When the story begins, you see a flashback scene. Patrick's mother and her lover are bathing together...when you see Patrick kill them. The story then jumps ahead three years and you see a nurse, Kathy, applying for a job at a long-term care center. She's assigned to work with Patrick, who now appears to be in a persistent vegetative state (I hate that term but couldn't find another one that fit). He spends every moment of every day staring, unblinking, into space and with no responses whatsoever. According to doctors, he's essentially dead...kept alive by machines and with no hope of change. But over time, Kathy starts to think that perhaps Patrick has some cortex activity....and soon weird things start happening....possibly caused by Patrick's mind. What's next? See this film to find out for yourself....but it's really bad and violent stuff, that's for sure!!

It's unfortunate that the print I found of this film was so very dark and in need of restoration. It's so dark much of the action is hard to see clearly. I hope that if you decide to see it that the copy you find of this Australian film is better than the one I found on the Roku.

I did enjoy watching "Patrick" and think it's worth seeing. It has a very creepy mood and they did a lot with a very small budget. I should point out, however, that the original version of the movie was much longer and it was severely cut down without the director's permission. But according to IMDB, this truncated version is the only one now available.

In Patrick, nurse Susan Penhaligon's job description is just that. She's put in charge of the care of a comatose patient named Patrick who is surviving on life support. Terri Schiavo was hale and hearty next to him.

But what the people in charge don't know, but Susan Penhaligon comes to suspect is that while Patrick's other senses are shutting down, he's developing that sixth sense, Extra Sensory Perception. Things start going bump in the night around Patrick. But worse than that Patrick can still feel and he's falling in love with Penhaligon. And he's a guy who tolerates no rivals around especially Rod Mullinar who is Penhaligon's estranged husband.

Patrick is a low budget Australian horror film that was shot in and around Melbourne with an Aussie cast. A few more production values could have helped, but the players are fine. Pay particular note to Julia Blake who plays the matron in charge of the hospice who hires Penhaligon against her will. Her character is a ripoff of the infamous Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

It's probably not fair to judge Patrick by USA film standards, the Aussie film industry was just coming into its own in the Seventies. Patrick did get nominated for their version of the Oscar. Still it could have used a little more polish.

A gorgeous slice of Ozploitation that is extremely well made, acted and written. A young man named Patrick is in a coma after killing his parents three years earlier. A new nurse named Kathie has been assigned to tend to him and they strike up a relationship through a typewriter that Patrick can telekinetically control and through the only bodily function that Patrick can control- his ability to spit (one for yes, two for no). Strange things start to happen in Kathie's life regarding the husband shes recently separated from and the doctor shes just started seeing. Could Patrick be responsible?

I love a movie in which the lead character is in a coma but strangely gives a great performance in that state. In fact all of the cast are great and if you're a fan of Australian TV then you should be able to recognise most of the actors. I recognised the actors who played Captain Barton the Salvo Army man, Evelyn Randell and Irene Zervos from Prisoner Cell Block H.

The setting of the sinister hospital wouldn't be out of place in an early Cronenberg film. The building seems to constitute another character in this film and a very foreboding one.

This is a favourite film of Quentin Tarantino, fact fans.