A star studded cast rounds out todays review, something that I don’t usually get to see often, and it’s from well back into the 80s. In fact, it’s from 1982, and the movie sums up a lot of fears for many people, especially those of us that aren’t too keen about going to the hospital. If hospitals scare you, wait until you check out this slice of horror called Visiting Hours.
The movie stars a lot of big names, including none other than William Shatner! That’s right, William freakin Shatner is in a 80s slasher flick and he’s not too unlike his Star Trek role. Ok, so he’s not fighting aliens or exploring parts unknown, but he’s in this film trying to make sense of all that is going wrong with the world at large. The movie has a great deal of sickness, horror, gore and so much more.
The movie revolves around an activist that is being hunted down by a sadistic killer, and after she survives an initial attack, the killer stalks her in recovery, and all hell breaks loose. The movie also shows a lot of flashbacks and sequences regarding our killer so that you can get a taste of how crazy he is. He stalks the nighttime hospital in full doctor garb, and at one point kills a nurse, rapes a young woman, and attacks yet again anyone that is near him with clues to what he’s doing. I know, an awkward sentence, but eh, I’m trying summarizing this thing without giving too much away.
Much of the violence is after the fact and isn’t prolonged into too much gore. In away the movie feels like it was strategically made for late night basic cable, instead of theatrical release. There’s just too many cutaways for this to be a straight-laced horror film on wheels. That in mind, it’s a slow moving movie for the most part, and a great deal of it doesn’t make sense even if it was 1982.
The killer looks a lot like a mix of The Riddler (Jim Carrey’s version) and Dwight from The Office, making this movie somewhat funny at times. Overall, I didn’t really feel like the movie was a big success in creeping me out, as it just seemed tame at times.
However, there are some sick parts done with slick camera work and timing. The flashbacks are great, but as stated above there’s a pull away of the angle so that you don’t really get the complete scope of what’s going on or how bad things really are. I guess that’s the draw back here, for once you want blood, and when it’s not delivered, you assume the movie isn’t as “horror” related as you might have thought.
There are some genuine creepy moments, but overall Visiting Hours is not a highly recommended film to watch. I was hoping for more hospital horror than just a straight laced thriller/slasher film. That being said, check it out if you want, otherwise watch something with more gusto.
It's from the producers of early Cronenberg films and as such it did feel to me as a very Cronenberg light flick maybe because Ironside is in this movie. Sometimes dragging scenes but I thought it was really suspenseful.
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