Visiting Hours
| Visiting Hours | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Jean-Claude Lord |
| Produced by | Victor Solnicki Claude Héroux Pierre David |
| Written by | Brian Taggert |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Jonathan Goldsmith |
| Cinematography | René Verzier |
| Edited by | Jean-Claude Lord |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
105 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CA$5.5 million |
| Box office | $13.3 million |
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.
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.
Before she can alert anyone, Sheila gets an ominous phone call from Hawker, warning her that he is in her house with her young daughter and babysitter. She sends Lisa to warn Deborah, then rushes home, only to find her daughter and babysitter safe in bed. She places a call to Deborah, but a hidden Hawker springs forth, stabs Sheila in the stomach and pushes her to the ground, phone to her ear, torturing her for Deborah to hear. He moves toward Sheila's young daughter. Sheila can only scream in terror. At the last second, he walks out, leaving Sheila to die.
Hawker goes home, where he devises one last plan to get to Deborah. He busts a beer bottle underneath his arm, wounding himself badly. Gary and Deborah have an ambulance sent to Sheila's house. Still alive, but badly wounded, she is rushed to the hospital. Gary accompanies the police to Hawker's apartment, where they discover photos of Hawker's previous victims, as well as of Deborah and Sheila. They also learn that the wounded Hawker has been taken to County General.
...
Wikipedia