When the lead character lies comatose in a hospital bed for almost the entire movie, utters not one word, but spits and is able to create havoc with his mind, you better ensure he’s surrounded by believable characters and that the plot at least makes an attempt at being realistic. Alas, Patrick might make you wish this fellow was put out of his misery in the first reel.
We learn before the opening credits that Patrick (Robert Thompson) somehow suffered brain damage after showing his disapproval of his mother and her lover by dropping an electric heater into their bath. Inexplicably, Patrick is kept on life support, evidently at taxpayers’ expense, at a clinic run by the evil Dr Roget (Robert Helpmann, woefully miscast).
Three years on, he’s cared for by new nurse Kathy (Susan Penhaligon), who’s just separated from her husband Ed (Rod Mullinar, playing such a nice guy you wonder why she left him). Patrick quickly takes a shine to Kathy, which we know because he gets an erection while she’s testing his reactions. Jealous of Kathy’s husband and her new neurologist boyfriend Brian (Bruce Barry), and correctly fearing that the fierce matron (Julia Blake) and mad Dr Roger finally believe he’s a strong case for euthanasia, Patrick’s mind wreaks revenge.
Apart from some blather about the powers of psychokinesis, none of this makes the slightest bit of sense. Nor, thanks to director Richard Franklin and screenwriter Everett De Roche, is there any tension or surprises in the build-up to the predictable climax.
Penhaligon is a capable actress, as she proved in TV’s excellent Bouquet of Barbed Wire. Why she got involved in this Aussie misadventure is a puzzle.
