6.9 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 1.5 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
A bedridden psycho is able to receive evil "vibrations" from hardened criminals and use them for his telekinetic powers.
Starring: Sacha Pitoeff, Gianni Dei, Mariangela Giordano, Paolo Giusti, Franco SilvaHorror | 100% |
Erotic | 17% |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 1.5 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 1.5 |
Patrick Still Lives is one of those films where you understandably may not have even one clue as to what’s going on at times, but where women just trotting around a massive estate without any tops on may distract you long enough so that you won’t really care. It may be salient to note that I frankly didn’t even remember I had reviewed Severin Films’ now long ago release of the 1978 Australian horror feature Patrick until I started doing background research for writing this review, which is for a film which is an “unauthorized” sequel that really bears no connection to the first film other than it, too, features a patient named Patrick (played here by Gianni Dei) who is in a coma but who still has a “particular set of skills” that allow him to control things via telekinesis, which in turn leads to a series of pretty spectacularly graphic killings. My Patrick Blu-ray review gets into some of the connections between that film, its director Richard Franklin, and the venerable Hitchcock masterpiece Psycho, but suffice it to say there are absolutely no connections to any iconic films in Patrick Still Lives, and, as noted above, there’s virtually no connection to Patrick. Instead this film begins with a very brief vignette showing Patrick and his father Dr. Herschel (Sacha Pitoëff) stranded by the side of the road after their car has broken down. Dr. Herschel says they’ll just have to wait for someone to drive by who can offer help, and then just like clockwork, a car does appear, but instead of helping, they throw something at Patrick. I initially was not quite sure what it was supposed to be — I thought for a moment it might have been acid in a bottle, since his entire face is suddenly bloody and he's clawing at his eyes, but since Patrick’s face is unscarred later, I guess maybe it was just the blunt bottle that did the "damage". Patrick ends up in a coma and is kept in a kind of secret lair by Dr. Herschel. One of the first questions which may arise in more inquiring minds is what the three other comatose people in a kind of anteroom are doing, but luckily (?), one of them is a topless woman (albeit of the more aged variety than is otherwise seen in the film), so maybe there will be enough distraction there to keep the wondering to a minimum.
Patrick Still Lives is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.66:1. The presentation begins with the following brief disclaimer (which can also be seen in screenshot 19):
The following scan of Patrick Still Lives is from the original 16mm camera negative. There is some discoloration in some scenes due to damage in the element but this hopefully not mar your enjoyment of this audacious filmic experience.The back cover of this release further discloses that the scan was in 2K. While there is some rather minor but noticeable fluctuation in color temperature, especially in the first few minutes of the film, on the whole the palette here is really rather nicely suffused. Both the garish greens of the weird anteroom with the three other comatose patients as well as later purple lit moments and a lot of the outdoor material pop surprisingly well, given the overall lo-fi ambience of the film. There is some minor damage to be spotted along the way, and a few scenes, notably some of the darkest material, can verge on a noisy quality. Grain is understandably thick a lot of the time and frequently has a yellowish cast. My score is 3.75.
Patrick Still Lives features a nice sounding DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original Italian, with optional English subtitles. This is another looped film where "sync can be loose", as they say, but in terms of fidelity, things are really rather spry sounding, beginning with Berto Pisano's theme, which sounds like a harpsichord version of Mike Oldfield's iconic "Tubular Bells" from The Exorcist. Some of the other cues are decidedly more (supposedly) funky, but sound fine. Dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout and there are no major signs of age related wear and tear.
It would seem that those involved with the original Patrick evidently couldn't have cared less about this enterprise, given that I didn't find any record of controversy and certainly no legal action based on an inappropriate purloining of an idea and even a titular character name. The original Patrick at least had a bit of subtext going for it, and Franklin's long love for Hitchcock at least intermittently shone through, but this film has little to recommend it other than some kind of funny toplessness and a few extremely graphic moments of supposed genital mutilation. Technical merits are generally solid, and the interview with Dei is fun, for those who are considering a purchase.
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