Deborah Ballin (Lee Grant), a TV journalist and rigorous campaigner of women’s rights finishes a television appearance calling for the support of battered women that murdered their husbands. She returns home for a few gratifying moments of relaxation when she is viciously attacked by an intruder, but after a quick chase and blind luck Deborah escapes his murderous intent. However, this madman refuses to accept anything other than her precious, significant death, so he decides to search for her at the hospital, but complicating the situation by making it even more interesting for this woman-hating killer is Deborah’s confident, headstrong nurse Sheila Munroe (Linda Purl). Now, the killer has two targets in mind with the same merciless outcome intended for both of them.
In the long run, Visiting Hours plays out like a made-for-television movie of the week that was inherently popular in the past, with slightly more but unimpressionable bloodletting. Lee Grant and Linda Purl fill in the roles nicely as brave and courageous modern day women, but strong enough only for a soap opera about consequences of overeating pastry. Right next to Lee Grant is William Shatner as Gary Baylor, her agent and goof-in-waiting.
What I loved about this movie, was the cinematic approach director Jean-Claud Lord used on the killer Colt Hawker, played by Michael Ironside. For the first quarter of the movie his face, while always bare, is intentionally kept out of view by using meticulous lighting effects and precise camera maneuvers. You never get the sense that this movie is about him, but once his face is fully revealed to the audience the story is suddenly flipped on its head, and we begin to learn all about our misogynistic maestro and his contempt towards women.
Visiting Hours isn’t something I would recommend for viewing pleasure, but if someone was studying moviemaking and visual approaches to characters, I would suggest taking a look. The carnage is minimal with definitely one but maybe two or three frightening moments. Other than that it isn’t anything you can’t watch any day on the Lifetime Movie Network.
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