Hospital of Horror: Bad Dreams / Visiting Hours Blu-ray Review

February 21, 2014May 17, 2016 Slasher StudiosBad Dreams

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Scream Factory is at it again with the release of two 80’s “hospital of horror” gems: 1981’s feminist slasher Visiting Hours and 1988’s supernatural shocker Bad Dreams. Both films being Fox releases, they arrive bundled on a single dual-layer Blu-ray disc courtesy of the current masters of resurrecting the bloody magic of yesteryear, Scream Factory.

Starring A Nightmare on Elm Street 3’s Jennifer Rubin and Puppet Master III’s Richard Lynch, Bad Dreams follows a girl (Rubin) who survived a mass suicide (by fire!) orchestrated by the leader of a cult (Lynch). After waking up in the hospital, she and her fellow patients are terrorized, apparently by the ghost of said cult leader. Suffice it to say there are casualties as Lynch works to reclaim the girl that got away.

Lee Grant (Damien: Omen II) and Linda Purl (TV’s True Blood) are terrorized by misogynistic psycho Michael Ironside (Scanners) in Visiting Hours. TV personality Deborah Ballin’s (Grant) crusade against domestic violence provokes the wrath of woman-hating killer Colt Hawker (Ironside), prompting him to break into her home and attack her. Ballin survives, however, and is sent to County General Hospital. Unfortunately for Ballin, her attack- and her location- are widely publicized, and Hawker comes to finish the job. When finding Ballin proves difficult, Hawker turns his attention to young nurse Sheila Munroe (Purl), who has befriended Ballin. While Ballin’s utterly-useless lover/boss (William Shatner) tries to calm her, she and Sheila ultimately find themselves in mortal danger, struggling to protect each other from the vicious killer.

VIDEO: Both films deliver strong transfers. While Bad Dreams is a bit prettier to look at, Visiting Hours’ visual appeal is handicapped by its drab, sterile hospital setting. The scenes featuring Purl and Ironside’s characters outside of the hospital fare the best, but by no means is either transfer a slouch. Film grain is visible but never intrusive, though certain scenes in Visiting Hours make the actors look either sunburned or embarrassed, particularly Purl’s first scene.

AUDIO: Bad Dreams gets the better treatment here, delivering a 5.1 DTS-HD soundtrack as well as the original mono. Visiting Hours is limited to a (lossless) mono track, but both films sound perfectly good.

EXTRAS: While this reviewer is usually not particularly concerned with extras, I must say I am pleased with the offering here, especially for a double feature. Bad Dreams once again gets the better deal, getting a director’s commentary, two featurettes, behind-the-scenes footage, a lengthy alternate ending, and a traier. Visiting Hours gets a decent helping of extras as well, however. Three interviews, with writer Brian Taggert (Poltergeist III), producer Pierre David, and co-star Lenore Zann (Happy Birthday to Me), as well as TV spots, a radio spot, and a still gallery. Each film gets enough material to warrant one of Scream Factory’s beloved Collector’s Editions (Visiting Hours alone has more material than the Collector’s Edition of the Jamie Lee Curtis slasher Terror Train), but instead, we get two for the price of one.

Overall, this is an excellent Blu-ray release from Scream Factory. If you enjoy either of these films, it is well worth the roughly $20 price tag.

–Joshua Dean

Underrated 80’s Slashers: “Visiting Hours” (1982) Review

May 21, 2012May 21, 2012 Slasher StudiosVisiting Hours

A fun, serious little chiller that either gets no recognition, or a load of hate. Why, I’ll never know, because I prefer it immensely to Halloween II, another hospital-set thriller. Starring Linda Purl, Lee Grant, Michael Ironside, and William Shatner (for name value only… he serves no purpose in the film), it tells the story of a sadistic, woman-hating psychopath who fixates on two strong-willed women and stalks them in the halls of a hospital.

Lee Grant stars as Deborah Ballin, a television journalist who is getting both a lot of praise and a lot of flack for vehemently defending a battered wife managed to cripple her husband in self-defense. She never expects it to escalate to murder, however. Sadistic psychopath Colt Hawker (an often-chilling Michael Ironside), who suffers from extreme mommy-issues, attacks and leaves her for dead. When it is reported (rather widely, of course) that she is alive and in the halls of County General hospital, Hawker decides to finish the job. When he cannot find her, however, he fixates on her caring, idealistic young nurse, Sheila Munroe (played by Linda Purl), who has struck up a rather strong friendship with Deborah.

Stalking Sheila and her two children at home, Hawker devises a plan to kill both women once and for all. Can anyone- including a teenager with a grudge (Lenore Zann), Deborah’s concerned boss (William Shatner), clueless cops (like the one who tells Sheila he cannot leave his post at the hospital… despite her telling him that the killer is in her home), or, well, obviously, Deborah and Sheila themselves- stop Hawker’s (not-so-)bloody killing spree?

First off, yes, I know the movie has it’s flaws. The villain, while played to perfection by the always-creepy Michael Ironside, does come off as incompetent by the third act… but at this point, of course, he has both Sheila and Deborah right where he wants them, despite all of his other feeble attempts ending in utter fiasco. William Shatner’s character is little more than a hindrance to our two strong heroines, and the point-of-view jumps around quite a bit between it’s four leads- Deborah, Sheila, Hawker, and Zann’s Lisa (who is conveniently forgotten once Sheila and Deborah are in peril), but that, I think works to its strength. At this point in time, two women sharing the role of the heroine was practically unheard of (outside of Psycho, where it was the only option after Janet Leigh’s exit), and I love the fact that Visiting Hours starts with one heroine and then focuses on another for a good portion of the movie. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that Linda Purl, despite appearing twenty minutes later than Grant, has just as much if not more screentime than the latter.

During the final third (the climax begins in Sheila’s home and follows her to the hospital, where Hawker plans to sneak up to Deborah), the movie is pretty evenly split between our two leading ladies.

Michael Ironside, as stated above, is a truly chilling villain, when he isn’t being a complete moron. Linda Purl is cute and plucky as the frantic Sheila, and Lee Grant is effective as Deborah.

This is a very underrated horror film in my opinion, and while it is no classic, it is DEFINITELY worth a watch.

–Joshua Dean

This review is courtesy of the Slasher Studios Horror Film Club.