VISITING HOURS - better than remembered!

[wago70]

Forcing my mother to take this (then) 11 year-old to see Visiting Hours at the tail-end of Memorial Day Weekend 1982 was not something my father was particularily fond of. For some reason, my mother rushed our weekend camping trip to the rural flats of the Nevada desert just because she promised a week to take me to see VISITING HOURS after seeing the TV trailer late one night during "Barney Miller". God Bless her. We liked it so much, that we sat in the theater and watched it a second time. The only other time my mother did this was for THE HOWLING a year earlier (same holiday weekend :) )
VH cannot be placed in the slasher category completely. At the time, it was all we had to go on (I feared it was trying to copy HALLOWEEN 2 before I saw it). The film is much more than that. If anything, the 1995 film COPYCAT seems to have taken many cues from this film. Including taking a thriller and making it look very much like a horror film. It is horror? Thriller? Crime Drama? Whatever you want to call it, it's pretty entertaining. I felt the film holds up just fine and is equally intriguing be it for the good acting by the lead actresses or for the riveting, flawless performance by Michael Ironside as the Heavy.
Some conventions used by the film (the villian knowing the ins and outs of EVERY building in the film) tend to fall in TV-movie land (as did several sequences in COPYCAT). Also disturbing is the relentless offing of some minor characters who just seem to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Let's hope the new DVD from Anchor Bay will bring in a new audience. I think it's worthy.

[dwatts]

That's a bold statement.

[maskull]

That's a bold statement.
*slaps knees, then falls to floor laughing*

[baggio]

Very Funny Indeed!

But it was a good film.

[satans-sadists]

Never saw Visiting Hours. Does William Shatner have a lot of screen time?

[Bad_Ronald_1983]

Never saw Visiting Hours. Does William Shatner have a lot of screen time?

Not really. Pretty much the first 15 Minutes. Then a very few on-screen time afterwards. Just a few scenes. Still a good movie!

[Fumi]

I remember going to the drive in in Oceanside CA back in '82, and we were watching some Henry Winkler comedy, but there were several screens and I ended up watching Visiting Hours instead. Though of course I couldn't hear it because all the speakers in our area were for the other movie.

[DanceEnergy24]

It's so funny that someone would mention Visiting Hours. It's on my list of horror movies to see.

[RyanPC]

It's so funny that someone would mention Visiting Hours. It's on my list of horror movies to see.

Why is it funny? It was released on DVD not too long ago and is a slasher classic with a great performance from Michael Ironside. :D

[dwatts]

I finally watched my DVD tonight. Hey, this one isn't bad at all! nasty in places, a plot that made (some kind of) sense, and the cast actually held up well. Even Shatner - even if his hair was dyed to hell.

The DVD isn't anything to write home about, but you can't have everything. Really enjoyed it, and that was against all expectation.

[HAEMORRHAGE]

Funny, the thing that I remember most about this movie is when in high school a teacher was showing my class a movie she taped off of TV (obviously in 1982) and during the commercial break it had the trailer for Visiting Hours. Since then it always stuck with me. Fortunately Anchor Bay was nice enough to include the trailer on the DVD. Maybe I should watch it this weekend.

[DrHerbertWest]

Eh this movie was alright. I enjoy Michael Ironside a lot in this flick but that's... about all I can remember, really.

[Lucio Romero]

I finally got around to watching this on DVD the other night after buying it the first day it came out a few years back. This is a fantastic movie and I can't get over the amount of negative feedback this movie gets, for me it really is one of the better slaher movies ever made and I would put it slightly ahead of Halloween II, plus......it's got Shatner for crying out loud, what more do you want. MR TAMBOURINE MAN!!!!!:D

LUCIO!!!!!

[onebyone]

Visiting Hours is an amazingly fun slasher, with memorable performances and a kooky but interesting plot. It deserves many bold praises. I should spin it again soon, just thinking about it is making me smile.

[Spacevis]

Just watched this for the first time last night and was pleasantly surprised! This movie is a lot better than you'd think.

First off, the camera work is at times brilliant, especially at the beginning of the movie. They show the killer, but then again they don't show him. You'd like to turn your head just a little to see what's behind the corner of your TV to get a glimpse of his face :) I thought it was very effective, much more so than for example just showing his hands, or his back. I also like the way the director uses camera and editing to confuse the viewer ...

When Linda Purl's character and the other nurse both go out to check out a patient it's not really clear who's going to the room where the killer is waiting. They've shown you the number of the room were the killer is, but when the character enters the room you can almost see the number, but not completely, which, IMO, adds to the suspense. And it's not just that, I think the way this scene was put together makes it very effective, despite the cliché of the slut getting stabbed... you just know that's gonna happen but the scene gets you on the edge of your seat anyway!

Secondly, the actors. This is the first time I've seen Linda Purl in a movie and I was mesmerized. What a gracious beauty she was! And Michael Ironside ... he's one mean ass son of a bitch :) But then again, his character isn't as stereotypical as you'd think. Especially considering ...

the first memories he gets are good ones... or are they? His father on top of him trying to pour beer in his face, and yet they're both laughing. It's ambiguous and this adds to the reality of the character. It's interesting to see a psychopath who isn't overly attached to his mother!

Also, the motivations of the killer aren't thrown in your face, it's all brought with a sort of subtlety...

the woman he tries to kill is taking a stance in a case where a woman killed her husband because he abused her. Only in the second half of the movie do we get to know the killer's father abused his mother and she throws scalding oil in the father's face. We never get to know what happened to the mother, but we do see the bond between the killer and his father. It's all a psychological game that is much more profound than the usual psycho-fare you get in slashers

Well, this review got a little longer than intended, but I do think this movie deserves some proper attention! Highly recommended!

[HAEMORRHAGE]

I remember this being kinda boring. Maybe it needs a re-watch.

[boycrieswolf]

I vaguely recall seeing this at the drive-in as a youngster...I remember being considerably freaked out but not being able to take my eyes off the screen. Details are fuzzy as I've yet to see it since. Where is a cheap place to pick up the dvd, or is it oop?