"Visiting Hours" – William Shatner
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Horror
I love hutch — 4 years ago(November 26, 2021 05:47 PM)
I have been playing "Visiting Hours" on a loop for a week now. William Shatner's character is very dismissive towards his girlfriend's pain and trauma. She's sitting in the bed recover from a vicious attack while he is sitting on her bed, teasing her about how bad she looks, chuckling and eating the dessert off her dinner tray. I don't know what the writer was thinking here, or Mr. Shatner for that matter, but it felt very off.
"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!" -
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MovieManCin2 — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 08:17 AM)
I do too! And I love his costar James Spader. I regret not watching this show when it was on. Those two are fantastic together!
MAGA! FAFO!
Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. Dumbocraps: evil people who celebrate murder. 
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MovieManCin2 — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 04:01 PM)
Perhaps it's for the best. I watched several clips on YouTube last night, and they were heavily Liberal.
MAGA! FAFO! Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. Dumbocraps: evil people who celebrate murder. -
MovieManCin2 — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 04:01 PM)
Perhaps it's for the best. I watched several clips last night on You Tube, and they were heavily liberal.
MAGA! FAFO! Schrodinger's Cat walks into a bar, and doesn't. Dumbocraps: evil people who celebrate murder. -
ToastedCheese — 4 years ago(November 26, 2021 10:37 PM)
I don't know what the writer was thinking here, or Mr. Shatner for that matter, but it felt very off.
This part does seem a little odd, but I really see it as Shatner's character trying to be as cheerful, upbeat and positive as he could be due to Deborah's trauma and how does one shake off what she went through so easily?
It can be difficult to know how to act around sick people, or traumatized victims until one gets a feel for them and know what the boundaries are.
They were doing all they could to make Ballin feel secure and safe, until she found out that old lady got killed in her previous room and Shatner's joviality stopped. It suddenly became about reassuring her that Colt won't get her again.
This entire premise of reasonable paranoia and the intensity of it, I find difficult to match in similar psycho thriller films.
Visiting Hours
wasn't exactly original in story, but it was original in presentation.
A few nips and tucks in the runtime of about 5mins and this film could have played out even better.
Norman! What did you put in my tea? -
I love hutch — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 12:41 AM)
I know you are a champion of the movie. I have always found it somewhat intriguing. Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB and called it a piece of junk, but he overlooks lots of little and not so little things that are worthwhile.
– Lee Grant's strong star performance. I never get tired of watching Lee Grant.
– Michael Ironside's believability as a sick, violent sociopath. He sure did follow up on his promise in the previous year's "Scanners". Very intense.
– The hospital setting is used to good advantage
– Some genuine suspense
– Does not hold back on the cruelty of violence
– The blonde girl who gets revenge on Colt is portrayed quite well by the actress. When she is sharing the screen with Linda Purl, I just think how much more convincing a performance hers is
"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!" -
ToastedCheese — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 01:39 AM)
I have always found it somewhat intriguing. Leonard Maltin gave it a BOMB and called it a piece of junk, but he overlooks lots of little and not so little things that are worthwhile.
As a psycho thriller/slasher, VH does so much of what the genre is renowned for extremely well, even if the film could be considered misogynistic and sick.
It is perhaps my favourite hospital setting for a horror film and the vulnerability of our heroine, the vulnerability and suffering that the setting permeates for those patients residing there, and the ruthless and cruel nature of this psychopath preying on the vulnerable is fully realized.
It is a humourless film, but it wants you to feel uneasy and it succeeds for the most part and while the violence is protracted, its not overtly graphic and still manages to disturb.
I like Linda Purl, she was very pretty and effective enough to generate sympathy and fear for her character, Zann's small role was edgier though, yet a lot of that was the street character she portrayed.
Norman! What did you put in my tea? -
ZolotoyRetriever — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 12:50 AM)
She's sitting in the bed recover from a vicious attack while he is sitting on her bed, teasing her about how bad she looks, chuckling and eating the dessert off her dinner tray.
It could've been worse… he could've sat there smoking a cigarette and "singing"
Rocket Man -
ToastedCheese — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 11:09 AM)
Shatner wanted to play the killer….
Do you think he could have pulled it off as well as Ironside?
Read the IMDB trivia and apparently Ironside was an audition after Shatner, and he was also cast because of the intensity he brought to his role in
Scanners - '81
.
Norman! What did you put in my tea? -
Woodyanders — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 12:08 PM)
The producers made the right choice casting Ironside as the killer. I don't think Shatner would have brought the same intensity to the role.
You've seen Guy Standeven in something because the man was in everything. -
ToastedCheese — 4 years ago(November 27, 2021 12:52 PM)
I agree.
He may have wanted to challenge himself in a dark role and he may have pulled it off, but I couldn't really imagine anyone other than Ironside as Colt and Shatner was perhaps too old as well.
Norman! What did you put in my tea? -
ToastedCheese — 4 years ago(December 09, 2021 08:55 AM)
She's sitting in the bed recover from a vicious attack while he is sitting on her bed, teasing her about how bad she looks, chuckling and eating the dessert off her dinner tray.
So re-watched this the other day, (have you seen my
Visiting Hours
post Mr. H?), and when I responded to you earlier on this thread, my mind was thinking this scene happened when Shatner was visiting with Grant when she was first admitted.
It happens later, after Deborah has had her operation. Back to that scene later. I was thinking perhaps it could have been something he may have purchased for himself and was filmed, but then edited down to what we see in the final product. I guess it makes it sort of interesting to see him eating a desert that always looked good to me. Perhaps Deborah told Gary she didn't want it….
I love love this film and loved it even more when I re-watched it a few days ago. As life is not an absolute, I have been rearranging my top 20 horrors from 2 decades ago. VH will now shifted from 20 to somewhere closer to 10. Not sure yet.
Now the operation scene is more confusing, like a red herring that is creepy for Deborah and the viewer, but doesn't really make much sense. Was Colt really in the operating theater and if so, how did he know what to do if he was pretending to be the other doctor that chastised him for being in the changing room?
We don't know what happens here, only Ballin hearing the bell on his gold chain and going no no no.
Norman! What did you put in my tea?