August 16, 2018
Written by: Brian Taggert
Starring: Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl
Budget: 5,500,000 CAD (Canadian)
Tagline: There is no known cure.....for MURDER.
Trivia: The limp Michael Ironside sports at the end of the movie was real. He broke his ankle on the first day of filming.
Another infamous "Video Nasty"! One of 72 films that the British government banned as being obscene. Trivia for the film claims that the version banned was the same version that had been cut for cinematic release in the UK. Either way, the film is dark, gritty and violent but not overly bloody like many of the other Video Nasties. The film also has an impressive cast of Hollywood actors: William Shatner, Lee Grant, and Michael Ironside. While the film is a bit slow and probably could've afforded to have ten minutes cut out of the middle of it, it creates a dark mood and has a lot of very suspenseful scenes. Unlike the excessively gory films that were becoming popular in the 1980s, Visiting Hours success is due to the amazing performance of Michael Ironside as the psychotic murderer Colt Hawker. It's Ironside's performance that makes the film so memorable and do disturbing.
The film follows impassioned journalist Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant) who has been crusading for women's rights issues. During one passionate television program she champions a woman who killed her abusive husband as self defense. Her views have earned her a lot of fans but also a handful of upset men. One is Colt Hawker, the studio janitor who makes it his life's goal to murder her. He sneaks into her home before she arrives and when she gets home she finds him wearing her jewelry and beats her mercilessly. There is one terrifying scene where she is trapped in a dumbwaiter being dragged upward toward him. Luckily she survives the attack but is hospitalized for a time thereafter. If that wasn't enough, Hawker later follows her to the hospital in hopes of finishing what he started. At the hospital he finds that Ballin has made friends with a nurse and after killing a couple patients he decides to begin stalking her.
Through a series of flashbacks we come to understand that Hawker's hatred for women began when he saw his mother throw a pot of boiling oil at his abusive father's face. There are other scenes from his childhood where, we as adult viewers recognize the father is drunk and is acting oddly, but it seems sweet and innocent to the child Hawker. The film does a great job of exposing the psychological underpinnings of misogyny. I am no psychologist but I imagine Hawker is not the only misogynist suffering from "mommy issues."
There is a particularly repulsive scene in the middle of the film where Hawker brings a woman back to his apartment to humiliate and degrade. Thinking they are just going to listen to music and maybe make out, the woman is surprised when Hawker pours beer onto her. He then at knife point forces her to strip and lie down and he rubs the blade of the knife across her. The scene fades to black so we luckily do not have to watch what happens, but we do see the bruises and the cuts all of the woman the next day when she goes to the hospital.
At first, it seems that Hawker is focused on who he wants to kill but as the film progresses, it becomes apparent that he doesn't care who he is killing. Women are of course his favorite victims, but he kills basically anyone he comes into contact with. He kills an elderly woman but cutting her breathing tubes at the hospital, he kills a couple guards that are simply in his way, he also kills a nurse just for the hell of it. The randomness of the killings is not the only thing that makes them so sick. With his stalking victims, Hawker likes to take their pictures as they die so he can make a collage of their dying faces and put up in his closet at his house. Seriously. This guy is nuts.
Towards the end of the film it appears that Hawker will be caught at any moment and he goes home and downs a handful of pills. Originally, it looks like he is going to off himself but instead he smashes a beer bottle and then hammers his arm into the broken glass getting him a one-way ticket to the hospital where to get one last try at killing Ballin.
Overall, Ironside does an incredible job as Colt Hawker. He is such a sleazy and creepy character. From his psychotic murder lust to his wardrobe (at one time he is wearing a pleather tank top and the other moment when we first meet him and he is naked with the woman's jewelry clips all over his body) and even the "human" moments where he is spending time with his dad. The character is just plain vile.
The pacing of the film could've used some work. There were a lot of unncessary scenes with the woman in the hospital and Hawker going around acting like a weirdo. I understand that the film was doing character development and building the suspense of the movie, but the film really did not need those scenes. Also, I had a problem with the fact that everyone in this film whose job it is to protect anyone is completely inept. Hawker can just keep strolling in the hospital to murder people without anyone so much as raising an eyebrow despite knowing exactly what Hawker looks like. At one point he does put on a pair of glasses as a disguise, so at least he kind of tried to reveal his identity. The cops don't do anything and instead shrug off Ballin's worries as her just being paranoid despite the very real danger she is in. Sure, the purpose of the film is to show the torment this woman is going through at the hands of a mad man but they could've at least have made some obstacles for Hawker.
Oh well. My wife said the film was boring, but I liked it. Dark. Gritty. Violent.
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