Samhain Project 3: Visiting Hours

Today's Project is also a Spectrum File!  As seen above, it ran in prime time even.  

Visiting Hours landed on screens right during the Slasher craze of the early 80's, but really, when it comes down to it, doesn't qualify, even though it was marketed as such.  The film is definitely horror, but a bit too complex and socially aware to be a generic slasher flick. 

At the outset our heroine, Oscar winner and Whore of Babylon from Damien: Omen II, Lee Grant, is a television journalist who happens to run a controversial interview that her boss, William Shatner (!) doesn't feel comfortable airing because it points out domestic violence and quite overtly.  This interview triggers a psychopath who dabbles in right wing extremism when not taking out his hatred of his mother (how dare she defend herself against her shitass husband!) on young women that he encounters in the wild.  He pulls a home invasion on Grant's home, putting her in the hospital, a facility he returns to off and on in pursuit of his failed victim.  And, I guess, to pluck a few replacement victims to bide his time.

A primary ancillary target in the film, (used to illustrate his methods of releasing his urges), that he takes home to victimize, may have the best line of the film when she asks him (after seeing his collection of letters forcing his racist beliefs on whoever will read) "Do You want to live in the world by yourself?"

That's a good question for all right-wing extremists, really. But I digress.

Lee Grant, who is actually pretty exceptional (which should come as no surprise) given the material, befriends a nurse played by Linda Purl (once the main squeeze of one Arthur Fonzarelli late in the run of Happy Days) who unfortunately finds herself caught in the midst of this maniac's violence and bloodshed.

 

 Oh, and by the way?  This maniac?  None other than Michael Ironside, villain extraordinaire.  We shall all remember him from Scanners, Total Recall (See you at the party, Richter!!) among many others.  The man plays a bent and hateful person, just on the brink of exploding as well as anyone in Hollywood history.  He rounds out a damn good cast for a "slasher" film of the early 80's and helps it rise above the competition of the time.  Visiting Hours, for its era, presents questions about how extreme people get the way they are, and get so easily sparked to violent reactionary behavior.   

The film has an unpredictability created by not only having familiar (and talented) faces in the primary cast, but the breakneck speed of setting changes causes a disorientation for the viewer that makes suspense the end result. 

I highly recommend this long forgotten cult film, and think Halloween is a great time to discover it.