Patrick 1978

Patrick [Robert Thompson] lies in a coma three years after the chilling incident that ended his parents’ lives, recovering at the Roget Clinic, a private hospital tucked into Melbourne’s medical landscape. The clinic is run with clinical efficiency by Matron Cassidy [Julia Blake], whose steady presence anchors the ward even as shadows of doubt creep in. Kathy Jacquard [Susan Penhaligon], recently hired as Patrick’s nurse after a tense interview, finds herself navigating a fragile balance between care and wonder. The hospital’s enigmatic owner, Dr. Roget [Robert Helpmann], explains Patrick’s condition in philosophical terms, suggesting that the living and the dead are being watched through the life of a patient kept alive to probe the boundaries of existence. The quiet is broken by whispers of Captain Fraser [Walter Pym], another patient who claims Patrick “flies in and out of the window at night,” a notion that unsettles everyone in the white-walled corridors.

Behind the antiseptic hush, Patrick reveals powers that defy explanation. He demonstrates psychokinetic abilities, moving objects when Cassidy is present and even attempting to drown Dr. Wright [Bruce Barry] at a pool party, a grim test of control and intention. Kathy, drawn to understand the strange tide of Patrick’s consciousness, finds herself involuntarily drawn into his subtle form of communication. At first, it seems he can reach her through a strange, almost ritualistic spitting, and then, with a grim finality, Patrick uses the room’s typewriter to spell out his name, a bold message that suggests a will that refuses to be quiet. The moment becomes more unsettling when Kathy discovers that Patrick is trying to “speak” through the very act of writing; the word SECRET appears after the room has been left, a clue that invites deeper scrutiny rather than simple fear.

The personal is never far from the professional at Roget Clinic. Kathy returns to her apartment to find it rummaged through, a sign that Patrick’s reach extends beyond his room. Ed Jacquard [Rod Mullinar], her ex-husband, is a source of tension and concern, even as he maintains he’s unrelated to the hospital’s odd disturbances. The hospital’s quiet descent into the uncanny continues as Patrick’s manipulation grows bolder: he channels his powers through Kathy to push a lewd message, and even to perform an algebraic calculation on the typewriter that she cannot decipher. The power dynamics intensify when Ed, drawn into the hospital’s orbit by Patrick’s influence, is lured into a broken lift and trapped inside, an ominous reminder of how Patrick’s reach can trap the living in his gravity.

Kathy’s suspicions about Patrick intensify as she and Brian Wright [Bruce Barry] seek legitimate avenues to test and understand his abilities. Cassidy, wary of the implications of such theories, warns Kathy against entertaining the idea of a conscious life beyond Patrick’s coma. Yet Roget—occupying a position of authority—orders treatment that heightens the tension, including a round of electroconvulsive therapy that becomes a dramatic focal point when Patrick uses the situation to convey that the hospital staff are trying to kill him. The nocturnal search for truth leads Kathy and Brian to the hospital after dark, where they encounter the dangers and temptations of meddling with forces they barely comprehend. Patrick, in a final, chilling act, compels Cassidy to return to the hospital and uses strobe lights to destabilize the environment. In a fateful turn, he possesses Cassidy and drives her to a fatal, electrical end in the basement, a moment that casts a long shadow over the investigation and leaves a frightened nurse staring down a doorway.

The investigation grinds forward, and Detective Sergeant Grant [not linked here] is drawn into the case, pressed to consider the possibility that Patrick’s abilities are more than mere superstition. Kathy, insisting on the truth, presses Grant to listen to Brian’s scientific perspective, only to have both men discount her claims that Patrick murdered the matron. The crisis widens when Ed disappears from the hospital’s orbit, a disappearance that becomes a thread the investigators cannot ignore. A confrontation follows: Patrick uses his powers to attack Roget when Roget attempts to administer a lethal potassium chloride injection, forcing Kathy to make an agonizing choice. The scene culminates in a desperate moment where Kathy must decide whether to inject Patrick or let Ed die. She chooses to act, and Ed arrives just in time to interrupt the procedure and save her. Patrick appears to flatline, only to leap back to life in a display that suggests a motor reflex rather than a final end. As Kathy closes Patrick’s eyes and leaves the room, Roget interprets the resurgence as a sign that the power remains, lingering in the clinic’s sterile air, waiting for the next breath to be drawn.