Recently I confronted my childhood fears and sat down to watch Visiting Hours. My inspiration was twofold: on one hand, films where veteran character actors get to play lead roles are pretty rare, and Michael Ironside is one of the more compelling actors out there. Also, a part of me was curious to see if it would live up to the feeling of dread it invoked when I saw those ads on TV as a kid.

The story opens with a talk show in which television journalist Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant) defends a battered woman who had recently killed her husband in self defense. Watching at home, an angry man yanks the cord out of the wall. Later that evening, Ballin is attacked and almost killed in her home by the same man. She is rushed to the nearest hospital, unaware that her attacker is along for the ride.

Any mysteries regarding the assailant are soon dissolved, as we grow to learn quite a bit about this man. His name is Colt Hawker (Michael Ironside), and his anger does not just extend to women. Plastered on the walls of his apartment are copies of letters written to various media outlets (including MTV), complaining about women, blacks, Jews, and presumably every minority ever allowed a few minutes of screen time. He’s impotent and gets his kicks from cutting women up. And he may or may not have been molested by his drunken father, who was disfigured by his mother during a domestic dispute.

Ironside dives into the role with his usual intensity, only here there’s no respite. The camera moves from Hawker at home, to Hawker at the hospital, to Hawker stalking someone at their home. His two primary victims, Ballin and her nurse (Linda Purl), are each given equal screen time, but he’s always lurking just outside of the shot.

While it does have elements of a slasher film, Visiting Hours falls into a grey area. It’s more of a crime drama than a horror movie. Rather than sympathize with the killer, as many such films were accused of at the time, he is depicted as an extreme example of conservative moral indignation run rampant. Hawker seems to be fighting against the idea of feminism itself, and in doing so he becomes justification for it. The only ambiguity left in the film is whether or not Ballin will fight back, thus betraying her pacifist beliefs – but we know that a showdown is imminent.

Visiting Hours will not be regarded as a classic to many outside of the grindhouse/cult movie crowd, but it is a tightly crafted example of fine Canadian filmmaking. If it does qualify as an 80s slasher movie, it’s arguably one of the best.

The film also inexplicably stars William Shatner and Harvey Atkin (“Morty” from Meatballs).

- Reviewed by Ryan O.