Films That Witness Madness

review

VISITING HOURS

Lost in the shuffle of the early slasher boom was Jean Claude Lord's VISITING HOURS, a Canadian import that managed to best virtually ever film of it's ilk released in 1981 in terms of tension, acting and direction. It's a creepy little film, bolstered by a dread-inducing performance by Michael Ironside, that hits all the right notes without ever slipping into pure sleaze. Looking back at the other slasher films released that year - HALLOWEEN 2, FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2, CAMPSITE MASSACRE, GRADUATION DAY, PIECES, NIGHTMARE IN A DAMAGED BRAIN, and THE PROWLER - it looks like an exercise in restraint. It isn't particularly bloody, sexy or offensive. Like MY BLOODY VALENTINE, the other 1981 Canadian slasher film of note, calling it a slasher film seems like an insult to it's quality.

It would, in fact, be better to refer to it as a thriller. That term fits without tossing in all the baggage that comes with the slasher film label. Slasher films feature young, dumb characters in secluded environments being hacked to pieces by an unknown assailant or two. VISITING HOURS has none of that. It has adult characters in a public setting, more than a few brain cells pumping away and characters with actual depth and emotional attraction. This is so far removed from the garbage that was flooding the drive-ins and multiplexes across America that it does no good to compare it to flicks like THE PROWLER. They are simply no match for it.

Deborah Ballin is a journalist. She has just finished recording an interview with a lawyer representing a man seriously injured by the wife he was abusing. Deborah effectively nails him to the wall. After a rather disheartening conversation with her boss / boyfriend Gary in which she is told the interview will not air, she returns home only to be attacked and knifed by a misogynistic psychopath named Colt Hawker. She is taken to the hospital and treated for her injuries. Her nurse, Sheila, is a divorced mother caring for her two young children. They bond rather quickly. The press is having a field day with Deborah's attack. Colt, however, is not pleased. He repeatedly enters the hospital where Deborah is recovering, each time dressing up in a different outfit, each time getting closer to her. All the while, he is leaving bodies in his wake.

This film would not work without Michael Ironside in the role of Colt Hawker. With only 15 or 20 lines of dialogue throughout the entire movie, Ironside plays Hawker very much like a slasher movie villain. He is effective, quiet, sneaky and all together obsessive in his hunt for Deborah. Ironside does more with a turn of the head than Jason or Michael manage to do in the entirety of their franchises. This is a human monster created by a lifetime of emotional trauma. After witnessing his father being scalded by his mother during a near-rape - Colt himself bears the scars of this act of self-defense - Colt has transformed the emotional pain and confusion of that moment into an absolute hatred for women. His abandonment by his mother - a usual reason for the slasher film villain's assault on pretty young things - is the trigger point for his psychosis. Colt is seen admiring his photos of women in various states of death, abusing a pretty young girl in his apartment and snapping pictures of an old woman he has just killed - by cutting her breathing tubes in her hospital room. His room is covered in framed letters he has sent to various political figures and newspapers. His inflated sense of superiority and importance is most evident when a young woman asks him if he wants "the whole world to himself". His answer, "Yeah. That would be nice" tells the whole tale.

He is also a much more devious character than most slasher film villains. Colt's final attempt to reach Deborah involves him breaking a glass bottle with his forearm. He is taken to the hospital in an ambulance. Once there, Colt wanders the halls, screwing with patient's IVs and life support systems, triggering the nurse call alarms as he goes. Before all that occurs, he attacks Sheila in her home, apparently in an effort to draw as many police away from the hospital as he can. This is no ordinary slasher film killer. Had Colt taken a page out of Jason's playbook, he simply would have waltzed into her room and chased her around until she clumsily tripped over her own two feet. Thankfully, VISITING HOURS stays within the boundaries of comfortable reality.

VISITING HOURS is often called a misogynistic piece of film. I don't agree with that at all. The representations of women in the film aren't all flattering but that doesn't matter much as the two female leads are both presented well - Deborah and Sheila are both strong willed, independent women. Even Lisa, the young woman Colt beats and bites in his apartment, is written well. She may balk at first about going to the police regarding her beating but she eventually realizes her situation and comes forward. The men in the film don't fair as well. Gary is a placating jerk who looks at Deborah as someone who needs his protection. Colt's father is an abusive drunk seen pouring beer all over his young son and then trying to force himself on his wife. Colt himself feels women should be seen and not heard. He is the ultimate representation of misogyny in the slasher film and it is telling that he never manages to slay any of the three female leads.

VISITING HOURS is one of the best directed of all the early slasher films. Jean Claude Lord's camera is constantly busy, constantly moving, panning and gliding, isolating characters within the frame. It is a damned good looking film. The screenplay isn't showy and isn't shamelessly manipulative. The film feels genuine. There are no deus ex machinas lying around, no cheap outs or ins, no cats jumping through windows or cheap false scares. VISTING HOURS earns it's scares honestly. It's tension is a direct result of the talent behind the camera and the conviction of those in front of it. It is all around well-acted - Lee Grant and Linda Purl both give great performances and even William Shatner manages to deliver - and strongly scored. I simply can't think of a bad thing to say about this film. It nearly approaches HALLOWEEN and BLACK CHRISTMAS and that's high praise indeed.

Essential viewing.

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