Hospital Massacre aka X-Ray (1981)
Directed by Boaz Davidson
Ah another 80s slasher I haven’t seen before. I own this on CED, so I finally decided to give it a watch. The fact that it is a Canon Film release, lets you know what you’re getting yourself into. A slasher made by Canon? What’s not to love?
Hospital Massacre or X-Ray, whatever you want to call it, my CED says Hospital Massacre so I’ll stick to that, is about a woman going to a hospital, where she is trapped on the 8th floor while a madman dressed as a doctor is killing people. Straight forward, nothing too imaginative, simple slasher. Is it good? Eh, it was alright. The movie moves kind of slow, there are lots of dull moments and walking around. Barbi Benton did a decent job as the main character, who’s name escapes me. Of course having her in the movie means she has to be toples, but did the doctor have to be so touchy feely? It was a little unnerving haha. The killer wasn’t anything special, just a dude in scrubs and a surgical mask. The kills weren’t over the top crazy, the amount of blood was excessive at times to the point of hilarity. One thing I did notice was the crazy amount of force in the stabbings. Dude went apeshit bananas with the knife haha.
Not sure why, but was ever hospital in the 80s dimly lit? This and Halloween 2 & 3 have me thinking this is true. I’m terrible with character names so I really can’t remember anyone’s. Is that because of lack of depth or because I’m an idiot? You decide. Nothing about this movie really makes it stand out from the crowd, which is what hurts it the most. It isn’t great, it isn’t bad, it just is. Sometimes those are the most forgettable slashers, this feels that way. I was entertained but found myself bored in between kills and nude scenes. I have no connection with the characters.
I’m happy I was able to cross this off my list, and that my CED of this played all the way through without skipping, which is tough for this format. I found myself at a loss of words when typing this review, nothing about this movie is impressive, and nothing is so bad that it caused any kind of emotion with me. At the end of the day Hospital Massacre was meh, happy it didn’t suck, but for that I gave it a C-.
