Many movies start with attention-grabbing openings. Australian director Richard Franklin’s Patrick (1978) is one of them. It opens with a mentally unwell young man, Patrick (Robert Thompson), turning on his parents and killing them. Three years later, the same Patrick is shown comatose in Room 15 of a private clinic where a new nurse Kathy (Susan Penhaligon) is assigned to care for him. Before long, Kathy starts suspecting that Patrick is not only alive but also aware of the world around him. And in time, she will learn that Patrick has developed a fixation on her and can get violent.

Sci-fi, horror, thriller, and drama – Patrick is a fine blend of all these genres with the chills and thrills one likes in any good horror thriller. The sci-fi part of the story is limited to the psyc...

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