Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant) is an outspoken journalist who interviews newsmakers on her talk show. Her producer and sometimes babysitter is Gary Baylor (William Shatner). Her latest project is interviewing the prosecutor, Porter Halstrom (Michael J. Reynolds), on a highly publicized case. Gary thinks that Deborah has gone overboard on her criticism of Halstrom so when she decides to do another show on the topic, Gary nixes it. Frustrated Deborah goes home.
Colt Hawker (Michael Ironside) is a man whose mind got a little twisted when, as a boy, he saw his mother, Elizabeth (Maureen McRae), throw a pot of boiling oil on his father’s (Dustin Waln) face, when the man wouldn’t take no for an answer. He has since developed deep-seated issues with women, especially feminists. Colt is a serial killer. Watching Deborah from a distance he decides that she is the next person he wants to kill. Colt waits in Deborah’s house and stabs her when she returns home. Deborah manages to call for help as she tries to evade her potential murderer.
Deborah is taken to the hospital where they find that she has suffered some serious injuries and needs an operation. They put her in room 931 to rest and garner some strength before they operate. Finding out that she is still alive, Cole goes to the hospital to finish the job. Learning what room Deborah was assigned, Cole sneaks in to kill her but finds that she has been moved to a different room and another woman is in room 931. Unable to resist, Cole kills the unknown woman. The victim manages to hit the call button. Nurse Connie Wexler (Deborah Kirshenbaum) answers the page. Cole kills her too.
When Nurse Sheila Munroe decides to be Deborah’s guardian while she is in the hospital, it puts her and her family in Colt’s crosshairs.
“Visiting Hours” was released in 1982 and was directed by Jean-Claude Lord. It is a Canadian psychological horror film and a slasher movie. For a time, the movie was considered a video nasty in Britain.
There’s not a lot of plot to the film, but slasher films rarely do have much in the way of plot. Still, it had enough substance to keep me entertained and wanting to see the ending. Also, it was one of the standard slasher films that didn’t involve stupid teenagers with raging hormones. Add to that some really decent acting from the major stars. I’m not sure why it doesn’t have a better fan club. It embodies more of the thriller genre than just being a mindless slasher film.
The movie seemed to be a little longer than necessary. There was quite a bit of the slowly stalking the wounded victims through endless vacant corridors and rooms that was supposed to be for terror effect. Some of that could have been eliminated with no real change to the overall feel of the movie.
Michael Ironside is probably the best homicidal maniac ever. The man is literally terrifying, even when he is a good guy. He is relentless but, in pursuit of his victim in the hospital, he still takes the time to watch others die, and photograph their deaths, when given the opportunity. Reportedly, Shatner wanted the role of the psychotic killer but lost it when Ironside showed up.