Showing posts with label Visiting Hours. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Visiting Hours. Show all posts
6 Oct 2012
Visiting Hours - Lisa's Review
*** SOME SPOILERS ***
I struggled this week with why on earth this movie found its way onto the Nasties List. It would be much better suited as a Sunday afternoon movie. There is little in the way of gore or graphic scenes in the movie to complain about, so I'm at a loss. There is a scene which sexualises a knife torture and rape, which I suppose is a bit in bad taste, but I've seen worse before the watershed I'm sure.
That's not saying its a bad movie. It's not too bad. I found it remarkably easy to watch and there wasn't that much in the way of irritation for me. It had crazy inconsistencies, most notably a scene at the start of the movie where our lead lady (Deborah) is on air (she's on a talk show) making her views clear on the conviction of a woman who finally fought back against her abusive husband. As she pulled no punches and her comments were close to libelous, her boss advised her they would be unable to air the episode. Whats odd about this is at the same time as we are watching the scene, we are shown our movie villain who is at home watching the airing of this same show???
Anyways, if you can put that aside that glaring inconsistency, its watching this show that sparks our killer (Colt Hawker) off to stalk Deborah. Seems he has followed her work for years and he is not her biggest fan as she is a big female activist and he is something of a misogynist (getting to be a remarkably familiar thing in these movies). What I also failed to mention is that the woman in question who was being defended by Deborah for fighting back against her husband (by throwing a pan of hot oil around him hence disfiguring him for life) is actually Hawkers mother. The husband is of course his father. He has never forgiven his mother for what she did to his father and basically just thinks that she should put up and shut up.
The movie follows Hawker tracking down Deborah. He finds her, manages only to wound her (we have another knife through door scene here) as they are interrupted so she is taken to recuperate in hospital, hence our title. Hawker keeps up his pursuit and a young nurse Sheila is dragged into the mix, probably mostly because she shares Deborahs feminist views. There are a few kills, including of the wrong person. Breathing tubes are cut to detract attention away from him.
The story which follows is pretty normal for a murder thriller and is very predictable, but like I said its easy to watch as the acting is pretty solid. The ending is very TV movie, but I wasn't left feeling like i'd wasted an hour and a half which I have with other movies.
I wouldn't say don't watch this movie, but I would say, if you're looking for gore, horror, shocks or anything remotely graphic, this isn't the place to look.
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
Visiting Hours - Will's Review.
THE SHAT!!!!!
William Shatner! In a Banned movie!!! Already this movie has me on side!
Which is just as well, because other than shat (see what I did there), there wasn't much here to get excited about.
We're dealing with a bog standard thriller (albeit one with a slightly higher than normal body count), there's no mystery as to whodunnit - we see his face the first time we see him attack someone (we also see him remove his 'disguise' - a bunch of quasi-tribal facial jewellery that is never mentioned again) and the why-dunnit is hinted at from the beginning and spelled out at the half-way point.
It seems that some woman we never see (except in flashback a couple of times) has gone to jail for attacking her husband and crippling him. Her plea (of self defence) failed - but only because the prosecution had better lawyers. She's up for appeal, and a reporter (Our heroin) has made it her business to get the public on side with the self-defence plea.
The couple's son (Michael Ironside), who got on with his Dad, does not approve of the reporter's attempts to free his mother, and sets about trying to kill her (and anyone else who gets in his way).
In a failed attempt, he wounds her, and she ends up spending most of the film in hospital (hence the title); One scene where the killer did show smarts, is when he went around the hospital cutting drip pipes, and pushing "call nurse" buttons, in order to keep the staff busy while he went back for another crack at his real target.
There's a nurse who gets way to invested in the whole thing (and makes herself a target in the process), and a girl the killer picks up and beats up who decides to make life awkward for him, but I didn't really get invested in any of them.
Oh, and the killer has a Magic TV. How's that? - well, remember I said about the reporter sticking her oar in? when our man watches that as it happens, from his TV... then, when she walks off set, she is told that the footage will never be used as she was biased; so it seems the psycho can watch live feeds of TV recordings never intended for live transmission. Go figure.
Gaping potholes aside, another one with not much to recommend it - but that isn't blood curdlingly awful. But for the gore, this one would probably do well with the "Diagnosis Murder" crowd.
Body Count: 5
Most Memorable Death: actually, none spring to mind...
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
William Shatner! In a Banned movie!!! Already this movie has me on side!
Ahhhh, I guess You're right...
Which is just as well, because other than shat (see what I did there), there wasn't much here to get excited about.
We're dealing with a bog standard thriller (albeit one with a slightly higher than normal body count), there's no mystery as to whodunnit - we see his face the first time we see him attack someone (we also see him remove his 'disguise' - a bunch of quasi-tribal facial jewellery that is never mentioned again) and the why-dunnit is hinted at from the beginning and spelled out at the half-way point.
It seems that some woman we never see (except in flashback a couple of times) has gone to jail for attacking her husband and crippling him. Her plea (of self defence) failed - but only because the prosecution had better lawyers. She's up for appeal, and a reporter (Our heroin) has made it her business to get the public on side with the self-defence plea.
The couple's son (Michael Ironside), who got on with his Dad, does not approve of the reporter's attempts to free his mother, and sets about trying to kill her (and anyone else who gets in his way).
In a failed attempt, he wounds her, and she ends up spending most of the film in hospital (hence the title); One scene where the killer did show smarts, is when he went around the hospital cutting drip pipes, and pushing "call nurse" buttons, in order to keep the staff busy while he went back for another crack at his real target.
There's a nurse who gets way to invested in the whole thing (and makes herself a target in the process), and a girl the killer picks up and beats up who decides to make life awkward for him, but I didn't really get invested in any of them.
Oh, and the killer has a Magic TV. How's that? - well, remember I said about the reporter sticking her oar in? when our man watches that as it happens, from his TV... then, when she walks off set, she is told that the footage will never be used as she was biased; so it seems the psycho can watch live feeds of TV recordings never intended for live transmission. Go figure.
Gaping potholes aside, another one with not much to recommend it - but that isn't blood curdlingly awful. But for the gore, this one would probably do well with the "Diagnosis Murder" crowd.
Body Count: 5
Most Memorable Death: actually, none spring to mind...
Please use the comments bellow only to comment on this post - to write your own review, please comment on the main post for this movie.
30 Sept 2012
WEEK 72: Visiting Hours
Alternate Titles : Get Well Soon, The Fright
Year: 1982
Reviews / Author Comments due: 6/10/2012
DPP Status: Removed from list Nov 1984
BBFC Status: Passed with 1m10secs cut in 1986 (Listed as Uncut, as the version submitted was the previously cut X-rated cut
IMDB: LINK
Wikipedia: LINK
Feel free to use the comments section of this post to add your own reviews and thoughts about this movie.
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