Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 20. August 27 1979

Patrick

[ unclear: Patrick]

[ unclear: an] he love?' gasps the publicity. [ unclear: an] he kill?' [ unclear: ly] Kathy knows...

[ unclear: n't] be put off by this second-rate [ unclear: on]. Given the added information that [ unclear: athy] in question is a nurse in a private somewhere in Australia, you'd expect [ unclear: sort] of Mills & Boon-Police Story [ unclear: d]. And how wrong you'd be.

[ unclear: trick] is actually a fine film, a thriller [ unclear: ted] with an intelligence and style that you by surprise I won't beat around bush: this film is based firmly [ unclear: ycbo], via Carrie. There are, in Patrick [ unclear: n] clear allusions on the screen and [ unclear: dtrack] to both these films. But, as was [ unclear: ase] with Carrie, the film is neither [ unclear: ative] nor a cheap rip-off; in drawing [ unclear: stinctive] elements of a previous film, a [ unclear: riginal] has been produced.

[ unclear: try] to be more specific. The film's [ unclear: a] premise is that of Carrie: [ unclear: hokineses], or the (potentially [ unclear: errous]) ability to move objects by [ unclear: al] effort. Around this central idea, [ unclear: klin] had developed a similar structure [ unclear: a]; fairly classical lines within the or/thriller genre: the opening trauma, steadily developing characterisation, rowing threat, the close calls and the [ unclear: X]. And (here the inspiration comes [ unclear: tly] from Carrie), the final sudden [ unclear: ent] of shock outside the narrative [ unclear: e]. Within this structure, a good film will [ unclear: r] time to do a number of other things [ unclear: es]. Psycho and Carrie are models. In [ unclear: s] films, and in Patrick too, it is what [ unclear: irector] does with the essential elements [ unclear: asic] structure of the genre that marks [ unclear: s] difference between film as [ unclear: tainment] and film as art.