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Released by: Synapse Films
Released on: 10/28/2008
Director: Richard Franklin
Cast: Susan Penhaligon, Robert Helpmann, Rod Mullinar, Bruce Barry, Julia Blake, Robert Thompson
Year: 1978
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The Movie:
Patrick is the story of a young man who, after killing his mother and her lover, falls into a coma and spends the rest of his days in a small, secluded hospital. When an attractive new nurse who's fresh out of some marital problems and in dire need of a job is hired to work at the hospital he's staying at comes on the scene, Patrick starts communicating with her using his 'sixth sense' by moving objects around the room and leaving her messages on the type writer.
This leads to problems, however, as Patrick starts to feel for the nurse, who's in the middle of some domestic problems her self as she tries to figure out if she should go for the hunky and rich doctor or try and reconcile things with her ex husband.
And then there's the doctor in charge of the hospital. This cold and clinical man has no interest in preserving Patrick's life or trying to foster any communication with him and only wants to pull the plug on him to save the hospital some money and get him out of his hospital.
When things get complicated, and somewhat creepy, when Patrick's feelings for the nurse begin to manifest in an increasingly violent manner and people start turning up dead.
While it's slightly derivative of Brian De Palma's Carrie, Patrick manages to be much more than just a clone of the 1976 film. Sure, they obviously share a few themes and ideas, but Patrick's setting and characterizations set it apart from DePalma's faster paced and more horrifying earlier effort.
It's also much slower in it's pacing as well. The movie doesn't really pick up until the last 40 minutes or so, and spends its opening half carefully and deliberately building itself up. Short on gore (despite the claims in the back cover) but high on suspense, the Hitchcockian influence is apparent and Patrick should please most fans of the genre. It's well made and well acted and even if it does seem a little slow in spots, ultimately it delivers some quality weirdness.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Synapse's 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is pretty solid with a mild coat of visible film grain though with very little print damage evident. Colors are look nice and realistic and are nicely reproduced on this disc. The previous Elite DVD release as non-anamorphic and it's nice to see that this new transfer corrects that problem and that it results in a stronger picture because of it.
Viewers are given the choice of watching the film in English or dubbed in French or Spanish. As with the Elite release, the alternate Italian language track (which included the Goblin score) is sadly nowhere to be seen. Overall, the audio is fine, however. The score sounds good, the levels are well balanced and the track is clean and crisp sounding.
First off are a couple of trailers for the film, which do a good job of promoting the movie without any spoilers. A trio of television spots for the feature is also included.
The main extra though is a feature length commentary with director Richard Franklin. It's mostly a technical commentary so those interested in the behind the camera activities that go into making a movie like this will find much to like. Franklin also shares some amusing stories about people he's worked with on various projects. Overall, it's a very solid commentary that's worth a listen for fans of the movie. Worth noting, however, is that roughly half way through the film there is an audio taped segment with Everett De Roche. While it's not uninteresting to hear his thoughts, it seems somewhat out of place in between the two segments with the director and the sound quality isn't quite as good as the rest of the commentary. It's a minor complaint, however, and again it doesn't really take anything away from the track. Animated menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
Patrick is a well crafted thriller is given a pretty spiffy re-release from Synapse that trumps the previous Elite release with an improved transfer without sacrificing any of the extras from the out of print disc.