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DVD Review: Visiting Hours
By HammerFanatic
Apr 30, 2006, 13:24

The 1980s was a decade filled with plenty of horror films that will always be remembered and there are some film titles that may have hit the radar and for one reason or another kind of fell off the screen. In 1982, the Canadian film, Visiting Hours had one of the neatest trailers and posters out there. Written by Brian Taggert and directed by Jean-Claude Lord, the film starred; Michael Ironside (Colt Hawker), Lee Grant (Deborah Ballin), Linda Purl (Sheila Munroe) and William Shatner (Gary Baylor).

Deborah Ballin (Grant) is a TV journalist who is very outspoken in the area of violence and takes up the cause of a woman on trial for the murder of her husband after years of suffering physical abuse. Ballin's outspoken ways rub one, Colt Hawker (Ironside) the wrong way and Hawker makes a nighttime visit to Ballin's home and attacks her. When Hawker's attack doesn't leave Ballin dead, he goes on a rampage in an effort to finish what he started. While Ballin is recovering from her attack in the local hospital, she's cared for by a very dedicated nurse, Sheila Munroe (Purl) and visited by her boss/lover, Gary Baylor (William Shatner). Hawker has the uncanny ability to stalk Ballin in the hospital without raising much suspicion and kills and terrorizes a few folks along the way. Ballin is certain that the killer is after her and can't seem to convince anyone that what she feels is something to consider, everyone around her keeps telling her to relax and not to worry, it's just a case of coincidence that these murders have taken place all around her. The question is, can Ballin convince the good people surrounding her that there is a real need for concern or will Hawker finally hit pay dirt?

Visiting Hours looks quite good and is offered for your viewing pleasure in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and the audio is decent enough in Dolby Digital (2.0). There are no subtitles offered for this disc or any other language options other than English. As for bonus features, the disc is a little light on features, but includes:

Visiting Hours is probably a bit more of a suspense/thriller film than an all-out horror film. There's very little blood in the film and very few aspects of horror. I mean, I'd be frightened out of my wits if I had someone stalking me, attacking me and killing folks around me, but this film relies more on suspense than all-out horror to get the story across. The cast is rather surprising for a film of this nature and it's a little out of the norm for...shall we say, an older woman to be the center of a film of this nature. Grant is very good in the role of Deborah Ballin and doesn't allow any fellow actor to upstage her when they share screen time. William Shatner's role is quite small and he does little more than play comfort to Grant's character. Lind Purl is enjoyable in her role of the almost saintly nurse and Michael Ironside is outstanding as Hawker. I have always felt that Ironside had a creepy look about him, even in the few 'good guy' roles I've seen him in, but he definitely makes for a great villain in this film. His character does very little speaking and his flashback scenes of his childhood make for some interesting moments in the film. Visiting Hours isn't your typical 80s slasher film, it's more of a cat and mouse game between the heroine and the villain and it comes across quite nicely onscreen. I think one of the best bits of this film was that great trailer, like so many, the trailer or poster offered something totally different than you might expect in going into the film, but if you like a film with decent character development and don't need buckets of blood to make for a good film, then chances are, you can probably enjoy this film.

Buy Visiting Hours on DVD at Amazon.com