PATRICK

Young adult Patrick (Richard Thompson) sits in his barren bedroom one evening staring wildly into space. In the room next to him, his mother (Carole-Ann Aylett) indulges in energetic sex with her lover - the headboard of her bed banging repeatedly against poor Patrick's wall.

It's halfway understandable then when he enters the bathroom a short while later as the oldies are enjoying a post-coital soak and electrocutes them.

Fast-forward three years, and Patrick lies comatose in a bed at the mysterious Roget Clinic. The authorities believe he's been left traumatised by witnessing his mother's accidental death and has been incapable of movement since.

Enter pretty nurse Kathy (Susan Penhaligon). She's recently separated from husband Ed (Rod Mullinar) and is looking to get back into the nursing profession she'd abandoned when they first started courting. Her introduction to her new job at the clinic is a typically brusque one from the institute's hard Matron, Cassidy (Julia Blake): she suggests that the only people keen to work there tend to be "lesbians ... enema specialists ... coprophiliacs" and so on.

This isn't enough to daunt the determined Kathy, and so she's swiftly ushered into a private room where Patrick lies alone, hooked up to monitors and staring into his own personal abyss. Told that he is completely unresponsive to the point of being all but dead (one doctor even mutilates a live frog and then sends electric charges through its paralysed torso to prove some point on this matter), Kathy is given the task of overseeing Patrick's basic needs - changing his bedpan when he has a bowel movement, for example.

As Kathy's personal life becomes increasingly complicated with both Ed and new lover Brian (Bruce Barry) vying for her attention, she begins to open up to her motionless, speechless patient. This is when something quite extraordinary occurs: Patrick makes a sharp spitting sound as if in response to her actions.

Unable to coax Patrick into repeating this motion for the benefit of any other witnesses, Kathy soon embarks on a bizarre relationship with him whereby he communicates to her by spitting once for 'yes' and twice for 'no'. Still immobile, still staring vacantly into thin air, Patrick begins to respond accordingly as Kathy gently touches various parts of his body and asks if he can feel her hand. Alas, when she slips it under the bed covers to stroke his penis, she gets caught by Cassidy.

Narrowly escaping dismissal, Kathy's punishment is to continue to tend even more closely to Patrick. In turn, her private life becomes even less settled as those who threaten to take her mind from her day job start experiencing increasingly dangerous mishaps.

Could it be there be some connection between the misfortunes befalling those close to Kathy, and the comatose patient she's beginning to feel a strange psychological bond towards?

Richard Franklin's slow-burning telekinetic shocker was first released in 1978, fitting into a cinematic trend that had started with Brian De Palma's CARRIE a couple of years earlier and continued with the likes of THE MEDUSA TOUCH and THE FURY.

Low-key in terms of action or gore, modern audiences may also find it a little slow and overlong at 112 minutes in length. But PATRICK's charm lies in its subtly nuanced performances, a cheeky perversity that manages to shock through kinky little episodes such as Kathy giving Patrick an erection and the opening gambit of two middle-aged people going at it starkers, and an irresistible aura of the 1970s to it that echoes the films of Peter Walker - albeit this was filmed in Australia.

The FX-laden finale is perhaps a little too much 'of its time' to impress newcomers, but I dare say that when the imminent remake gets released, it won't fare too well when compared against this intelligent, subversive and oddly sexy little original.

Severin Films have now released this Ozploitation classic as a 2-disc blu-ray and DVD combo pack. We were handed a copy of the blu-ray disc for review purposes.

The film looks very good here, presented as an MPEG4-AVC file in full 1080p resolution. The original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 is honoured, and has been enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

What instantly impresses over previous transfers of this film is the cinematic quality. Brighter, cleaner and clearer than before in a new restoration from the original camera negative, PATRICK benefits from a fine layer of grain throughout and an attractively filmic texture which suggests this is as close to a replication of the original theatrical experience that you're ever likely to see.

Blacks hold up with no blocking or noise, but it's the brighter scenes and flesh tones that stand out the most. Colours are vivid, highlighting the stylish lighting more than before. Detail is crisp without undue enhancements having been applied.

English audio is given the 2.0 mono treatment. While some previous releases have contained an ugly American dubbed soundtrack, this blu-ray thankfully restores the original actors' voices - Australian accents and all. What we get is a pleasingly clean and consistent proposition. We also get dubbed mono mixes in Spanish, French and Italian. Although there are no subtitles on the disc, the latter soundtrack may be of interest to viewers as it contains an atmospheric alternate score from none other than The Goblin.

The disc opens to a static main menu page. From there, pop-up menus include a scene selection menu which allows access to PATRICK via 12 chapters.

Extras begin with an archive commentary track from the late Franklin. This also features the odd comment from critic Everett De Roche but the real meat comes from the director, who discusses breezily how he came to the production, working with his talented cast and the pratfalls of filming the elaborate finale on a relatively low budget.

The original American theatrical trailer runs just shy of 2 minutes and is a fun watch. So too are 3 short US TV spots.

A welcome surprise for me was the length of the next bonus feature: extended interviews with cast and crew taken from the "Not Quite Hollywood" documentary on Ozploitation cinema. This is a priceless 61-minute addition to this set, containing great contributions from Franklin, Penhaligon, producer Antony Ginnane and more. They discuss the film's making and appeal, as well as the state of the Australian film industry at the time.

We also get a good 20-minute interview with Franklin which was recorded for TV during promotion of his film ROAD GAMES and is sourced from video here. It's another fine listen.

The disc is region free, as is the DVD which also completes this set. Of the DVD, I believe it holds all of the same features but was not available to review.

PATRICK is an unusual proposition, stylish and subversive but slow and reluctant to wallow in the explicit violence that was popular in horror films if its time. It remains quite an original film, and now more than ever - in light of the forthcoming remake - it deserves to be remembered with appropriate fondness.

Severin's excellent blu-ray ensures we're able to do just that.

By Stuart Willis