jellopuke How did anyone look at this script and think "sure, that's plausible!" ????? They keep trying to make you wonder who the killer could be by making EVERYONE in the hospital totally creepy and insane, but all that serves to do is make the entire plot unbelievable to the extreme. Sure there's gratuitous Barbi Benton nudity, but it's really creepy and the whole movie just drags because the director thinks that by doing something slow it builds suspense when it just makes you want to fast forward. Even for Canon films, this is bad.

Michael_Elliott Hospital Massacre (1982) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Incredibly strange, over-the-top and at times downright crazy slasher about a young woman who sees her best friend murdered after they laugh at a boy who left her a Valentine's Day card. Flash-forward nineteen years and the now woman (Barbi Benton) is at the hospital for a check up when a madman begins killing everyone trying to get to her. HOSPITAL MASSACRE, also known as X-RAY and several other titles, is a pretty poor movie that has so many unintentionally laughable moments that you really can't help but have fun with it. Director Boaz Davidson has said that he didn't know too much about the genre and had never made a slasher so he was pretty much just throwing everything in that he could. This includes all sorts of silly "jump" sequences, which are just downright silly at times and even worse is how everything gets drawn out to the point where you just get tired of watching it. There are simply way too many sequences where scenes keep on going and going when they should have been much shorter. A bit more editing probably would have made the film much more entertaining. There are some things here that are good and this includes the gore. The film contains a pretty large amount of blood especially for a film of this era when most were being cut up by the MPAA. Another memorable thing is the "performance" as the killer because it's just so crazy and over-the-top that you can't help but laugh at times. Still, the weirdness of the character certainly makes you remember him. Benton is decent in the role and manages to show off her Playmate breasts during a rather awkward examination sequence. The rest of the performances are certainly below par but they add to some of the laughs. HOSPITAL MASSACRE is mainly going to appeal to those who enjoy those bad slashers of the decade. You have to leave it to Cannon as they really did deliver a pretty wild little film.

Bloodwank I sometimes wonder why hospital horror isn't more of a booming sub-genre. Personally I can't think of a much more nightmare concept than a place of healing turned to harm, of those we entrust with our health turned against our better interests. Hospital Massacre doesn't take on the task in an especially advanced manner but it does manage to stand out a little from its obscure slasher contemporaries. Its success is rooted in a marriage of weirdness to smart pace, offbeat tone with enough excitement and strange sights to move remarkably smoothly. The film is focused on the unfortunate Susan, pursued by an amorous nut-case who has already maligned her in childhood and now takes the opportunity to turn a routine hospital visit into a frightening collision of Kafka and slasher cheese by way of a bit of result tampering. Yep, you read right, Kafka. The hospital and staff in this one are about the least welcoming, least friendly imaginable with our heroine treated in fashion uncannily similar to a prisoner in some arbitrary dictatorship, doctors and nurses like cold, faceless prison guards and an utter lack of comfort or information despite her supposedly perilous health. And it isn't just the staff that are off, there are strange patients too including mean old ladies and a wandering drunk. The general treatment of all of this is rather more melodramatic than chilling, but it stews rather nicely and is happily spiked with murders, oftimes nicely mean if never especially gory. Barbi Benton has an appealing presence as the bedevilled Susan, lovely looking lady and enthusiastic too, she doesn't act much above soap opera levels but carries the film amply, while Charles Lucia makes for an effectively barmy villain. Excess seems to be the key to the writing and direction, so murders are pushed into jabbering lunacy, moments of style or tension bust out at random and strangeness pulses thickly at all times. I do wish the film mustered more intensity earlier on though, it only really comes ablaze in the final twenty something minutes and it definitely could have done with more gore and death, though what's there is fun and often portrayed with flair somehow it comes off with little impact. There are also bits and bobs of silliness that go above and beyond the general tone of the film and I had a few minor gripes about things like the lack of hospital personnel, off performances from supporting characters and so on. Still, overall I was reasonably impressed by this one, surprisingly strange, occasionally inspired and never dull, better than average for a no count early 80's slasher, that's for darned sure. Definitely worth a watch if this sort of thing takes your fancy, though it won't convert anyone doesn't. Solid 7/10 from me then...

Aaron1375 This movie is nothing great or original as it has the same setting as the previous years horror film "Halloween II". Granted this one does not feature a super killer and has a bit more mystery to it than that movie, still it does seem to copy that movie especially considering how close they were as far as release dates and such. It is also far fetched when you find out the killer and the reason behind the massacre. Still, as far as slasher movies of the 80's this one is watchable if not good. It has been a long time since I last saw this one, but I remember there being a somewhat good amount of people killed in this one, but in the end none of the deaths must have been all that memorable as I can not recall a single one. The main thing I remember is the killer and why he killed and the cover of the video tape as it featured a person in a doctor outfit covered in blood and standing over a patient holding a knife. Probably a case where the cover was actually better than the movie as a whole. There were a lot worse movies though made during this time, this one is watchable, but also it is most certainly forgettable.