Patrick, a 1978 horror film from Australia, opens with the title character (played by Robert Thompson) watching as his mother makes love to her boyfriend.  The first thing that we notice about Patrick is his stare.  It’s intense and more than a little unsettling.  (Actually, to be honest, the first thing we notice about Patrick is his head of blonde hair.  But that stare is a close second.)  The next thing that we notice about Patrick is that he doesn’t speak.  Instead, he just stares.  Eventually, when his mother and her boyfriend are taking a bath, Patrick drops a heater into the water and electrocutes both of them.

Yes, Patrick has some issues.

When we next meet Patrick, three years have passed.  He’s in a coma now and spends all of his time laying in a bed in a private hospital.  Everyone says that he’s brain dead, despite the fact that he still reflexively spits.  The head nurse, the bitter Matron Cassidy (Julia Blake), hates the fact that Patrick is being kept alive.  As she tells a new nurse, she feels that he is a waste of space and she wishes that she could just turn off the machines that are keeping Patrick alive.

Strangely, Patrick shows no physical signs of having been in a coma for three years.  (One doctor points out that Patrick hasn’t even lost any weight during his time in the hospital.)  And then, there’s the fact that Patrick’s eyes are always open.  Even in a coma, he has the same intense stare.

An idealistic new nurse named Kathie (Susan Penhaligon) takes an interest in Patrick.  Over the objections of Matron Cassidy, Katie tries to talk to Patrick.  Kathie becomes convinced that Patrick’s spitting is not merely a reflex action but it’s actually his attempt to communicate.  Kathie becomes obsessed with proving the Patrick can still respond to the outside world.

And, in any other film, this is the type of storyline that would ultimately lead to a very inspiring conclusion, in which the idealistic nurse’s faith is validated and the stricken patient is finally allowed to find a measure of happiness and dignity.

However, Patrick is a horror film.

Kathie does eventually discover that Patrick can see and hear.  Patrick does know what’s going on in the outside world.  But what Kathie doesn’t expect is that Patrick turns out to be a bit of an obsessively jealous pervert.  Also, it turns out that Patrick has the power of telekinesis.  Soon, he’s using a typewriter to send Kathie messages like, “It’s time for Patrick’s handjob.”

Patrick also uses his powers to punish any man who he feels is getting too close to Kathie.  This includes Kathie’s husband, Ed (Rod Mullinar).  First, Patrick causes Ed to seriously burn his hands on a hot casserole dish.  Then he traps Ed in an elevator, forcing Kathie to beg for her husband’s life.

Patrick is a surprisingly well-acted and effective little horror film, one that spends as much time on maintaining the proper melancholy atmosphere as it does on trying to shock the audience.  The end result is an intelligent little gem that will make you think even as it attempts to scare you.  That said, my main memory of Patrick will always be that stare.  Seriously, it was so creepy!

A remake was released in 2013 but I have yet to see it.  However, I have seen the film’s unofficial Italian sequel and that’s what I’ll be reviewing next!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jb0yab5GpU