Not Patrick: Psychic Killer

Well, it's MUCH better than Patrick Still Lives.  I'll admit it- I still feel stupid about that movie.  For you newer readers, here's the short version: I thought that I had found a sequel to 1975's Patrick, but it was actually Italian Remake-sploitation.  They use the same basic premise, but make it Ten Little Indians-style about 'Patrick' killing people with silly powers like psychically-heating up a pool.  To be fair, it's so stupid that it's funny as hell!  With that bad memory, I was wary of today's movie- Psychic Killer.  Well, much to my surprise, it's not that bad.  It's not that great either, but it is much better than the previous film mentioned. A man gets psychic powers, so he decides to get revenge in roughly a 72-hour time-span.  You're new to this whole 'crime thing' for someone who was in Prison!  It's like Patrick meets The Abominable Dr. Phibes (which was made around the same time)!  To find out why this movie succeeds and fails, read on...

Our hero has a major freak-out in the intro.  What does this have to do with anything?  Nothing.  Moving on...

After having one conversation with a black inmate about being wrongfully-convicted, the man uses his voodoo powers to kill a pimp and transfers his powers to our hero in death.

He is set free when a man says that he committed the crime and...I realize that it doesn't really work that way.  It might have in the '70s, but whatever.

Back at home (which he still owns?), he learns about how his powers work.  Revenge time!

His first kill involves making a cheating psychiatrist hear voices, wander outside and...apparently snapping his neck.  If you could figure that out from just what they showed, congratulations.

Another- the Nurse that abandoned his mother- is killed when he turns the shower really hot and she crashes herself through the glass doors.  He didn't make her do that, mind you, but...murder, I guess.

What is it with Patrick films and water attacks?  There's the pool scene from Patrick, this one and the super-heated pool from Patrick Still Lives.  Weird, right?

In another kill, he takes out the dubious cop who got him arrested by making his gas pedal stay down.  Apparently the idea of just blocking the pedal with his foot never occurred to him...so he dies.

Since our hero is obviously tied to the people killed, he's the main suspect.  This makes our Non-Trout-Cop call in his Therapist...who says that she drove 300 miles to get there.  How far away was the Prison again?

By the way, this lead to a romance angle.  Dull surprise.

The pair join forces with a guy who basically says that 'the mind can do anything.'  He's a Doctor, by the way.  Thanks, '70s.

How will they defeat this all-powerful psychic?

It's simple- they rush his comatose body to be cremated, burning him alive.  That's...dark.  The End.

Better late than never.  This film is both easy to recommend and hard to recommend.  I like to begin these summaries in a confusing manner- just to trick you into continuing to read.  This movie has some good, silly moments that make it an easy recommendation.  Whether it's the shower kill (with nudity to boot) or the guy crushed by a giant stone while singing opera into a tape recorder, this movie has some amusing moments.  On the other hand, the pacing is really weird and the story is not that great.  It's taken very seriously, which is a nice juxtaposition to the silly bits.  The ending, therefore, comes off as really dark and twisted.  It's a pretty logical conclusion, but it still comes out of nowhere tone-wise.  In summary, this is a neat, rare flick to track down if you're into that kind of thing.  As a whole, it's odd in both pacing and tone.  Sorry to drop a non-committal brick on your head like that...

Next up, a week full of Seagal films.  I'm a glutton for punishment- which is why I'm covering The Foreigner. Stay tuned...