Patrick (1978) and unfortunately, Patrick Still Lives (1980)

Recently I watched the Australian horror film ‘Patrick’ (1978) for the first time. All I knew about was it was based around a bed-ridden man who was unable to move, and that he could influence events by the power of his mind.

I started watching and perhaps because I went into it with very little expectations I was pleasantly surprised. It was a nice slow-burn low budget horror film, which was on the whole quite straightforward, with good acting and occasionally character based humorous moments.

We get a good scene of Patrick before his accident at the start and this shows him to be a loathsome fellow. We don’t get to see the incident that makes him bed-ridden. But we get it explained to us when the heroine is introduced that he has been in this state for several years (three I think).

Patrick influences things, and very slowly we see our heroine put two and two together and work out what is happening. We get some great bits with a typewriter that Patrick is trying to communicate through.

I won’t say any more about this film as I don’t want to spoil it, for anyone who hasn’t watched it yet. I won’t do the same for the next film, because you should probably avoid it.