Movie Review: Patient 62 (2016)

Who remembers a movie called Scanners (1981), which was about people with telekinetic and telepathic powers? If you don't, no stress, it's an old film sci-fi film from back in the day. The only reason I even started thing about Scanners was that I screened the film Patient 62 recently and it had a cool Scanners vibe to it. Patient 62 is a sci-fi/thriller about a man getting telekinetic powers through a drug and what he does with those powers to serve up some justice.

Patient 62 was written by Rick Anthony and here's what it's about. During a conversation with his mother, Lucas finds out his sister Angela has gone missing. Since Lucas isn't on the best of terms with his sister he writes it off to Angela has gone off to party somewhere and she'll be back. Lucas's mother doesn't think that's true because she's been having the same nightmare again and again about
Angela being abducted. So, Lucas tells his mom he'll look into it for her. On a hunch, Lucas follows a couple of guys leaving the strip club Angela worked at and ends up witnessing the murder of a chemist. As Lucas is looking for clues to figure out if there's a connection between the chemist and his sister, Lucas is exposed to an unknown substance the chemist was working on. Lucas quickly realizes that the substance from the chemist has given him telekinetic powers. As Lucas fights to get his new found powers under control, he sets out to find his sister and stop the people that took her from hurting anyone else.


The story that Rick Anthony came up with is a fast paced sci-fi/thriller. Anthony doesn't really waste any screen time when it comes to telling the story. Between dialogue and visuals, Anthony is constantly pushing the story forward while keeping things interesting. What I liked about the story is you get character backstory, a solid antagonist, and a good storyline that nicely wraps everything up before the credits hit.

As far as the playthrough goes, I liked how everything turned out. One of the few things I didn't like about the movie was the running time, it wasn't long enough. I was really enjoying the movie and before I knew it, it was over. Now, I know an hour and twenty-one minutes seems like a long time, but Patient 62 has a lot going on in the movie and at times things felt a bit rushed. There were a few spots in the movie I would've liked to have seen more of, especially after Lucas got his powers. The movie has a good steady pace to it and plenty of either story or action to keep you entertained.

Some of the faces you'll see are Rece Wagner as Lucas Chance, Anna Seibel as Angela Chance, Andrew Valdez as Dennis Lexington, Chrissy Mozylisky as Twitch, Tyler W. Toppings as Rick Ethan, Glenn LaPointe as Kelly Ethan, Roman Corkery as Herbert and Aubree Erickson as Dr. Carlson. Ok, so this is might sound weird, but I liked the "bad guys" the most in the movie. Glenn LaPointe was one of my favorite actors in the movie. LaPointe's character is seriously twisted and you're supposed to hate him, but there are moments where his character seems almost normal and you (kind of) feel bad for him. LaPointe's delivery of the character throughout the movie has a mix of twisted, vile, and sometimes even moments of humor that grab the spot light when he's around. Roman Corkey was another favorite of mine. Corkery doesn't have a lot of lines, but his delivery and presence added to every scene he was in. I thought Rece Wagner was a good choice for the lead and he did a good job.


The special effects aren't great, but it's a low budget movie and I think they did well with what they had. As far as the makeup effects go, I thought they did a killer job, there's a couple of scenes that really show some skills.

In today's times, every movie has a franchise or sequel already in the works and I'm getting a bit burned out on all that, but I wouldn't mind seeing where Anthony took this one if he did do another movie.

Overall, if you've got the time and you're in a sci-fi mood, then Patient 62 is worth the watch.

3 stars


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