Taglines: In this hospital your next visit may be your last.
Visiting Hours movie storyline. Deborah Ballin is a controversial middle-aged TV journalist, who is campaigning on air on behalf of a battered woman who murdered her abusive husband, claiming justifiable defense against the so-called victim. But her outspoken views championing women’s rights incense one of the studio’s cleaning staff, closet homicidal psycho (and misogynist) Colt Hawker whose deep seated despising all all things female occurred from seeing his Mother throwing boiling oil in the face of his abusive Father when he was a small child (and who’s M.O. is to photograph victims he stabs as they’re spasming to death). So much so that he decides there and then to shut her up… permanently!
Managing to beat her home, he soon dispatches her maid Francine, before turning his rage onto her as she come home (greeting her in only wearing her jewelry and make-up). Despite the brutal injuries he lashes out on her, she manages to survive and is rushed off to hospital.
Visiting Hours (also known as Get Well Soon and The Fright) is a 1982 slasher film directed by Jean-Claude Lord and starring Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl, William Shatner and Lenore Zann. The plot focuses on a feminist journalist who becomes the target of a serial killer who follows her to the hospital after attacking her in her home.
About the Story
Deborah Ballin (Grant), a feminist activist, inspires the wrath of misogynistic psychopath and serial killer Colt Hawker (Ironside) on a TV talk show. He attacks her, but she survives and is sent to County General Hospital.
Hawker begins stalking her. Deborah befriends nurse Sheila Munroe (Purl), who admires her devotion to women’s rights. Hawker murders an elderly patient and a nurse. He overhears Sheila’s opinions on Deborah and “that bastard” who attacked her. Hawker decides to focus his attention on Sheila, stalking her and her children at home.
Hawker courts a young punk girl named Lisa (Zann), then brutally beats, tortures, and rapes her. The next day, Deborah discovers that the patient and nurse have been killed, so she suspects her attacker is back to finish the job. She tries to convince her boss, Gary Baylor (Shatner), and Sheila that she is not safe, but both think she is simply paranoid.
Hawker visits his father, who was disfigured years ago by his mother, explaining his hatred for self-defending women. Soon he tries again to kill Deborah, but is thwarted by her security. A frantic Sheila is paged and finds Lisa (whose wounds she had treated) waiting for her. Lisa says she knows the identity of Deborah’s attacker, and where he lives.
Visiting Hours (1982)
Directed by: Jean-Claude Lord
Starring: Michael Ironside, Lee Grant, Linda Purl, William Shatner, Lenore Zann, Harvey Atkin, Helen Hughes, Deborah Kirshenbaum, Elizabeth Leigh-Milne, Kirsten Bishop
Screenplay by: Brian Taggert
Cinematography by: René Verzier
Film Editing by: Jean-Claude Lord, Lise Thouin
Costume Design by: Delphine White
Art Direction by: Michel Proulx
Music by: Jonathan Goldsmith
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: May 28, 1982
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