Customer Reviews

Visiting Hours

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

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.

The Film: Visiting Hours
Year Made: 1981

Overview: A man who is still traumatized by events that transpired from his childhood of his abusive dad against his mother, goes on a killing spree. His target is a news anchore woman who speaks out against violence and triggers the killers' inner rage. The hospital should be a place of safety and healing, but visiting hours is about to begin!

The Package: 3 Stars. The outside of the DVD holder has a eerie picture of the hospital with a skull in the windows. The inside of the case does not have any kind of inlay which is disappointing though. The disc itself has graphics of doctors faces on it wearing masks, which although cool, it would have been more creepy to have the killer himself wearing a doctor mask. The disc stays in place in the holder very nice and is easy to pop out of the tray also. There are TV trailers and radio spots on the extras as well as some movie previews for other films which I always like to watch. Overall a good package but could have been better and should have come with closed captioning which is missed greatly.

Spook Meter: 4 Stars. Visiting hours is a creepy film. The killer hardly talks at all, yet is shown clearly throughout the film. Brilliant camera work as the killer is walking as well as all the pictures on the walls of his apartment where he keeps photographs of his victims he has killed, really bring the overall creepiness' to life as you watch this. I loved the fact that most of the action takes place in a hospital setting which works very well here. The flashbacks of the killers dad being abusive to his mother and seeing the conflicting hatred he has for his dad and also for his mother for what she did to his dad is brilliant. That is made clearer as he kills women and men as things progress. Michael Ironside played the part of the killer to perfection and he truly fit the roll well in his look as well as acting. William Shater I thought was one character that did not fit well in this film. William Shatner is a superb actor, but he just didn't seem right for this.

Gore/Violence Meter: 5 Stars. In the gore department, I would rate this about average for a slasher film, it's got some blood but it's not excessive at all. Violence is why I drove the meter way high. The visual effect and the slow prolonged death scenes when someone is killed as well as the killer taking pictures while the victim is dying is very intense. The visual/brutal way it's all acted out and captured will make you cringe and feel each and every death scene. Very violent!

Profanity Meter: 5 Strikes. Sadly, this was a huge letdown. Why all the profanity, I really feel it spoils any film and this one had a lot of language throughout. I hope a closed captioned version comes out so at least my editer will work!

Sexual Meter: 2 Strikes. There is not much as far as offensive scenes. There is one scene while the killer has a woman over at his place and begins to get a bit rough with her and pulls her hair. Nothing much is shown overall though and there is no nudity at all, although the woman does take off her jeans and is standing in her panties at one point. One other scene, the killer is shown reaching down with his hand under a woman's shirt, although suggestive, nothing is shown and no nudity here either. I'll bump up the sexual meter to two stars for these scenes but overall this was non offensive in this area for most viewers.

Final Thoughts: Visiting hours is very well done and what I consider to be a highly underrated lost gem in the slasher film genre. When most people think of horror/slasher films, they think of the main ones like Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street. Visiting hours IS that good and even though it stands as a somewhat unrecognized film in the classic time of the early 80s, any true horror slasher fan will love this brutal uniqueness of Visiting Hours. The one single let down of it was all language, if not for the language, I'll stand on my 5 star rating as a horror slasher film and rank it right up their in my list of all time favorite horror films.

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!

Classic 80's horror... if you like films like April Fool's Day, My Bloody Valentine, Halloween II and Terror Train, this DVD should be sitting right next to all of them in your entertainment center. There are a few well-crafted scares, the plot is interesting, and the "entertaining" performances by Lee Grant and William Shatner are worth the low sticker price alone.

In the 80's, there were numerous Halloween copycats. There was Prom Night, Terror Train, Friday the 13th, etc. However, Visiting Hours might be the only Halloween II copycat. It's set in a hospital, just like Halloween II, and it was released just one year later. However, those aren't the only similarities. The killer, played by Michael Ironside, stalking the hospital corridors searching for his surviving victim, just like in Halloween II.
I know it sounds like I'm writing Visiting Hours off as just a rip-off, but it's not just that. It has plenty of jump-out-of-your-seat moments, Michael Ironside makes for one creepy victim, and the finale is good slasher fun.
If you're looking for an 80's psycho-thriller, you could do worse than Visiting Hours.

Although this movie was very predictable when we first saw it at the Movie Theater, it was good enough to rent the second time. Now we're buying it, because it is one of very few movies that has held my interest through the entire movie. You know what's going to happen, and it still scares you into tomorrow!!!

Boy, is Michael Ironside (Scanners, Starship Troopers) ever mad! He's just seen Lee Grant on TV, telling the world that an abused woman was right to shoot her brutish husband in self-defense. You see, Ironside's character, Colt Hawker (!), had a bad childhood w/ a drunk dad and a mum who tossed hot grease in dad's face. Now, Hawker hates all women and especially the uppity ones like Grant's character! He attempts to murder her w/ his footlong switchblade, but she has the audacity to survive! Hawker comes after her in the hospital, leading to many deaths and a game of hide 'n' seek between Ironside and Grant ala Halloween 2. I like this one! We even get Linda Purl as a nurse and William Shatner (Incubus, Devil's Reign) as Grant's utterly useless boss! Ironside was born menacing and always gives me the creeps! He's truly sadistic and twisted in VH, and that's a good thing. Lee Grant is strong and likeable in her role. Definitely worth owning...

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.

love to see the closet sceen,with the pictures of the dead he has on the wall in his closet.

I have just received a new copy of this movie and it was not the same movie I saw in 1975/81. The original movie was very suspenseful and was much more gory and bloody than this apparent remake was.

Most of the movie was involved in the hospital, but in evening hours with Lee Grant listening and hearing the bell around his neck and he continued to butcher most of the hospital personnel.

Like I said it was very gory and a good slasher flick. I do not know how this revised copy ever made it to the DVD market. I am deeply disappointed and I believe that all sellers of this movie should make a separate statement to indicate that this is a REVISION of the original movie.

If you are interested in this movie, please try to find the orignal uncut version. I have a copy in VHS and it is extremely good.