Hospital del terror

VISITING HOURS is a largely laughed-at serial killer flick starring Michael Ironside. I suppose many of the laughs generate from William Shatner being in the film, playing a concerned boyfriend. I've never understood the fixation with Shatner as a comedy figure. Shatner is OK in his role, playing it completely straight and not completely terribly. It seems in getting fixated on the (in my view, non-existent) laughs from Shatner, viewers seem to have a blind spot to a lot of good things that VISITING HOURS achieves.

Ironside is strong as the killer (Colt Hawker), whose desire to kill comes from a terrible childhood and an abusive father. He identifies with his father, and loathes women because his mother threw boiling water over his Pa's face. Seems a bit of a stretch, but it wouldn't be the first time sometimes chosen the abuser over the person they abuse.

Colt becomes a misogynist, and turns his attention onto Deborah Ballin, who speaks out against violence towards women. She's a little militant about it and annoys a few people, so it's hard for the cops to figure out that Colt is the one hunting her down.

Some of the kill scenes are genuinely affecting. Colt likes to takes pictures of his victims as they're dying, and one - where he pulls a breathing tube from an elderly lady - is harrowing. Don't forget that Ironside was great in STARSHIP TROPPERS and brilliant in TOTAL RECALL as the supremely slimy Richter, and he excels in a similar role here. It's pretty baffling why Ironside ended up in TV series/movie hell given his excellence in playing the bad guy. Just the luck of the draw.

But the main plus of VISITING HOURS is that it's incredibly well shot. It's wildly voyeuristic, with lots of uncomfortable close-ups and point-of-view shots... and lots of lingering on people's suffering. The director - Jean-Claude Lord - has made nothing else of note. Even his name rhymes in a comedic way. Lord started out in France, then ended up doing US TV movies. But VISITING HOURS has a slight Hitchcock vibe and the level of voyeurism that makes you feel a little grubby just watching the damn movie.

I'm not saying VISITING HOURS is a classic. It's not up there with HENRY, and it's not up there with the next rung of excellent serial killer movies... say something like ANGST or HIGHWAYMEN. The pacing is a little laboured, and there are passages of ropey dialogue. But VISITING HOURS is a very good movie. It certainly is stupidly underrated, and is definitely worth checking out for a well-directed slice of slimy horror.

A feminist angers a woman hating crew member on a TV talk show which triggers him to break into her house, attack her, and leave her for dead. She's transported to a local hospital, the creep gets wind of her recovery, and sets out to put an end to her once and for all. Lee Grant is the lead of the film, but doesn't get much to do for a majority of the film since she's either sedated, going in, or coming out of surgery, so most of the heavy lifting goes to Linda Purl as Grant's kind single mom nurse and Michael Ironside who has never been scarier as Grant's stalker/would be killer.

Some of the psychobabble about why Ironside is the way he is doesn't really work and feels a little cliched and the pacing of the film ebbs and flows with a lot of time given to a meaningless subplot between Grant and William Shatner. When the suspense and scares come, they deliver and the finale is very tense and satisfying.

This is yet another slasher that despite the negative reviews from rotten tomatoes more than doubled it's money at the box office. The story was good. the acting was decent. The kills were good and the killer was OK. Just another fun popcorn movie for a one time watch was good enough for me.

What starts as a decent slashers, quickly turns in to a boring snail of a movie with moments of interest sprinkled throughout. It should also be noted that it's a type of slasher where we see who is the killer at the very beginning of the movie and follow him along other main characters, while we learn about his troubled past, and that for me eliminates a lot of the suspense and scares. Speaking of scares (if you can even call them that), they mostly come from jumpscares. There is some decent acting, but there's also a laughable death scene and overall length of the movie. It's so unnecessarily long that I just wanted it to end. And then the interesting part comes. And then it's boring again. It does have what is probably one of the cutest nurse portrayals in a movie ever though. In the end, it's just a mediocre psychological thriller (so much for looking up to "Halloween 2") you will probably forget about very soon after you watch it. I give it 6/10, and do note it's barely a 6, because I would have given it 5, if it weren't for some interesting parts. Horror movie fans, do what you must, and the rest of you; avoid it.

"Visiting Hours" has Lee Grant as an outspoken and controversial feminist journalist who becomes the prime target of women-hating serial killer Colt Hawker (Michael Ironside). After being viciously attacked by Hawker in her home, she is taken to the hospital where she learns she will have to undergo surgery for her wounds. Unfortunately, that's the least of her worries, because Hawker hasn't let her go as prey, and she can't leave the hospital.

Underrated as a thriller and overblown as a "slasher," "Visiting Hours" is one of the stronger and lesser-seen killer thrillers of the 1980s, but there is plenty in it to be admired. Although it's often classified as a slasher film, it's really more of a psychothriller under the guise of a slasher, laboriously meditating on the killer's disturbed, misogynistic psyche, and taking more stock in sequence buildups and moments of true suspense than actual splatter. The real kicker in this film is the setup in which Grant's character finds herself quite frankly trapped in the hospital; not only is she injured, but the hospital staff cannot legally let her leave, rendering her (and the rest of the hospital) a sitting duck for the malicious Hawker.

For being filmed in 1981, the film has a surprisingly fresh and considerably modern look to it. Whereas many horror films of this era suffer from poor aging, this is one of a rare few that seems to have retained a contemporary edge. Slick cinematography and impressive acting from Lee Grant and Michael Ironside help maintain an unusually classy standard. Linda Purl is great as the likable nurse who falls prey to the madman, and William Shatner's presence is welcome as Grant's stubborn boss. Thrown into the mix is a confused albeit interesting social commentary angle on non-violence, and Grant's moxie-filled character punctuates the film's time period and the social landscape of second wave feminism.

Overall, "Visiting Hours" is one of the classier horror films of the early '80s, and has a much more mature feel to it. With the contemporary edge it possesses, it's still surprisingly accessible to a modern audience, and the performances and elaborate sequence buildups really make it stand out among its peers. It is at times admittedly plodding at some points, but it's a small misgiving in an otherwise above-average thriller. 7/10.