Visiting Hours “The Fright, Get Well Soon” (1982)

Visiting Hours Aka “The Fright and Get Well Soon” is a slasher horror film directed by Jean-Claude Lord. The plot is focused on a feminist TV journalist Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant) who is being followed by a malicious serial killer who previously attacked her and wants to finish his work. Deborah’s view on women’s rights anger Colt Hawker who is one of the studios’ cleaning staff and a homicidal psycho and misogynist. Hawker despises woman ever since he was a young boy and saw his mother throw boiling oil on his father. He has developed a fascination on photographing his victims he stabs as they spasm to death. After more than a few closely related assaults and murders take place, Deborah tries to convince Gary Baylor (William Shatner) her boss, that she and her friend, Sheila Munroe (Linda Purl) are not safe. Deborah discovers the identity of the attacker and how he thinks, suspecting that she is his main target. Originally not cleared for video released and censored under UK’s “Video Nasty” list it is now available for purchase by Scream! Factory as a re-release and as a double feature on BluRay from its previous DVD that has been placed “Out of Print”.

Popcorn (1991)

Popcorn is an American horror film from 1991 directed by Mark Herrier and written by Alan Ormsby. The film revolves around a “Horror-thon” in an abandoned theater, when a mysterious murderer begins killing off the teenagers. The film focuses on a college film student Maggie Butler (Jill Schoelen) who has had recurring dreams about a young girl named Sarah who is being chased by a killer while being stuck in a house fire. Taking notes from her dreams, she plans to make a movie out of her dreams. Recently her mother Suzanne (Dee Wallace), who she lives with, has been receiving strange and threatening phone calls. A friend of the Professor, Toby D’Amato (Tom Villard) a film school student has a plan to throw an all-night “Horror-thon” to raise money for their department. They set up the “Horror-thon” at a now defunct Dreamland theater, an old building that’s about to be demolished in three weeks. Professor Davis (Tony Roberts) head of the film department is concerned about time constraints and has hired an expert on film memorabilia, Dr. Mnesyne (Ray Walston) who chooses the horror props for the festival. While setting up the props, they begin to see a mysterious figure roaming the theater.  The figure turns out to be Toby, who fifteen years-ago was badly burned as a child in a theater, after a showing of a horror movie with his mother, who was killed in the fire.  Now, he still holds a grudge against Suzanne and Maggie for being responsible for his mother’s death. He has deranged thoughts and now plans to exact his revenge on them by re-enacting the film he witnessed with his mother. As he acts out his revenge with murder scenes from the movie, he kidnaps Maggie and Suzanne, eventually finding out that the final cuts of the film end up destroying his plans. The film is thrilling, exciting and has a bit of comedy entwined within the film which made this film a cult classic among many as the film has gone out of print. The film is still very hard to find and expensive to purchase, but for its original plot and ideas coming from the horror culture, this film is a must own for your own horror collection. It still can be found in limited listings on eBay and for purchase on Amazon released by Elite Entertainment on DVD which is now discontinued. A domestic version of the film is planned to be released by Synapse Films on BluRay soon which will make this a well sought release.

The Dead Pit (1989)

The Dead Pit is a thrilling horror directed by Brett Leonard. The film starts with a crazed doctor / serial killer Dr. Ramzi (Danny Gochnauer) who performs open brain experiments on his patients, eventually turning them into crazed blood thirsty zombies. Within the confines of the asylum his colleague Dr. Gerald Swan (Jeremy Slate) finds out what he is doing in the cellar with the missing patients and ends up killing him and sealing up the cellar chamber with the patients and him in it, hoping that he can look past the gruesome experiments’ his partner performed within the asylum. Twenty years later the asylum is run by his partner who is a bit more kind on the human psyche, when one day a Jane Doe (Cheryl Lawson) appears complaining that she remembers her memory being removed and nothing else diagnosed with amnesia. Meanwhile during an eruption of earth quakes the seals to the chamber break open releasing the angry spirit of Dr. Ramzi and the zombie patients onto the unsuspecting new patients within the state institute. With Jane Doe’s acquaintance at the hospital Christian Meyers (Stephen Foster) they fight the relentless army of zombies finding their weakness and entombing them back to where they came from. The Dead Pit is a fun Horror/Thriller with many convincing actors and well done effects, this blast from the past is a must see. The Dead Pit is now available on DVD.