[unclear: Patrick]

[unclear: cted] by Richard Franklin [unclear: es].

[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.