Killer Instinct (1988)

Plot Summary

A moving and compelling story about a troubled man and his professional carers. An idealistic psychiatrist battles hospital bureaucracy, the law and ignorance in order to give her patients the critical care and treatment they deserve. The most desperate of her patients is Freddie, a tortured young man whose shattered past has set him on a deadly path of violence and anger. Hampered at every turn by an oppressive system, Dr Lisa DaVito's only ally is the hospital's legal services counsellor, Charlie Long, and together they struggle to save Freddie from his dark impulses and an overburdened system that sees him as just another case. In the end, one tragic incident seals Freddie's fate and shakes Dr DaVito's faith in both her profession and her ability to help those most in need. Thought-provoking and controversial, Killer Instinct is a hard-hitting examination of a public mental health care system in crisis.