Horror Movie Review: The 11th Patient (2019)

Shelly Cole, Steven Cole, Liesel Kopp and Andy Gates star in The 11th Patient, on DVD and Digital now from Uncork’d Entertainment.

Directed by Derek Cole and written by Derek and Steven Cole. The 11th Patient has some inventive ideas and will hold most watchers attentions as it delves deeply into psychological horror.

The story surrounds a teenage boy called Steven (Steven Cole) who was kidnapped months ago. Having escaped, the boy fell into a coma and was found deep in the woods. His mother takes him to a doctor who specialises in helping PTSD patients. The plan being for the doctor to try and get through to Steven. To not only bring him out of the coma but to catch the man responsible who has been connected with more missing people.

Taking place mostly within the dream state of Steven’s mind, The 11th Patient is very other-worldly. The dreamlike visuals, sound effects and score result in a thrilling and interesting watch. It’s not clear from the start that what we’re seeing is all in Steven’s mind. Yet there is a constant nagging feeling that it isn’t reality.

Once that is revealed, it all begins to fall into place and makes some of the more random plot moments make sense. Almost nothing is known about Steven and he says even less, yet through the decent acting he conveys a lot. Trapped within his own mind, being hunted by his captor, the story could have fallen into slasher movie territory but happily it avoids that.

All of this done on quite a limited budget. We’ve seen horror movies with millions put into them and not be as intriguing as this.

With that in mind, it’s important to remember that this is a psychological horror. One that subverts expectations and creates a fair amount of tension with the odd decent scare too.