It’s Friday…
Ahem…I mean Frightday…
And I have some recommendations for you to enjoy this weekend…
Okay…This Frightday’s theme is…
Hospitals Are Scary AF.
In 1981…
A direct sequel to the classic slasher film, Halloween was made…
John Carpenter and Debra Hill once again wrote the script…
And Carpenter hand-picked Rick Rosenthal to direct…
It is one of those films that I revisit every October…
And…
Not only was it a great sequel…
Especially considering the height of the bar left behind by the first film…
But it also exposed me to a film where the setting played an equal part in the final product…
And that setting was a hospital…
On a normal day…
When you are stuck in one of their beds…
In one of their rooms…
It is confinement taken to a new level…
Because you are not just confined…
You are…
Hooked up to machines…
In various ways…
Through various parts of your body…
In a place where people are either suffering or dying…
All around you…
And honestly…
That’s scary enough…
But when it serves as the setting for a horror movie…
That shit right there…
Is even scarier.
So, let’s take a chronological look at the best, most frightening, and possibly even unknown to you, It’s Hospital Horror Movies…In the years following Halloween II.
Visiting Hours (1982) – I got two words for ya…Two words that epitomize what made this film stick in my craw all those years ago…And those two words are…Michael Ironside…This creepy sumbitch played serial killer Cole Hawker so well that I may have peed my twelve-year-old shortpants a little, while watching this on home video back in the day…Journalist Deborah Ballin, played by Lee Grant…Is attacked by Hawker, who got all pissed off and fixated on her, following her appearance on a talk show…She is then hospitalized…And that’s when this film, and her stalker kick it up a notch…Every nurse, or patient that she befriends start turning up dead, and even her boss, played by ol’ Cap’n Kirk himself, William Shatner, can’t help her…This cat and mouse serial killer flick was scary as hell…The setting of the hospital made it even scarier…But nothing…And I mean nothing…Is as scary…As Michael Ironside in a leather tank top.
Bad Dreams (1988) – Here’s an 80’s horror film that was trashed by critics…But for some crazy reason…Loved by me…I dug it…A lot…I dug the back story about the mid-seventies hippie cult…I think Richard Lynch was unbelievably scary in the role of the cult leader…And even though this film drew comparisons to the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise…From the burned cult leader entering the dreams of the lone survivor of the cult…To the fact that it had Jennifer Rubin, one of the stars from the most recent Nightmare installment, in the role of that survivor…I didn’t see it that way at all…This film took itself very seriously…And the plot was not the least bit supernatural…It is story about a hospital…And a patient…Who along with her fellow patients…Are being stalked by a tangible monster…A monster that is not a manifestation of the subconscious at all…So I once again ask you to tell the critics to collectively go fuck themselves…And give this one a shot.
Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988) – This is the second installment in the immense Hellraiser series…And sadly the last to have the incredible Clare Higgins, who played the hell out of her character, Julia, as a member of the cast…In this one, a deranged psycho…Sorry, I meant psycho-therapist…Named Dr. Channard, played by Kenneth Cranham…Is the one trying to break into Hell…For years he has been collecting puzzle boxes in an attempt to get there…After he hears the story that Kirsty, who is once again played by Ashley Laurence, tells them, when she is admitted…He goes to her former home to verify the story…And reconstitutes Julia from a bloody mattress along the way…And then by using and abusing his patients…He manages to find his way t o Hell…When he gets there…We finally get to see a wider landscape of what the place the Cenobites call home looks like…And the douchey doctor gets a whole lot more than he ever bargained for, too…This one…Is my favorite, of all of the Hellraiser sequels…Not sure why, or how, but at times…For me…it almost manages to edge out the original.
Mister Frost (1990) – I have not seen this one in years…To be fair…It wasn’t because I haven’t wanted to…But this film is one of many that I was not able to upgrade from VHS…And sadly…I still have not been able to…But when I was compiling this list…This film was definitely going to counted among them…So if you were lucky enough to score the European DVD before it went out of print…Or if you’re still rockin’ around with the VHS…Then this one’s for you! But for everyone else…Cross your fingers, folks…Cuz this one was something…Let me tell you…It is not only a great hospital horror…And one that takes place in a psychiatric hospital…Which instantly adds a level of tension…But more importantly…The title role and the performance of Jeff Goldblum in it…Will be well worth the wait, and whatever the hell the price for admission is…And when you get there…And he shows up on screen…You will definitely be pleased to meet him…And…I hope you guess his name.
Cold Prey 2: Resurrection (a.k.a. Fritt Vilt II 2008) – Those in the know…Know how much I loved the first film in this franchise…It was a frosty masked slasher film from all the way up in Norway…The sequel is the closest living relative to the film that started this list, Halloween II…In this one, just like that one…We pick up right where we left off…Our heroine, Jannicke, played once again, by the incredible Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Westworld)…Has been taken to the hospital…And much like Laurie Strode…Is left dealing with a still alive masked slasher with a bit of an unhealthy fixation on her…And since belief of her story is in short supply…Jannicke is the only one able to take on the task of dispatching this creepy fucker straight down to Náströnd, the part of Viking Hell where Níðhöggr chews on the corpses of murderers…How ’bout that shit…Oh man…Ain’t Viking mythology cool?
The Ward (2010) – This is the last film made by my favorite director of all time, John Carpenter…And it came on the heels of a nine year break from feature film making, following the release of Ghosts of Mars...Carpenter felt burnt out after Ghosts, and it wasn’t until after he made his two incredible episodes for the Masters of Horror series, that he got the bug for directing back…And that was when the script from Michael Rasmussen, and Shawn Rasmussen came across his desk…These two were responsible for the screenplay for the recent natural horror film, Crawl…And as much as this film took harsh criticism…I personally enjoyed not only Carpenter’s tight visuals…But the hospital setting was unsettling to say the least…The hospital was actually an active mental hospital in Spokane, Washington…Carpenter, the cast, and the crew had to be caged in, while filming their scenes, to prevent the patients from interfering…So basically…I am once again asking you to ignore those fucking critics…And give ol’ J.C. a chance.
A Cure for Wellness (2016) – Gore Verbinski hadn’t touched a horror film since he directed 2002’s The Ring…He came back to the genre with this slimy bucket of slithering mindfuckery…And let me tell you…The ethereal world he constructed is creepy as hell…Dane DeHaan (Chronicle) stars as our protagonist, Lockhart…An executive, sent from the Big Apple to a bizarre little spa in the Swiss Alps, in an attempt to bring back their eccentric CEO…Following an accident, Lockhart becomes an unwitting patient in this place…A place that more closely resembles a mental hospital than it does a spa…And during his time there…He is exposed to the odd behaviors of the other patients…And the even odder behaviors of the guy in charge, the ever-resistant Dr. Volmer, played by the delightfully devilish, Jason Isaacs…And where the enigmatic mystery woman, Hannah, played by up and coming scream queen Mia Goth, is concerned…Everything about her is odd…It doesn’t take too long, but it is too late by the time Lockhart realizes that this place isn’t exactly what it seems to be.
Cult of Chucky (2017) – Before news of the recent reboot hit the interwebs…This twisted little nugget…A direct sequel to 2013’s Curse of Chucky…Came into our lives…From the mind of the creator of this franchise, Don Mancini…This film brings back characters from the original film…And from the sequels as well…For fans of this franchise like me…Bring-backs and shout-outs fill us with glee…The biggest of the bring-backs, is Alex Vincent reprising his childhood role, Andy Barclay, from the original film…Andy is all grown up…And fills his spare time with the task of torturing the disembodied, still animated head of his lifelong nemesis, Chucky…At the same time…We revisit the story of Nica, who in the last installment was given what’s known in the business as “the full Chucky treatment”…You know, when he kills your whole family, and then frames you for it…Nica is once again played by the incredibly talented Fiona Dourif (Yeah that’s right, the daughter of the man behind the puppet)…Who has spent the past four years, and the rest of the film…In a mental institution…This film was a ton of fun…And a welcome addition to the series.
The Void (2017) – This twisted little throwback to 80’s classics like The Thing, Hellraiser, The Beyond, and Prince of Darkness…Was written and directed by Jeremy Gillespie, and Steven Kostanski…two-fifths of the creative team known as Astron-6…They are the folks behind one of my 21st Century Cult Classics, Father’s Day…This film tells the story of the one night when all of the dark and nefarious things just happen to be afoot in this small town…Right under the noses of not just the townspeople, but also the police force…And as this frightening story unfolds…You will see some amazing practical effects that will fill your screen with gruesome gore…You will see outstanding performances from talented Canadian actors, like Aaron Poole…Whose portrayal of Deputy Daniel Carter was both authentic and organic…You will see things in this hospital that you’ve never seen before…And you might just see a film that will become one of your favorites, too.
The Video Store Clerk 