Visiting Hours * (1982, Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl, William Shatner) – Classic Movie Review 13,051

The nasty 1982 Canadian slasher horror film Visiting Hours stars Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl, and William Shatner. In the UK, it was cut, then put on the ‘video nasty’ list, but ITV screened the uncut version by mistake.

Director Jean-Claude Lord’s nasty 1982 Canadian slasher horror film Visiting Hours stars Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl, and William Shatner. In the UK, it was shown shown in a censored cut in British cinemas in 1982, and then put on the ‘video nasty’ list in 1984, and still circulates cut, but ITV screened the uncut version by mistake in 1989.

Visiting Hours is exploitation cinema, with deranged psycho-slasher Colt Hawker (Michael Ironside) stalking, killing and photographing women through a Canadian hospital. Lee Grant plays feminist activist Deborah Ballin, the TV anchor reporter on the scene, who wants to stay alive and bring back her story.

The mediocre lady-in-peril horror script, written by Brian Taggert, is full of sexist comments and bad attitudes, and seems to relish the power of a dangerous man over a liberal woman. It is a nasty-toned, bad-karma movie.

Joining the star trek to Canada is William Shatner as Grant’s boss, Gary Baylor.

It was censored in the UK – and still is. It was shown in British cinemas in 1982 in a cut version with one minute of footage excised, which then also was used for the CBS/Fox VHS, and is still the only UK home video release. So the UK video print of the film remains the same as the censored theatrical cut.

The film was listed as one of the original DPP 74 UK ‘video nasties’. UK cinema and video versions were cut by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to edit a scene where Colt traces his knife across Lisa before slashing her clothing and shots of Colt kicking Sheila as he photographs her. It was subsequently classified as a ‘video nasty’ by the BBFC. The uncut version was shown on ITV in 1989 by mistake and the company was publicly rebuked by the Broadcasting Standards Council.

Also in the cast are Lenore Zann, Helen Hughes, Harvey Atkin, Michael J Reynolds, Kirsten Bishop, Deborah Kirschenbaum, Elizabeth Leigh-Milne, Maureen McRae, and Dustin Waln.

Visiting Hours is directed by Jean-Claude Lord, runs 105 minutes, is made by Canadian Film Development Corp and Filmplan International, is released by Astral Films (Canada) and Twentieth Century Fox (US and UK), is written by Brian Taggert, is shot by René Verzier, is produced by Claude Héroux and Pierre David, and is scored by Jonathan Goldsmith.

Running time: 105 minutes.

It was shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in autumn 1980 with a working title of The Fright.

Release date: April 18, 1982 (UK).

It grossed $13.3 million at the box office on a budget of $6 million.

The cast are Lee Grant as Deborah Ballin, Michael Ironside as Colt Hawker, Linda Purl as Sheila Munroe, William Shatner as Gary Baylor, Lenore Zann as Lisa, Harvey Atkin as Vinnie Bradshaw, Michael J. Reynolds as Porter Halstrom, Len Watt as Clement Pine, Kirsten Bishop as Denise, Robbie Robinson as Matthew, Lorena Gale as Nurse, Helen Hughes, Deborah Kirschenbaum, Elizabeth Leigh-Milne, Maureen McRae, and Dustin Waln.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,051

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