The basic premise of Visiting Hours is that an unsuccessful serial killer decides to finish off the job at the hospital where his victim is being treated. There is about enough plot there to make a good TV episode or short film, but somehow Jean-Claude Lord's film has been stretched to an hour and forty five minutes. As you might expect, this leaves the film overlong and more than a little tedious as the majority of it is merely filler. Furthermore, neither the psychopath nor any of his victims are elevated above the very basic level of characterisation needed for this sort of film, and since this plot was done to (slightly) better effect a year earlier with Halloween 2, there really isn't a lot of reason to bother with this hospital slasher. Of course, the film did feature on the DPP 'Video Nasty' list back in the eighties, so it will always have something of a fan base as well as a list of people wanting to see it; but even as a Video Nasty, it isn't all that good as the scenes of gore mostly feel rushed and in true Halloween style, the murders aren't exactly imaginative.
The hospital setting ensures that the film stands out as hospitals are traditionally 'safe' places where the sick get better; whereas here we've got someone bumping off the patients. The setting isn't very well used, however, as the rooms mostly look like offices and the director doesn't do a very good job of building up the location. The acting isn't very good either, as while Michael Ironside may have a look of Jack Nicholson - he certainly doesn't have his talent, as his performance isn't charismatic or even interesting, and he's a lot like Michael Myers without the mask. Linda Purl and Lee Grant both give typical performances as typical female victims (although the film features no nudity) and William Shatner also has a small role. Basically, the problem with this film is that it uses up all of its energy in the first sequence. The first scene has suspense and terror (best shown in the laundry shoot), but after that it just fizzles out into an overlong boring mess. I'm not the biggest fan of slashers anyway, but there's far better one around than this; the Video Nasty list itself even has some better ones.
The hospital setting ensures that the film stands out as hospitals are traditionally 'safe' places where the sick get better; whereas here we've got someone bumping off the patients. The setting isn't very well used, however, as the rooms mostly look like offices and the director doesn't do a very good job of building up the location. The acting isn't very good either, as while Michael Ironside may have a look of Jack Nicholson - he certainly doesn't have his talent, as his performance isn't charismatic or even interesting, and he's a lot like Michael Myers without the mask. Linda Purl and Lee Grant both give typical performances as typical female victims (although the film features no nudity) and William Shatner also has a small role. Basically, the problem with this film is that it uses up all of its energy in the first sequence. The first scene has suspense and terror (best shown in the laundry shoot), but after that it just fizzles out into an overlong boring mess. I'm not the biggest fan of slashers anyway, but there's far better one around than this; the Video Nasty list itself even has some better ones.