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April 25th, 2006
04:54 pm - So...
I watched Visiting Hours, part of The Final Girl film Club. Maybe it wasn't fair to watch it right after John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, which is the same length, but uses its time much more effectively.
For a slasher movie, Visiting Hours sure takes its time to get going. Most slasher movies start slowly and introduce all the victims to be, but this movie starts with a Dawn of the Dead-like TV Studio Debate, and then our heroine (I think) goes home and is subjected to a series of "fake" shocks involving parrots and running water before Michael Ironside, butt naked and wearing her jewelry, attacks. Then, for no apparent reason, some guy walks into the house, and suddenly we're at the hospital, where we can assume the movie will assume a Halloween 2 vein.
Or not.
See, we're at the 20 minute mark in a 105 minute movie, so there's a LOT of digressing.
This may be the first slasher movie I can remember where we spend more time with the killer than his victims. (Imagine if The Silence of the Lambs was 80% Buffalo Bill and 20% Clarice) Michael Ironside spends inordinate amounts of time wandering around and scheming, only to decide that he's not committed enough to go ahead and kill any of the THREE people he's stalking. Instead, he goes and hangs out with his dad, ignores his neighbors, and takes pictures of people who may or may not die at the end (sorry, no spoilers for you!)
What I don't get is why the beginning of the movie goes to such great lengths to hid his face, then suddenly decides he's the only interesting part of the movie (which, I guess, he is) and spends so much time with him, even devoting a backstory to justify why he stalks and kills(?) people. Plus, he takes photos of his victims, even if he kills them by accident! (oops! spoiler)
The ending is filled with so many contrivances to prevent all of our heroines from tying everything up nicely, and William Shatner is utterly wasted in a role that requires him eat ice cream and stare forward. He doesn't even get to talk enough for Shatner-isms to break through.
But, again, I may have subconsciously compared this film to Prince of Darkness, and that is just not fair.
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