Patrick Still Lives (1980)

(Original Title: Patrick Vive Ancora) Director: Mario Landi. Supposedly a sequel to the Australian film Patrick (1980), but bears little resemblance and is more of a stand-alone feature.

A couple of con artists, Stella (Mariangela Giordano) and Peter (John Benedy), arrive at the Herschel Wellness Resort. They're a couple of con artists. Dr. Herschel's assistant, Lydia (Andrea Belfiore), greets them and shows them to their room.

Dr. Herschel (Sacha Pitoëff) attends to his vegetable son Patrick (Gianni Dei).

Stella sunbathes topless by the pool with Peter. They check out the other couple staying at the resort.

Cheryl (Carmen Russo) and Lyndon Kraft (Franco Silva) a powerful politician; she's an ex-prostitute who helped him climb the political ladder via blackmail.

Lydia receives instructions to come see Dr. Herschel.

But she is stopped dead in her tracks by a pair of ghostly eyes which hypnotize her.

Back in her room, Cheryl checks herself out in the mirror.

Lyndon scolds and insults Cheryl. He asks if her "brain is fried."

Cheryl explains that they've received a letter from a mysterious blackmailer who seems to know about their relationship and checkered past. Cheryl suggests they pay up to avoid the scandal.

They wonder why the blackmailer would invite them to this resort. Cheryl says that if the blackmailer is a man, she can handle him.

Lyndon smacks her across the face then leaves.

Meg (Anna Bruna Cazzato) the maid is tending to the dogs when they bark as a stranger approaches.

The stranger is David Davis (Paolo Giusti) a guest at the resort. Meg says that he should leave this place. There's something bad going on around here.

Dr. Herschel invites everyone for dinner.

Cheryl and Lyndon let Dr. Herschel know they are not here for wellness therapy. They just came for some peace and quiet. (Of course, we know they are really here at the request of the blackmailer.)

Stella also insists that she's in good health.

Lyndon and Cheryl step away from the dinner. He suspects one of the guests at the table is the blackmailer - and thinks he's also carrying a gun!

Cheryl lets her dress fall, revealing nothing underneath.

Lyndon rejects her advances. The couple no longer sleep together, and do not get along.

Lydia reaches for a glass by her bedside and it shatters.

As if sleepwalking, Lydia is compelled to walk to Patrick's room.

Lydia snaps out of it and runs back to her room.

In the morning, Stella goes for a swim.

She's startled to find the grisly remains of Lyndon who has somehow been boiled alive in the pool.

The guests gather at the scene and try to make sense of what happened. Cheryl is naturally traumatized. She's led back to her room.

Sedated, Cheryl is asleep in her bed as someone creeps up behind her.

We see that the intruder is actually Peter.

He proceeds to snoop around her room, rummaging through the drawers. Then he leaves as quietly as he came.

Lydia is once again hypnotized by Patrick and compelled to go to his room.

Patrick uses his telekinesis to pull up Lydia's dress.

Lydia gets upset and storms out.

At dinner, Stella enters the room hammered drunk. She carries a bottle of J&B Scotch and talks smack.

She saunters up to Peter and opens up her robe.

Peter tries to preserve her modesty by closing her robe, but Stella won't let him.

Cheryl recommends Stella get a hold of her self and return to her room.

Stella calls her a bitch and lets the cat out of the bag - she knows that everyone here has received a mysterious blackmail letter calling them to this location.

Stella and Cheryl get into a vicious cat fight. David pulls off Cheryl.

Peter restrains Stella on the chair.

He then manages to pull her back to the bedroom.

Peter pours her bottle of Scotch down the drain.

Stella undresses.

Peter recommends she get a good night's sleep. Stella asks if he'll keep her company. He replies,"I usually have sex with women, not whiskey bottles."

She accuses him of lusting after Cheryl.

As she gets into the bath, Stella tells Peter that the drugs have turned him into a faggot. To which he replies, "You'll die alone." This makes Stella cry and he leaves.

Stella decides to flirt with David as he's playing with Tarot cards.

She lays it on thick (clearly still blackout drunk), but David is not interested.

Stella simply can't take any more rejection and berates and slaps David.

David smacks Stella to the floor and proceeds to beat the crap out of her - while she laughs like a lunatic (and not wearing panties).

David leaves and threatens to kill her if she's still here when he gets back. Stella collapses at the foot of the bed with her Scotch. It's been a bad night for her.

But the evening is only going to get worse for Stella. She staggers drunkenly around the grounds and comes upon a horrific sight.

She sees that David has killed himself, and she goes running frantically across the yard. David was compelled by Patrick's psychic powers to take his own life.

Wearing only a soaking wet robe with nothing underneath, Stella seeks saftey in the kitchen.

The lights go out and Stella's legs are forced open by some unseen power. A levitating fire poker is pointed at her crotch.

In a particularly gruesome moment, the poker actually penetrates (or impales) Stella.

Cheryl, Lydia and Peter come in and are naturally horrified by the sight.

Cheryl becomes hysterical. Herschel instructs Lydia and Meg to take her to her room.

Later that night Lydia is once again put under a spell by Patrick's psychic powers and compelled to walk to his room.

Once in the room, Patrick has her under is spell completely and has her drop her nightgown.

Lydia stands in front of the window to the adjacent room containing additional patients in a similar vegetative state.

Lydia moves to Patrick's bedside.

Driven to ecstacy Lydia molests the bed frame.

Lydia, done with the bed frame, saunters over to the sofa.

Lydia commences to pleasure herself.

Lydia finally snaps out of it and runs to her room sobbing.

Cheryl tries to escape in a car, but is killed when a window rolls up on her throat (via Patrick's psychic powers) and decapitates her. Peter is next to die when toxic fumes engulf the car.

Meg is awakened when her bedside lamp flickers on and off.

Meg has herself a drink.

As if in a daze, Meg wanders around the mansion with her robe wide open.

Meg hears her beloved German Shepherds barking - and it sounds like they are coming for her.

Meg hides in a supply room and bars the door. But the dogs bust it down and eat her alive.

We find that Herschel is behind all this, wanting to use his son's powers for revenge. Herschel dies and it ends with Lydia returning to Patrick. THE END

VZ6 SCORECARD

Perhaps the craziest thing about this movie is that it's a sequel to Patrick (1980), a film which is nothing like this, with little to no sleaze.  This film goes full Leroy Jenkins with its gore and nudity; just zero fucks given. If you're in the mood for a crazy as hell, batshit insane Italian shitshow, this is about as good as it gets.

Anna Bruna Cazzato has an amazingly long FFN scene.  Starting from she gets out of bed until she's attacked by dogs, Cazzato has her bush on full display.  We watch her wander through the house for a long time with the camera learing at her open robe.  Pretty impressive.  Cazzato was in only one other film, Blow Job, which came out this same year and (despite the title) is not a hardcore film.

Andrea Belfiore provides an incredible scene where she's hypnotically compelled to disrobe, mount a bedframe, and then masturbate.  The scene involves some extremely close-up shots of her crotch. Belfiore was Playmate of the Month for Italian Playboy the year this film came out.  This was her first film - her next picture was Blow Job (which also starred Meg the maid in this film).  Belfiore did a number of exploitation films after this one, and oddly enough became a successful DJ starting in 2003.

Carmen Russo was Miss Teenage Italy 1972, and provides just gobs of cleavage in this film, plus a nice FFN nude scehe at the mirror (then later sleeping in the bed).  Starting in the mid-seventies Russo was in a ton of great Italian exploitation films all the way up until the early eighties when she switched to TV for a few years.

Mariangela Giordano's career trajectory has always baffled me.  She had a pretty family friendly filmography starting as far back as the mid 1950s, with an impressive resume even before the seventies started.  Then something happend and this lady, aready in her forties (!) just gets down and dirty in some of the sleaziest scenes you'll ever witness in Italian cinema.  In this film she gets drunk and undresses - and literally doesn't appear completely dressed for the next thirty minutes as she comes on to Peter and David.  Her death scene is incomprehensibly graphic as a fire poker penetrates her.  Although we don't quite get a real hardcore view, it certainly comes close.  Not sure what happened which made this successful G-rated actress suddenly go all in with Italian exploiation, but I'm glad she did.

While this film is so dumb you can literally feel yourself getting stupider watching it, I still have an appreciation for this balls to the wall approach to exploitation.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ 9/10