Patrick Still Lives is a 1980 Italian paranormal horror film directed by veteran Mario Landi (Giallo in Venice) from a screenplay by Piero Regnoli (Nightmare City; Malabimba; The Playgirls and the Vampire).
The film –original title:Patrick vive ancora – is an unauthorised sequel of the Australian horror film Patrick (1978).
The Stefano Film production starsSacha Pitoëff, Gianni Dei, Mariangela GiordanoandCarmen Russo
Our review:
Of all the rip-off sequels the Italians have ever quickly rushed into production, this follow-up to Richard Franklin’sPatrick remains the oddest. Sleazier and far more compulsively enjoyable than its somewhat more sombre Australian model, the late Landi’s final work for the big screen is a far cry from the many episodes of Inspector Maigret he directed for TV.
While not as pathologically violent as his previous Giallo a Venezia, there is no shortage of grisly moments, each prefaced by a hilarious pair of staring eyes tackily superimposed onto the print. Villa’s photography is cleanly functional, mixing the occasional high-angled shot with some atmospheric day-for-night exteriors, all filmed at the Villa Parisi in Frascati, the same mansion used in Blood for Dracula andThe Nights of Terror.
As with other Gabriele Crisanti-produced horrors, Patrick vive ancora manages to create an eerie feeling of claustrophobia, effectively enhanced by Berto Pisano’s soundtrack music which mixes a sub-‘Tubular Bells’ melody with doom-laden bass guitar notes, discordant electric piano and the Eno-like synth beeps from the soundtrack of The Nights of Terror.
This cut-price carnage pic also scores heavily in the thespian department: Gianni Dei, who had been the boyfriend of Femi Benussi and the husband of Magda Konopka, and was rumoured to be very well endowed, was a regular face in Z-grade features; Franco Silva has acted in every popular genre the industry had to offer; John Benedy had graduated from tawdry Sixties photo-novels; Paolo Giusti was the handsome hunk in sleaze dramas such as Red Light Girls, andSacha Pitoëff was outrageously slumming it after his work with Resnais and Argento (Inferno).
To ice the casting cake, the movie serves up plenty of gratuitous unclothed scenes featuring Carmen Russo and Anna Veneziano, and the ever-dependable Mariangela Giordano – then producer Gabriele Crisati’s girlfriend. Of her infamously over-the-top death-by-long-poker scene she has said, “It took two days to film that scene, and because the poker had to keep thrusting between my legs before it came out of the top of my head, it got more and more painful as we kept going. And it was cold and freezing. I don’t know why Gabriele insisted on making these movies during winter.” One sequence Giordano remembers with affection, however, is a drunken catfight with busty glamour puss Carmen Russo: “That was fun, all my pent up rage towards Gabriele is in that brawl.” As usual, she wore all of her own outfits too…
Patrick vive ancora may be little more than bottom-of-the-barrel schlock but compared to much of the conveyor belt fodder that gets passed off as A-grade cinema these days, it’s one cheesy little treasure that deserves to be cherished. Viva Patrick!
Mark Thompson-Ashworth, MOVIES & MANIA
Cast and characters:
Sacha Pitoëff … Doctor Herschel – Inferno
Gianni Dei … Patrick Herschel –Giallo in Venice
Mariangela Giordano[as Maria Angela Giordan] … Stella Randolph –Giallo in Venice;The Nights of Terror
Carmen Russo … Cheryl Kraft – Ring of Darkness
Paolo Giusti … David Davis
Franco Silva … Lyndon Kraft
John Benedy … Peter Suniak
Anna Veneziano … Meg
Andrea Belfiore … Lydia Grant
MOVIES & MANIA provides previews of new films, our own movie reviews/ratings, and links to other reviews from trustworthy recommended sources – all in one handy web location. Plus, links to legitimately watch 1000s OF MOVIES FREE ONLINE via platforms such as Amazon Prime, Plex, Roku, Tubi and on YouTube. As an Amazon Associate, we earn a very tiny amount from any qualifying purchases.
