Terminal Choice

All is not right in a hospital that uses a hi-tech computer system to control everything from IV drips to defibrillators. Not only are some of the staff placing bets on patient recovery time, but someone is also using the computer's abilities for a more sinister agenda.

This unknown Canadian film is slow-moving and doesn't have many likable characters, but I was still rather drawn into the proceedings. The futuristic hospital system makes for a unique plot device, and it's interesting to see how it'll be used next. There are some nasty bits here as helpless patients meet mean-spirited ends. The death of one of the only characters that I did like made for a very suspenseful sequence. There's also a nice scene with repeated attempts on the lead's life as he's stuck in a hospital bed with a broken foot. Said lead is Joe Spano as Dr. Frank Holt, who finds that the culprit is making it so that all the murders look like mistakes he made with his patients.

A dull subplot involves Holt and his ex-fiancée rekindling their romance. Despite the flaws, I'd say it's worth a look, especially if you're into medical horror. The stunning Ellen Barkin has an early role as the hospital's medical examiner.

My review was written in May 1985 after watching the film in a Midtown Manhattan screening room.

"Terminal Choice" is a dull medical thriller unlikely to stir the blood of horror fans with its clinical bloodletting. Pic was lensed in Toronto in 1982 and has gone through various name changes, including "Trauma", "Critical Lit" and "Death List".

Joe Spano (of tv's "Hill Street Blues") toplines as Dr. Frank Holt, known for his drunkenness, whose patients are dying at Dodson Medical Clinic. Audience is tipped off immediately that someone is tampering with the automated hospital's computer, and that the doctors and staff are engaged unethically in betting on details of the patients' diagnoses and recovery periods.

Computer wiz (and Holt's former girlfriend) Anna (Diane Venora) is investigating along with hospital's attorney Chauncey Rand (Dori Francks) and there are many suspicious-looking doctors on the premises, notably new intern Henderson (Nicholas Campbell). Several more stiffs enter the loss column, including pathologist Mary O'Connor (Ellen Barkin), before the bad guys are exposed and plot ends tied up in an awkwardly structured final reel windup.

More lowkey and ominous than suspenseful, pic elaborates far too much on what Stanley Kubrick succinctly created in his classic "Life Functions Terminated" computer display (when HAL the computer kills the sleeping crew members) scene in "2001: A Space Odyssey". Under debuting feature helmer Shelodn Larry's cool direction, violence is meted out by machine, with the human factor present (man controls machine) but out of sight. The tangible fear of powerlessness in a hospital situation are not really tapped, and a science fiction style open-ending (in which the computer is supposedly poised to self-program) does not work.

Acting is merely adequate by a cast far superior to the material at hand. Emphasis upon blood and vomiting is strictly a turnoff.

A pity, nobody seems to know this little thriller-masterpiece. Where bigger budgeted movies fail, "Terminal Choice" delivers lots of thrills, shocks and bloody violence. A little seen gem, that deserves being searched for in your local video shop. That anonymous guy beneath is quite right, when he says, you'll never trust hospitals again... it IS that effective ! Good ending,too, not really a twist, but it doesn't end the way one thought it would. Yep, that's Ellen Barkin in an early role...

Fantastic film with a great story line :-) Saw this movie years ago and must admit its one of the best ive seen