Visiting Hours
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Movie Reviews of Visiting Hours
Movie Review: In this hospital your next visit may be your last...
Summary: 3 Stars
So what happens when you mix four parts of an overly long Lifetime Channel movie with two parts slasher film? You get the feature Visiting Hours (1982). Written by Brian Taggert (Of Unknown Origin, "V", Poltergeist III) and directed by Jean-Claude Lord (The Vindicator, Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!), the film stars Academy Award winner Lee Grant (In the Heat of the Night, Shampoo, Voyage of the Damned), Linda Purl ("Port Charles", Mighty Joe Young), and Michael Ironside (Top Gun, Highlander II: The Total Recall, Quickening). Also appearing is William `The Shat' Shatner (Big Bad Mama, Kingdom of the Spiders, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan) and Harvey Atkin (The Incubus, Speed Zone!), who I remember best as the hapless summer camp proprietor Morrie from the Bill Murray comedy Meatballs (1979).
Grant plays Deborah Ballin, a television personality and outspoken women's rights advocate. After a particularly controversial interview, she returns to her home only to find a knife wielding, homicidal manic has gained entry into her abode (I hate when that happens), which, by the way, sure has a lot of empty liquor bottles scattered about (either Deborah's recently had a party or she's a real booze hound)...the guy, who we later learn is a real piece of work named Colt Hawker (Ironside) appears nekkid, wearing all Ms. Ballin jewelry for some reason (I especially liked the pearl earring in the nose as it's a good, pirate type look), sporting about the largest switchblade I've ever seen. Deborah manages to escape (not before Colt gets in a couple of good swipes), and is taken to County General Hospital, which, in retrospect, may have been a bad choice as the facility has some of the worst security measures I've ever seen. At the hospital she meets a pretty young nurse named Sheila Munroe (Purl), who takes a personal interest in Ms. Ballin out of admiration (the two become quite chummy), I suppose, because Ballin is presented as a strong, self actualized, independent figure...or something like that. Shortly after Deborah's admittance Colt begins sneaking into the hospital (as a delivery person, an orderly, and a doctor no less), kills a few patients in an effort to get to Deborah (his fixation for her is very strong), and eventually focuses some of his attentions on Shelia, stalking her and her children (Shelia's a single mother of two). Some flashbacks are dumped in our laps in an effort to clue us in on the source of Colt's nuttiness (it's always the parents fault) leading up to Colt admitting himself (sort of), in an interesting and wacky way, in an effort to get at both Shelia and Deborah, both of whom have not only survived his attacks but also have seen his face and therefore can identify him. Once in, Colt proceeds in full-on homicidal mode, increasing the mortality rate of County General considerably...
I dug some parts of this Canadian made film, as I thought there was a good deal of overall effort involved, but I think it could have been a whole lot better had they made a few changes. The one main aspect I would have changed is removing one of the two, main female characters, either Deborah or Shelia. With the inclusion of both the story had to spend time on both therefore dragging out the overall runtime to just over an hour and forty minutes. I have no problem with strong, leading female characters but I didn't see the point in having two of them here. Had either one been removed, the story could have been adjusted appropriately and carried on just as well, with a slightly shorter run time and possibly a quicker pace. Both actresses did well enough (I was sort of surprised to see Grant in a feature like this), but neither really stood out all the much for me only because their characters were sort of one-dimensional. As far as Ironside, I'd say he did very well if I hadn't seen him play similar roles in a number of other films. Riding on the crazy train might be fun, but like anything, it gets old after awhile. The reasoning behind his misogynistic and homicidal tendencies seemed a little skimpy in terms of a colorful antagonist back story one would normally expect from a slasher film, but, like I said in the beginning, this felt more like a Lifetime Channel feature with slasher tendencies. The one thing that annoyed me about Ironside's character was the ease of which he could maneuver about, especially in terms of gaining access to areas within the hospital. I'd like to think it wouldn't have been as easy as it was, but who knows? And let's face it, Michael Ironside isn't the type to blend in so easily, as he sports some pretty distinctive characteristics, so it was difficult for me to believe he hadn't been caught for his antics prior to him latching onto Deborah. As far as The Shat, I'm really not sure what the hell he was doing in this movie (he plays a television producer) other than picking up a check between Star Trek films. His character really didn't do much of anything...pull out a phaser, shoot off a photon torpedo, pork a comely alien...do something...as far as gore content, there's some, but a lot less than what I would have expected (the broken bottle sequence near the end was nifty). There were some decent scares scattered throughout the film, many of them of the misdirection kind (the focus of a scene might have you looking here, but the scare comes from somewhere else), along with some well developed suspense sequences, but had the filmmakers shaved about fifteen or twenty minutes off the running time (perhaps dumping a few useless characters), I think this would have been a much tighter feature.
The picture quality on this Anchor Bay Entertainment DVD release is very sharp and clean, and comes across nicely in widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16X9 TVs and the mono audio comes through well enough. There is really not much in terms of extras except four television spots, one radio spot, and previews for other Anchor Bay DVD releases like The Anniversary (1968), The Entity (1981), Quicksilver Highway (1997), Ghost in the Machine (1993), and Bad Dreams (1988). Also, I thought the interactive menus not all that attractive...it was obvious they were going for a psychotic theme to fit in with the film, but they just come off as looking haphazard and sloppy, in my opinion. At the very least the presentation of the film is exceptional, so the rest matters little to me.
Cookieman108
I did learn one thing while watching this film, and that is if you're ever being pursued by a knife wielding, homicidal manic, a dumbwaiter elevator probably isn't the best place to hide...
Movie Review: Tension Filled "Slasher",Hospital Drama With Some Interesting Turns
Summary: 3 Stars
I saw this film last night for the first time in probably twelve years and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it was a definite variation on the usual 1980's "slasher" flick". Within the obvious limitations of the story it actually managed to create a strong element of suspense and while the main characters were all in need of more fleshing out I found that you were able to enjoy them as more than simply fodder for the film's body count which is so often the case in these type of films. "Visiting Hours", a Canadian production from 1981 came out right in the middle of the "slasher flick", boom prevalent after the release of the classic "Halloween", in 1979. What in my mind makes it a stand out from the endless variations of "Halloween", and "Friday the 13th", is that in no way is it a teen flick and it has a surprisingly capable cast for this type of a story. Lee Grant certainly is an unusual choice for the female lead and she does great work within the limitations of her character making her seemingly hard as nails career woman seem at times quite vulnerable thus giving her role a definite human element rather than simply going with the iniatally stereotyped character. The expected thrills and jumps are also present and I found myself often on the edge of my seat in particular in those scenes involving Michael Ironside's memorable character which deserves to be better remembered among the demented killers always present in the slasher genre films during this period.Movie Review: The killer lets the victim steal his knife! How embarrassing.
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't even think this should be considered a slasher film, more of a pitch black comedy about an inept killer who kills a lot of people but never who he's intending to kill. On top of that check out his outfit: a leather tank top accessorized with a fanny pack and a squeezy stress reliever ball. What a toughie.
When he's not wearing the leather tank top (I did mention the leather tank top right?) he's decked out in more costumes than Fletch. A florist, a janitor, an orderly, a hospital patient, a punk and even at one point he's assisting in a surgery! How?! Do they just let anybody in there as long as they're wearing a green uniform?
For a horror movie I'll give it two stars, for the comedy I'll give it two more then for the lack of nudity and blood I'll have to subtract a star. Be sure to watch where the killer falls down...twice! Ha-ha.
Movie Review: "He's making himself a death mask" -Gary
Summary: 2 Stars
By way of preface, I should point out that many people curiously view "Halloween II" as an average or even below average horror movie. Alas, I am not one of those people. I thought "Halloween II" was terrific and it picked up at the most logical place to have the setting for the sequel, the hospital. Despite what many people maintain, "Halloween II" was a very successful film and it is one of the greatest horror movies of all-time. So, the hospital setting must be a great place to have a slasher flick, right? Well, after viewing "Visiting Hours", I'm not so sure that is the case.
To their credit, the creators of "Visiting Hours" realized the effectiveness of "Halloween II" and tried to rip it off, at least on some levels, although it is original enough to survive on its own credibility I believe. In "Visiting Hours", an insane killer, played well by Michael Ironside, attacks a controversial talk show host played quite well by Lee Grant ("Damien: Omen II"). However, Grant's character, Debra, survives the attack and is taken to the hospital. However, is she safe in the hospital from this crazed killer? Watch "Visiting Hours" to find out! Expect a little bit of cat and mouse in this one, but it will undoubtedly test your patience at times.
"Visiting Hours" is definitely a run of the mill slasher flick without much more, but it does an effective job at leaving the audience in the dark about the killer's motives. This creates some suspense and causes tension in the audience because the audience does not know or understand what is driving the killer, at least until the end of the movie and even then the motive behind the killer is somewhat obscure.
Some scenes in "Visiting Hours" will leave the viewer scratching his/her head, and some scenes will leave the viewer wishing he or she had taken a nap instead. However, I think there is enough to keep the slasher movie lover satisfied for the most part, although "Visiting Hours" is an inconsistent ride to say the least.
That being said, Michael Ironside does a pretty good job as the psycho killer in this movie. Strangely enough, the creators of the flick did not feel the need to conceal the identity of the killer, but his motives and overall strangeness about him will keep the audience a little on edge. In my opinion, the more mystery one can assign to a killer, the better as this is almost always a good thing for a horror movie because it creates an eerie feeling for the audience. I would say that "Visiting Hours" did a decent job in this respect, but could have done more.
The kills in "Visiting Hours" are not that good as there is a little bit of blood, but no gore. There is a lack of atmosphere for most of the movie, and there are some scenes in this movie that are entirely unnecessary which causes the viewer to become bored and lose interest. These flaws definitely hurt the "Visiting Hours" as a horror movie. What music this movie did use to establish mood and theme was done sparingly and at least somewhat effectively. Perhaps the strongest assets that "Visiting Hours" has to offer are its cast (Lee Grant, William Shatner, Michael Ironside) which is surprisingly strong for a slasher flick and the movie's blatant simplicity. Indeed, the acting was good in this flick and the director did not try to do too much with the script.
While watching "Visiting Hours", I really wanted to like it, and I struggled with my feelings about this movie. After sleeping on it, I turned into Santa Claus the next morning and realized that I did not really like it or dislike it, which is actually kind of strange for me. There was some entertaining scenes among many boring scenes. Everything seemed to cancel itself out. There are some "jump out of your seat" scares, and some unexpected events that occur. Overall, "Visiting Hours" is a flawed yet somewhat effective slasher flick that attempts to use the hospital setting a la "Halloween II".
While "Visiting Hours" is nothing special and completely failed to achieve anything close to the level of horror that "Halloween II" was able to produce, you may enjoy "Visiting Hours" if you are in the mood for a slasher flick with a hospital setting, but do not expect too much or you will come away disappointed.
Movie Review: Just ask my Grandpa at the nursing home, I hate Visiting Hours...
Summary: 2 Stars
What a dud this was, in fact the title of my review is the most tastless thing you'll find involved with this "slasher" film from 1981. For anybody even mildly interested in the usual trappings of the genre (i.e. nudity and gore), I'd recommend clicking the back button now and typing "The Burning" in the search bar at the top of the screen (thank me later). The reason I put slasher in quotes above is because that's what it refers to itself on the back of the DVD, but actually it's more of a mediocre thriller that I could see my parents giving a watch (and they don't like horror so... that's not a good thing!). The story follows a pychopath on the hunt for an outspoken female journalist whose stance on self-defense against abusive husbands links to his past and enrages him. She is also strongly against violence which, of course, will be put to the test when faced with the killer in the film's finale. The movie gets 2 stars on the merits of being well made and acted, and featuring a few nice moments of tension (particularly the first assault from the killer), but it's still a bland piece of cinema that takes itself far too serious and feels like a solid made for TV movie. Even Michael Ironside as the protagonist of the film is wasted here... menacing at times, of course that's only when he's not falling down, having his apartment vandalized by former rape victims, or losing his knife?!?! Beyond the cool cover on the DVD, I was checking this out due to it being on the infamous "Video Nasties" list of banned films in the UK at one time... why it made the list I'll never understand? Literally 3 deaths occur on screen, none of them bloody or graphic in any way, shape, or form. Visiting Hours is highly passable viewing, delivering nothing noteworthy for genre fans... William Shatner does appear though!