From the box art, I thought this was called Patrick: Evil Awakens. But apparently, it's just Patrick. Which makes more sense... Patrick - although he *is* evil, never really awakens in the film. Or he's never really asleep to begin with. More like in a coma, but still alive. So that's a little misleading. But this Patrick is a remake of 1978's Patrick, so maybe it's just an easy way of differentiating the two. I had heard some good things and loved Sharni Vinson in You're Next, so I had high hopes for this one. But while Patrick has some good performances and some nice visuals/set design, the script is kind of flat and ultimately doesn't have much excitement or anything new to offer.
I haven't seen the original, but from what I can gather it's pretty similar plot-wise. The titular Patrick is a coma patient in a kind of shady, isolated hospital - while there are a half-dozen other comatose patients there, Patrick seems to be the primary focus of Dr. Roget's (Charles Dance) extreme experiments. When one of the nurses goes missing (i.e. is killed in the opening - and probably my favorite - sequence), a new nurse named Kathy (Sharni Vinson) is hired. Kathy forms a connection with Patrick - he can seemingly communicate with her using little muscle movements in his mouth. But Dr. Roget is having none of it, and continues with his "treatment" of Patrick (which is basically just shocking the hell out of him). But Patrick begins to develop not only feelings for Kathy, but also telekinetic powers. Despite being bedridden and comatose, he uses his telekinetic abilities to try and remove the obstacles (i.e. people) keeping him and Kathy from being together.
So basically, Patrick has powers that are *kind of* like a ghost - take him and his hospital bed away and you've essentially got a haunted hospital story. My big issue was that Patrick is just too all powerful... I mean, he's essentially a god in this thing. I'm okay with him being able to move around objects or close doors in the hospital, or even possessing people in his immediate vicinity. But when he can somehow know exactly what's happening the next town over, and manage to possess a guy there to do something crazy (like try to burn his own hands off, for instance), it gets a bit too farfetched for my liking. And he's obviously doing things for the benefit of the viewing audience - he toys with people a little too much. Why mess around with them and then kill them when just killing them would suffice? I mean, I know you have to suspend disbelief and all, but still - even in horror-movie-land something about him and his motivations just don't ring true.
It's also a strangely made/shot film. Parts of Patrick look really great, and others look terrible. Generally speaking, it's interiors vs. exteriors. Whenever they are in the hospital, things look fantastic. Everything looks old and worn enough to be creepy - the overall design and color scheme is really cool and the shots look super crisp. But once you get outside... for some reason, the whole thing looks like it was shot on a green screen. I'm not sure if they needed to CGI in clouds or storms or whatever, but some of the outdoor shots look almost cartoony. Also, there are a few times where things don't even look real - I think they may have used CGI to have a guys foot stepping on a brake in his car? Not sure why you'd do that... and if I'm wrong and it's real-life shot - the lighting is off or something, because it's totally incongruous with the look of the rest of the film. I get that you have to augment things every once and a while, but in Patrick it's noticeable nearly every time a scene takes place outdoors. Also, there are a couple of times when Patrick gets old-style makeup, and it looks really bad. All of the subpar effects work ultimately just took me out of the film even more.
The horror elements aren't anything special - while the hospital looks nice, there really isn't any attempt to create significant tension there. There are a couple of jump scares, and two good scenes in the morgue (including the opening segment, which isn't even Patrick-related), but otherwise it's just Patrick tossing people/things around or possessing people - it's all decently done, but nothing that hasn't been done before. And since I wasn't on board with Patrick's M.O., I was disinterested in most of it anyways.
The acting in the film is probably the highlight. The main cast is all pretty good, but I think the most pleasant surprise was Peta Sergeant as Nurse Williams - she trains in Kathy and is probably the most lively character here. She's really the only character in the film that brings any sort of levity to things - Williams has good comic timing and seems very natural in her delivery. Honestly, with the exception of her scenes most of Patrick is just kind of there, and there isn't much that any actor could do to help that. It's competently done, but has this kind of dull feeling to it, like it's just a retread that doesn't bring anything new to the table. And I say this as having never seen the original.
I would not recommend this film.
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