Visiting Hours
After a television journalist publicly confronts misogynistic violence, she becomes the target of a hospital-stalking murderer. Set largely within a medical building at night, the film turns an ordinary place of safety into a maze of vulnerability, surveillance and escalating panic.
Film details
| Original / alt title | Visiting Hours |
| Year | 1982 |
| Director | Jean-Claude Lord |
| Country | Canada |
| Runtime | Approx. 105 min |
| Main cast | Lee Grant, Linda Purl, Michael Ironside, William Shatner |
UK status
Appeared on the DPP list but was later dropped.
Now mostly treated as a solid early-1980s slasher-thriller with an especially strong cast.
Why it caused controversy
UK censorship / Video Nasties history
A quick status check first, followed by the film’s censorship timeline. A DPP prosecution was an obscenity case against a particular video publication — it was not automatically the same thing as a permanent nationwide “ban”.
Detailed censorship timeline & facts
FACTS & TRIVIA
- Michael Ironside plays the killer, a role that became one of his best-known early genre performances.
- Lee Grant gives the film a more prestigious presence than many slashers of the period.
- William Shatner also appears, adding to the film's cult appeal.
- The hospital-at-night setting provides a distinctive visual identity.
- The film touches on media violence and misogyny in a more explicit way than many slashers.
- Canadian horror and thriller films were especially prominent in this era.
- The cover artwork's paper-tear / blade imagery made the title highly memorable.
Distributor / VHS label
CBS/Fox Video (cover shown).
Trailer
Open a search for the original theatrical / VHS-era trailer. This keeps the archive linking to publicly available trailer sources rather than hosting copyrighted film footage.
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