Collectibles & Merchandise on TVcrazy.net

Rating: - "He's making himself a death mask" -Gary
By way of preface, I should point out that many people curiously view "Halloween II" as an average or even below average horror movie. Alas, I am not one of those people. I thought "Halloween II" was terrific and it picked up at the most logical place to have the setting for the sequel, the hospital. Despite what many people maintain, "Halloween II" was a very successful film and it is one of the greatest horror movies of all-time. So, the hospital setting must be a great place to have a slasher flick, right? Well, after viewing "Visiting Hours", I'm not so sure that is the case.

To their credit, the creators of "Visiting Hours" realized the effectiveness of "Halloween II" and tried to rip it off, at least on some levels, although it is original enough to survive on its own credibility I believe. In "Visiting Hours", an insane killer, played well by Michael Ironside, attacks a controversial talk show host played quite well by Lee Grant ("Damien: Omen II"). However, Grant's character, Debra, survives the attack and is taken to the hospital. However, is she safe in the hospital from this crazed killer? Watch "Visiting Hours" to find out! Expect a little bit of cat and mouse in this one, but it will undoubtedly test your patience at times.

"Visiting Hours" is definitely a run of the mill slasher flick without much more, but it does an effective job at leaving the audience in the dark about the killer's motives. This creates some suspense and causes tension in the audience because the audience does not know or understand what is driving the killer, at least until the end of the movie and even then the motive behind the killer is somewhat obscure.

Some scenes in "Visiting Hours" will leave the viewer scratching his/her head, and some scenes will leave the viewer wishing he or she had taken a nap instead. However, I think there is enough to keep the slasher movie lover satisfied for the most part, although "Visiting Hours" is an inconsistent ride to say the least.

That being said, Michael Ironside does a pretty good job as the psycho killer in this movie. Strangely enough, the creators of the flick did not feel the need to conceal the identity of the killer, but his motives and overall strangeness about him will keep the audience a little on edge. In my opinion, the more mystery one can assign to a killer, the better as this is almost always a good thing for a horror movie because it creates an eerie feeling for the audience. I would say that "Visiting Hours" did a decent job in this respect, but could have done more.

The kills in "Visiting Hours" are not that good as there is a little bit of blood, but no gore. There is a lack of atmosphere for most of the movie, and there are some scenes in this movie that are entirely unnecessary which causes the viewer to become bored and lose interest. These flaws definitely hurt the "Visiting Hours" as a horror movie. What music this movie did use to establish mood and theme was done sparingly and at least somewhat effectively. Perhaps the strongest assets that "Visiting Hours" has to offer are its cast (Lee Grant, William Shatner, Michael Ironside) which is surprisingly strong for a slasher flick and the movie's blatant simplicity. Indeed, the acting was good in this flick and the director did not try to do too much with the script.

While watching "Visiting Hours", I really wanted to like it, and I struggled with my feelings about this movie. After sleeping on it, I turned into Santa Claus the next morning and realized that I did not really like it or dislike it, which is actually kind of strange for me. There was some entertaining scenes among many boring scenes. Everything seemed to cancel itself out. There are some "jump out of your seat" scares, and some unexpected events that occur. Overall, "Visiting Hours" is a flawed yet somewhat effective slasher flick that attempts to use the hospital setting a la "Halloween II".

While "Visiting Hours" is nothing special and completely failed to achieve anything close to the level of horror that "Halloween II" was able to produce, you may enjoy "Visiting Hours" if you are in the mood for a slasher flick with a hospital setting, but do not expect too much or you will come away disappointed.

Television Show Collectibles

Movie Searches