's friends and family are questioning her sanity. But not for long, as Patrick soon confesses to being in love with Kathy & is not happy to learn she is happily married to Ed (Rod Mulliner).
So from the comfort of his warm, cozy bed the wide-eyed, spitting coma patient uses his powers to murder those close to Kathy, with methods ranging from a messy electrocution to one of the dopiest drowning "deaths" ever caught on film.
PETA will be unimpressed with the scene in which a live frog has a metal rod inserted through its body as part of a medical demonstration. Personally, I'm not sure where I stand on this: the scene didn't bother me, but there's no way I could do a thing like that to a live creature.
While it is mildly watchable, PATRICK doesn't really deliver many genuine chills & thrills, is relatively tame in terms of gore & violence, and isn't terribly memorable. Its still a good movie to watch in the wee hours of the morning if you're suffering from insomnia & need to kill a couple of hours. The only extra on the DVD I watched was the trailer.