Visiting Hours is a 1982 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 starring Michael Ironside

Michael Ironside

Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...

, Lee Grant

Lee Grant

Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. She was blacklisted for 12 years from film work beginning in the mid-1950s, but worked in the theatre, and would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Carp in the...

, Linda Purl

Linda Purl

Linda Purl is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for portraying Ben Matlock's daughter Charlene Matlock in season one of Matlock.-Early life and education abroad:...

, William Shatner

William Shatner

William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

 and Lenore Zann

Lenore Zann

Lenore Zann is a politician as well as a screen, television, stage, and voice actress who has appeared in numerous television shows and films...

. It was directed by Jean-Claude Lord

Jean-Claude Lord

Jean-Claude Lord is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He was one of the most commercial of the Quebecois directors in the 1970s and aimed his feature films at a mass audience and dealt with political themes in a mainstream, Hollywood style.-Biography:Jean-Claude Lord began his career as...

 and written by Brian Taggert.

Plot

Deborah Ballin (Grant), a feminist activist, inspires the wrath of misogynistic psychopath and serial killer Colt Hawker (Ironside) on a TV talk show. He attacks her, but she survives and is sent to County General Hospital.

Hawker begins stalking her. Deborah befriends nurse Sheila Munroe (Purl), who admires her devotion to women's rights. Hawker murders an elderly patient and a nurse. He overhears Sheila's opinions on Deborah and "that bastard" who attacked her. Hawker decides to focus his attention on Sheila, stalking her and her children at home.

Hawker courts a young punk girl named Lisa (Zann), then brutally beats, tortures, and rapes her. The next day, Deborah discovers that the patient and nurse have been killed, so she suspects her attacker is back to finish the job. She tries to convince her boss, Gary Baylor (Shatner), and Sheila that she is not safe, but both think she is simply paranoid.

Hawker visits his father, who was disfigured years ago by his mother, explaining his hatred for self-defending women. Soon he tries again to kill Deborah, but is thwarted by her security. A frantic Sheila is paged and finds Lisa (whose wounds she had treated) waiting for her. Lisa says she knows the identity of Deborah's attacker, and where he lives.

Before she can alert anyone, Sheila gets an ominous phone call from Hawker, warning her that he is in her house with her young daughter and babysitter. She sends Lisa to warn Deborah, then rushes home, only to find her daughter and babysitter safe in bed. She places a call to Deborah, but a hidden Hawker springs forth, stabs Sheila in the stomach and pushes her to the ground, phone to her ear, torturing her for Deborah to hear. He moves toward Sheila's young daughter. Sheila can only scream in terror. At the last second, he walks out, leaving Sheila to die.

Hawker goes home, where he devises one last plan to get to Deborah. He busts a beer bottle underneath his arm, wounding himself badly. Gary and Deborah have an ambulance sent to Sheila's house. Still alive, but badly wounded, she is rushed to the hospital. Gary accompanies the police to Hawker's apartment, where they discover photos of Hawker's previous victims, as well as of Deborah and Sheila. They also learn that the wounded Hawker has been taken to County General.

Just as Sheila is taken into the emergency room, Hawker is wheeled in. After being bandaged and medicated, Hawker sneaks away to find Deborah and attacks her. She flees to an elevator. In the basement, she goes into a radiography room, finding a helpless Sheila, all alone, waiting for X-rays.

Realizing she must lure Hawker away to protect Sheila, Deborah leaves and deliberately gives her location away. As Hawker approaches the curtain she is hiding behind, Deborah stabs and kills him. Sheila is wheeled to safety, while Gary comforts Deborah, who faints at the sight of what she has done.

Cast

Actor / Actress	Character
Michael Ironside Michael Ironside Michael Ironside is a Canadian-born actor. He has also worked as a voice actor, producer, film director, and screenwriter in movie and television series in various Canadian and American productions. He is best known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, though he has also portrayed...	Colt Hawker
Lee Grant Lee Grant Lee Grant is an American stage, film and television actress, and film director. She was blacklisted for 12 years from film work beginning in the mid-1950s, but worked in the theatre, and would eventually win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Felicia Carp in the...	Deborah Ballin
Linda Purl Linda Purl Linda Purl is an American actress and singer, perhaps best known for portraying Ben Matlock's daughter Charlene Matlock in season one of Matlock.-Early life and education abroad:...	Sheila Munroe
William Shatner William Shatner William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...	Gary Baylor
Lenore Zann Lenore Zann Lenore Zann is a politician as well as a screen, television, stage, and voice actress who has appeared in numerous television shows and films...	Lisa
Harvey Atkin Harvey Atkin Harvey Atkin is a Canadian voice actor who has worked in feature films and television. He has also done voice-overs, and has voiced animations.- Early life :...	Vinnie Bradshaw
Michael J. Reynolds Michael J. Reynolds Michael J. Reynolds , Garda Síochána 17673G and recipient of the Scott Medal, 1945-1975.-Incident at St. Anne's Park:A native of Kilconnell, Ballinasloe, Reynolds was one of a number of Gardaí who responded to an armed robbery at the Bank of Ireland, Killester, Dublin, on the afternoon of 11...	Porter Halstrom
Len Watt	Clement Pine
Kirsten Bishop Kirsten Bishop Kirsten Bishop is a voice actress best known for her roles as Zoycite, Emerald, Kaorinite, Telulu and Badiyanu in the English version of Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Super S: The Movie.-Filmography:...	Denise
Robby Robinson Robby Robinson Robby Robinson is an American former bodybuilder who won the IFBB Mr. America, Mr. World and Mr. Universe titles. He was the Masters Olympia overall champion the first year that the event was held in 1994 and then went on to win the 50+ division at that same contest in both 1997 and 2000...  (as Robbie Robinson)	Matthew
Lorena Gale Lorena Gale Lorena Gale was a Canadian actress, director, and writer. She was active onstage and in films and television since the 1980s...	Nurse 1

Release

The film was released theatrically in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 by 20th Century Fox

20th Century Fox

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...

 in May 1982.

This movie appeared on the UK's "Video Nasty

Video nasty

"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse and various religious organizations.While violence...

" list, even though it was the same version that had been cut for a cinema release there. The uncut version was broadcast by ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 in 1989, which resulted in censure by the Broadcasting Standards Council as this version had not been cleared for video release.

The film was released on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment

Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...

 in 2006. This release is currently out of print

Out of print

Out of print refers to an item, typically a book , but can include any print or visual media or sound recording, that is in the state of no longer being published....

. It will be re-released by Shout Factory along with Bad Dreams

Bad Dreams (film)

-Plot:It is the mid-1970s. A sinister hippy cult called Unity Fields commits mass suicide in a horrific manner - by fire - at the behest of its psychopathic leader, Franklin Harris . Only one young woman named Cynthia survives to tell the tale...

as a double feature DVD on September 13, 2011.