Visiting Hours

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.

"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.

"Visiting Hours" is a forgotten slasher film which stars Michael Ironside as a murderer stalking TV journalist Lee Grant.The film is pretty slow,but there is enough violence to satisfy fans of horror cinema.Ironside is pretty believable as a misogynistic serial killer,the rest of the cast is also impressive.The film is pretty scary and suspenseful,so fans of slasher movies won't be disappointed.It was made the same year as similar "Halloween 2".Overall,I enjoyed this one and you should too,especially if you like slasher movies.My rating:8 out of 10.

Visiting Hours is the film I saw, more than once in movie theater. Having opportunity to get it on DVD I didn't know what to expect. Very few films from my childhood "at the movies" stood the test of time, but the ones that made an impact then, are forever implanted in my film taste. Same thing happened with this film. It is untypical - typical horror film, that looks like traditional 80's slashers but different in all the key points. I never looked at any of Michael Ironside's roles without seeing the deranged psychopath he portrayed in this one.

It's qualities for me, are shortcomings for the majority of horror picture fans. It doesn't have new body spraying buckets of blood every two and a half seconds. It doesn't have freaks with masks and buzzin' chain saws, severed heads and body parts flying around. It has a story of deeply disturbed character, and his rampage through the world around him that he hates deeply and profoundly. Not just the women. He hates them all, and with passion. It has character actors, not bunch of nobodies that are only there to supply bodies for the count. They are not in their best dramatic roles, and the movie could have been better, but it's not half bad either, and it surely doesn't deserve such low rating.

This movie has something in it that's still there all these years. It aged well and you can't say that for many of them. It's different in it's usualness and that is the catch. Look for it, even if you don't like horrors. It won't give you nightmares, it will make an impression.

"Visiting Hours" did respectable business at the box office when it first came out, though it was torn apart by critics. To some degree, I do understand why those critics didn't like the movie at the time. For starters, at 105 minutes in length, the movie is far too long and padded out. Many people watching it today will be squirming in their seats from impatience rather than from terror. At the same time, there are a few head-scratching moments that suggest some explanatory footage was removed during the editing stage, like how Ironside's character gets uniforms and other material to disguise himself when going to the hospital. Slasher fans may be disappointed by the lack of gore and blood. In fact, the movie might be rated PG-13 instead of R by today's standards. And William Shatner's character is hammy and doesn't seem to serve much purpose.

But there are some things in the movie that give it merit. For starters, the movie looks very good, much more slick and expensive than most other slashers of this period. Director Jean Claude Lord also does add some atmosphere and some creepy composed shots here and there. The best thing about the movie, however, is Michael Ironside as the killer. He manages to be both extremely creepy and believable. It's no surprise that he went on to become a fairly well-known star after his great performance here.

To sum up, "Visiting Hours" is flawed and no classic, but as an example of the slasher film genre, it's definitely above average, and a must watch if you are a fan of this genre.