Horror Hospital (1973) User Reviews

They Don't Make 'Em Like This Anymore!

[- Chumpy · 4/10 · 23 November 2000]

This is another film I remember from childhood, from the days of regular TV (free, broadcast, and adjust the "rabbit ears" for reception), as a crappy but atmospheric British monster picture.

Now, not only on cable, but on a premium service, I came across it again - and in letterbox format no less. Well, the film is still basically very flawed, but it really shows how much better crafted films once were.

While it remains a simplistic lots of onscreen gore effort, this picture is so much more beautiful to look at than many produced today. The cinematography is consistently superior, and well supported by excellent lighting and generally well scored music. And even though the special effects don't match up to todays films they retain some value in that they have more visual "weight" than some of the CGI crap routinely inserted in modern movies.

Unfortunately the wacky plot and mediocre (well, sometimes bad) acting show through in the end. It may be that the director was trying for a lot of humor at points but it only worked for me towards the end of the film when one of those fleeing the burning building stops for a snack in the kitchen.

As for the beheading car mentioned in another review: that particular element is worthy of Austin Powers' "Dr. Evil." I can see the good doctor in this movie also calling out "All I'm asking for is for some frickin' sharks with lasers on their heads."

If you've seen this before on broadcast TV, it may be worth a second look on video or DVD for the cinematography and for the sexual elements which explain the plot a little more. In the TV version I saw as a kid, the sexual theme was not at all evident, and so, the plot seemed even more outlandish than it actually is.

Still, if you happen by this big-time cable it may catch your interest, but all the way along you'll wonder why any premium channel could have chosen this film from their catalog. There are quite simply so many more old British shockers which are better than Horror Hospital."

-SCG

Garbled mess entertains royally.

[hitchcockthelegend · 5/10 · 12 January 2016]

It's one of those creaky British horrors that always show up on the BBC in the early hours of the morning. The reason for this is that the only ones watching are the drunks staggering in from the pub, or the insomniacs interested in a thrill to pass the time away with. The former are the better off because this is a film where not being of sober mind can only aid the viewing.

It's bonkers in plotting, Robin Askwith (just prior to his shift into a sex comedy franchise) is a stressed out singer with a pop group. He decides to go for some R&R at a country retreat. He hooks up with Vanessa Shaw on the train journey in, and once they arrive at the retreat they find it's a bizarro world inhabited by mute bikers, lobotomised robots, a malignant dwarf and a mad doctor (Michael Gough) in a wheelchair!

That's pretty much it, not much makes sense, there's a little sexy nudity, a whole host of sequences where the zombies do nothing of interest, some scenes of the dwarf (Skip Martin) mixing potions and puddings, and some cool fake fights between Askwith and chums and the crash helmet bikers. It plods along gleefully to the finale's big reveal and chase/escape sequence, to round it off as car crash cinema. Splendidly bad and joyful in subtexts. 5/10

REST CURE?

[mmthos · 6/10 · 16 July 2020]

Ah, the stresses of a young rock and roller, they can drive you to Horror Hospital! (Cue the scary organ chord), where you'll be a fine young specimen for the Evil Doctor's nefarious ends. I enjoyed this satiric romp thru old-time British horror movies. Doesn't hit you over the head with Ha-Ha funny, but it keeps the subtle little drolleries coming, and I found myself amused with a little smile on my face most of the time. The "vacation package" to hell that our hero purchases is targeted "for under 30's" and clearly so is this film. Having been well under 30 myself in 1973, I could relate. The villains, however, are seasoned old pros, perfectly balancing the tightrope of both menacing and amusing. The arbitrariness of the action is part of the fun, and i couldn't believe some of the far-fetched elements they threw in that kept me interested and entertained . . With emphasis on humor rather than horror, effects are outlandish and cheesy. But there is a Death Car worthy of a James Bond Baddy

Rocky Horror Inspiration

[hnybny · 30 April 2002]

If Richard O'Brien, writer of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show", wasn't inspired to write his movie after seeing "Horror Hospital" I'd be very surprised. So many similar subjects: sexually active couple in old castle/mansion, leather clad bikers, gore, evil doctor, brain manipulated minions. Even the couple's arrival is almost a carbon copy of Brad and Janet's greeting by Riff Raff who is in this case a freaky dwarf (pc - little person). This movie was released in 73' which would have been just a year before he began the songs for his soon to be musical "Rock(y) Horror Show." This is a must see for any RHPS fans.

Not exactly good, but offbeat

[ofumalow · 5/10 · 25 September 2021]

This lands about halfway between a straight-faced (if over-the-top) horror film and a "Carry On" spoof of the genre, plus some sexploitation catering to the audience of the smutty softcore farces the male lead spent much of his big-screen career in.

The veteran actors are having fun, and the movie has a weird sort of generation-gap air to it in having hippie-ish youth used, abused and murdered by their elders at the titular "resort" where Robin Askwind is lured for a holiday. But the kids (also including the female lead, a pleasant presence who seems to have retired from the profession after this--maybe because she's so frequently and brusquely disrobed here) really seem to be present not so much to be "turned into zombies" as to offer sexy young bodies the camera can ogle. The male lead is an OK farceur in a rather manic, Michael Crawford/Tommy Steele-ish way, but god, he is hard to look at, like Mick Jagger's pugly brother.

The film has some energy and eccentricity that make it watchable, the problem being that it doesn't take itself seriously enough as a horror movie to be frightening (despite some rather surprisingly zesty, beheading-focused gore), while its silly humor isn't clever enough to be particularly funny. It doesn't blend the two angles with any confidence, either, yet the combination here is odd enough to raise it a notch or two above routine horror comedies of the era. As others have noted, the macabre camp tone that doesn't quite work nonetheless feels like an intriguing warmup for the future likes of "Rocky Horror" (and there's even a cross-dressing rocker at the beginning, though that's the end of the musical interludes, alas). Anyway, worth a look, but you'd have to be a big fan of lower-brow 1970s British film comedies or all things Hammer-esque to think it's more than an almost-good curiosity.

Rarely a dull moment!

[parry_na · 7/10 · 21 September 2019]

'Horror Hospital' is a cheap and very cheerful slice of sexy, early '70s horror sleaze. It's probably the most polished director Anthony Balch made before his untimely death at the age of 42 in 1980. It was also the final acting job for Vanessa Shaw (Judy) who seems to have retired after this.

The cast is impressive. Robin Askwith - whose roles in often hugely un-PC fare such as 'Bless This House', 'Confessions of a Window Cleaner' and 'Carry On, Girls' haven't stifled a prolific career - plays Jason, a true-to-form randy twit who emerges as a kind of hero toward the end (his first words to Judy are, 'Relax, I'm not gonna rape you'). Skip Martin, fresh from Hammer's 'Vampire Circus', is Frederick. Also starring are Eileen Pollock, Dennis Price and top-billed Michael Gough, who puts far more effort into his role as Dr Storm than he did for Hammer's ground-breaking 'Dracula'. You might wonder what these people are doing in gory nonsense like this among a supporting cast of mostly non-actors, but the fact remains - it's gruesomely good fun.

Delicious bad and simple '70's genre work.

[Boba_Fett1138 · 4/10 · 17 September 2007]

The atmosphere of this movie is unmistakably '70's like, with ridicules hair-cuts and outfits. The movie is like many other genre movies from the '70's, meaning that it features nudity, lots of gore and yes also a dwarf. The movie further more of course also features some really bad sound and fake looking reddish '70's blood. The acting is below par, as you would expect, with the exception of course of Michael Gough, who's presence alone is good enough to uplift this movie. He is not as well known as a Peter Cushing or a Christopher Lee but his acting is always excellent.

The movie is unnecessarily slow at times. Some sequences go on for too long without really adding something to the build up or the overall story and movie. It doesn't make the movie always flow really well and make the movie feel overlong, even though it's well below 2 hours short.

The atmosphere and horror elements of the movie are rather good. The movie uses some nice and atmospheric settings and some effective but simple cinematography. Michael Gough also adds to the movie its atmosphere and horror, also with the help of his killing automobile and mysterious henchmen and other strange characters.

The story itself is quite ridicules, mainly because it isn't going anywhere really. Therefor the movie perhaps makes a bit of a pointless impression but overall the movie is entertaining enough to consider this a simple and typically enjoyable '70's genre movie.

Obviously a movie for fans only.

4/10

http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Absurd garbage? You bet!

[lost-in-limbo · 7/10 · 15 February 2006]

A worn out musician decides to take break and go a relaxing vacation. He chooses to stay at health farm located out in the country and on the way there, he meets a girl on the train going to the same place to see her aunty. The mysteriously mean, but crippled Dr. Storm, who's performing brain surgery on the holidaymakers and turning them into his obedient zombies, runs the resort. When the two teens find out about his insane experiments and learn that's their fate. They go out of their way to get away. But they not only have the doctor to face, but also his dwarf sidekick, an army of leather wearing zombies and that of a hideous monster.

Just wait a second, as I just pick up my jaw from the ground. Now, what was that all about!? "Horror Hospital" has got to be one of the most ridiculous and over-exaggerated horror films that I've ever came across, but you know what? I had a real ball with this blend of macabre and camp! That's high camp of a VERY demented type. The praise that I've given makes it sound great and I had a good old time with it. Although, don't be expecting anything particularly fresh and this deranged piece is one downright messy film that doesn't have any idea of the word coherence. So from that point it recycles the same old formula and leaves a lot of things up in the air. The clichés and predictability flows freely, without any sort of constraints. Also forget about logic in the script and story as that's thrown out of the window for absurd situations that don't make much sense. Actually the whole film doesn't make a whole a lot of sense, with the so many potholes and laziness. There's so much going on in the plot that there's such vagueness to everything and the problem is it tries to squeeze too much madness without explaining what happen before it and how it came to that situation. But all is forgiven because it's so abnormal and hugely enjoyable. So, just go with the flow because if you try to decipher what's going on, you'll receive a splitting headache for your troubles. The whole mysterious awe about what's going is just so hard to shake that I couldn't keep my eyes off it.

The actual story is no more then a melodrama disguised as a Gothic shocker, which spurts along some exploitation and black humour along the way. Actually, the whole thing turns into a black farce with everything being poked fun at and the blood splattering is pretty much in a comic book state. Because of that the violence isn't particularly gruesome and it doesn't make you squirm, but the gratuitous bloodletting and nudity does run freely. Damn those leather-clad zombies really do like to hand out a beating! The great thing about it is that everyone involved knows how stupid it really is and don't take the thing so seriously. The performances are plain awful and purely amateurish to say the least. But it's Michael Gough's hellishly campy performance that steals the lime light as the crazy Doctor and Skip Martin as Frederick the dwarf adds a cheeky vibe to the film. The dialogue joins it with its ineptness. But even though these things are terrible there's some energy amongst it and you can't go wrong with the tongue-in-cheek approach it takes. Another strong feature is that of the setting. The resort, which more looks like a castle on the inside, has an oppressive awe about it and the grand Gothic exterior makes it look larger and menacing than it really is. Being isolated in the countryside helps provide such a brood atmosphere too. Although, it's definitely hilariously bad, it still does have its eerie moments worked in. Also the robust score builds on the suspense and uneasiness greatly and the soundtrack is reasonably groovy. Well, what do expect from that era. Really, this is purely utter ham that breathes sadism and sleaze in a very cheap way.

No way can you call this a good film, because it's not. The aim of the flick is to entertain with it being heavily laced with bloody, sleazy and humorous context. Even if the production is pure rubbish, it does it effectively enough that I can see this becoming a guilty pleasure of mine. Only for people who really enjoy camp horror and if you do, you're in for one big treat.

Inept Horror Movie

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 16 July 2005]

A lot of people seem to be under the impression that this film is a deliberate attempt at doing a blackly comical horror movie and I guess the opening dialogue of " Look at that faggot . He thinks he's Greta Garbo but he looks like a lemon meringue pie " does give the impression that HORROR HOSPITAL is tongue in cheek but I think it's a just an awful movie

Take Judy's introduction scene where she meets Jason on the train ( And lets ignore the fact of how this defies statistical odds ) where she feels uncomfortable in the company of the laddish bloke but for reasons known only to the screenwriter tells both Jason and the audience her entire life story . Yeah I know it's exposition but couldn't it have been done in a more logical manner ? In fact that's the serious problem with the movie there's no type of internal or external logic . Dr Storm gets pushed about in a wheelchair but it's revealed at the end that he never needed a wheelchair in the first place so why has he spent most of the running time in one ? Why haven't the relatives of the lobotomised zombies tracked their loved ones down with the exception of Millie's boyfriend ? These and a hundred other questions are never answered and while HORROR HOSPITAL never really takes itself too seriously that's no excuse for delivering a screenplay ridden with plot holes

The directing isn't much better and feels like it was filmed in a cheap and cheerless manner by film students . The female characters of Judy and Millie are played by very pretty girls but unfortunately it's obvious their talents as actresses are non existent which makes me think they were only cast because they were the only females the producers could get who were willing to appear naked . Robin Askwith is alright as Jason but did we expect an Oscar worthy performance ? And I'm afraid Michael Gough is totally wasted . Gough could have been one of Britain's greatest actors of the 20th Century but his undoubted talents were wasted in appearing in total garbage like this , KONGA , TROG and SATAN'S SLAVE . Perhaps the quality of this movie can be summed up by the title credits which read " Guest starring Dennis Price " . When you've got a movie advertising cast members you've never heard of that's always a bad sign

Bloody campy goofy sleazy awesomeness.

[destenjohnson · 7/10 · 20 November 2016]

Computer Killers is bloody, campy, goofy, sleazy awesomeness. I originally found this film titled as Horror Hospital.

I enjoyed the acting style because it is over the top and different from what we generally see today.

The film takes place in only a few settings but the one I'm drawn too the most is the train early in the film. The two stranger meet in a simple way but their dialog made me want to laugh and wonder how and why it was chosen. This goes for most of the dialog throughout the film. It is strange, straightforward and wacky without completely going to crazy town.

Overall, the film feels like a good combination of horror and comedy.

I would watch this again, and I will be recommending it to friends. This film is a treat for 70's horror fan. It may be a bit hard to watch if you are not a hardcore horror watcher. If you are on the fence about seeking out this movie, I say go now!

Stunning Piece of British Deconstruction

[crikeymiles · 10/10 · 31 October 2005]

This film is a wonder. If one was to happen across it one Sunday afternoon, sober and alone, one might struggle to immediately spot its worth.

However, do NOT pass this film by. Director Balch has here crafted a masterclass in horror/b-movie aesthetic and inconsistency. The gleeful abandon with which the film disposes of continuity and good sense is a constant joy - it impossible not to shout "REWIND" every 10mins.

Robin Askwith's frottage, Dennis Price's priceless mirror speech, the musical motorcycles, the guard Dalmatian, the zombie ticket-man, the slugman escape, the "sandwich incident", the hilarious incomprehensibility of Michael Gough's Doctor Storm's central plan, the delectable Judy Peter's, the greatest chat-up line in screen history (sadly unrepeatable here...) and one very fine facial performance after another from the diminutive Skip Martin.

Please, rent or buy this film, grab a your mates and a crate of cheap beer and keep the remote control nearby - this film, from the same year as The Wicker Man and Don't Look Now, defines the genre with its aggressive deconstruction of horror clichés and sizzling script.

Deliciously grotesque 70's horror flick!

[Coventry · 7/10 · 17 July 2005]

Elderly horror films starring Michael Gough as a dangerously insane butcher are always great fun, since the gore is so over-the-top and the story lines are so hilariously inept. Just look at "Horrors of the Black Museum" or "Satan's Slave", for example! It simply seems that casting Michael Gough inevitably results in a horror film that can't possibly be taken serious. "Horror Hospital" lifts up this theory to an even higher level of grotesquerie, as the plot is indescribably absurd, Gough's character is more demented than ever and the script is just filled with goofs, stupidities and illogicalness! Michael Gough is Doctor Christian Storm, supposedly a brilliant disciple of Pavlov once, but now a crippled lunatic who enjoys swooping off people's heads with his Rolls Royce (now there's one killing method you have to see in order to believe!). Although he's not very good at it, Storm attempts to control and master human feelings of sexuality so he performs brain-operations on youngsters and keeps their zombified leftovers locked away in his rural castle. You can't really be too harsh on this film, since writer/directed Antony Balch clearly opted for a light-headed and comical tone. Cliché after cliché is unscrupulously presented while the violence (although plenty of it) is never shocking or disturbing. Not once during the whole film I really understood what exactly Storm is trying to achieve with his operations (my best guess is that he wants to copulate with the female patients after disfiguring their brains), but I gladly witnessed how he cut open their heads and served the brains on a plate for them to see! The castle (referred to in the movie as a "health-farm") is a great horror setting and there are a couple of very ingenious gimmicks. The most fun definitely is to track down all the things in "Horror Hospital" that don't make the slightest bit of sense: the machete attached to the car can't possibly reach someone's head (unless they were all midgets like Skip Martin) and Storm's biker-henchmen just seem to keep on coming, like they're appearing out of nowhere. This movie is one of those exquisite British horror oddities released during the early 70's; too silly to be produced by Hammer but way too much fun to forget about them entirely. Watch it when you can!

Cheepo British "horror" with no redeeming features!

[Redcitykev · 3/10 · 29 February 2008]

In Britain between the rise of Hammer Horror films, sometime around 1958 and the release of their version of 'Dracula', and the early/mid 1970's there were scores of cheep horror films released. These can, I believe, be placed into one of three categories, Low Budget Classic (ie the aforementioned 'Dracula', its stablemate of the same period 'Frankenstein', 'The Pit and The Pendulum' etc), Cult Films like 'Circus of Horrors', 'Scream and Scream Again' etc, and the outright awful! Guess which category I would place 'Horror Hospital'?! This film is simply ludicrous, far too illogical, even within the world it has created for itself, and so poorly put together that it gets nowhere near being a LBC, and falls so short of being a Cult that it is laughable.

I am aware that it is difficult to view any horror film of any age by modern day standards, the genre has moved on so rapidly, and become so much more graphic, but even by comparing this film to its contemporaries it falls well short of any real horror and scares. Today it is about as scary as a wet weekend in Weston-Super-Mare (for non-Brits that is a seaside town in the west of England that is mainly populated by the over 60's!, a British equivalent of, say, Atlantic City!). The concept of a Health Farm - not even a proper hospital note! (the makers had to squeeze in a line of dialogue to justify the title!) - being used for experimentation on the feckless youth of the day - young people who, of course, no one will notice have gone missing (don't these kids have parents?) and turned into "zombies" (although as "zombies" I would have thought that Dr Storm would have found better things to use them for beyond that of acrobatics!) is beyond belief. To go into all the plot holes would take all day, but I have one question, why do all the thugs wear leathers and crash helmets all the time, even when in doors? (Apart, of course, to disguise the fact that at least one is a woman! When was the last time you saw a male thug clearly wearing lipstick?!) The one really big question about this mess of a film is this, just how did talented people like Michael Gough, Ellen Pollock and, most notably, Dennis Price, became embroiled in such rubbish? Wait... I have thought of one redeeming feature, albeit a personal one! Over the past few years I have become friends with a Mr Robert Dearberg. Guess who was the editor on this mess? Yep, my old mate Bob Dearberg, the one and same person! We spend a lot of time discussing the merits of this film, that movie etc, and often disagree. The next time Bob slags off a film I have enjoyed I can look him in the eyes and say just two words.. "Horror Hospital"...!

It's just an invitation to make a reservation....

[dbdumonteil · 27 March 2008]

Another story of mad scientist who uses rock musicians as guinea pigs for his experiments?If we look below the surface of the trite screenplay we could see the revenge of the establishment against those hairy young men and the horrible sounds they make ,their silly ideas of peace and love ....

What saves this flick is its black humor:from the very first line about keeping the car clean to the girl's family 's racy past:Wasn't her auntie the owner of a brothel in Hamburg ?Wasn't her mom an unwed mother? and hadn't the aunt a lot of nerve to call her names? Michael Gough is the sinister-looking saw bone;the aforementioned aunt is his assistant (sounds like Franju's classic :"Les Yeux Sans Visages" aka "Eyes without a face" );and the rockers provide the raw material.It is not food for thought but it's rather entertaining if you do not demand too much.

Horrible is right!

[preppy-3 · 2/10 · 17 December 2001]

Two dumb 20 somethings, Jason (Robin Askwith) and Judy (Vanessa Shaw) travel to a remote castle in the middle of nowhere in England--him for a vacation, her to meet her aunt (Ellen Pollock). Unfortunately, the place is run by mad Doc Storm (Michael Gough) who, with the aunt and his dwarf assistant (Skip Martin) have some interesting ideas for the two.

The film opens with a great double decapitation and has a creepy moment when Shaw discovers a "dormitory" but that's about it. The plot is vague...to put it nicely and has really stupid dialogue and scenes (i.e. Doc Storm tells Jason all about his experiments out there...for no reason at all). There's plenty of blood but the "special" effects are pitiful and there's way too much gratuitous female nudity--one very ugly scene has a nude women brutally beaten to death with a cane. Also the movie moves very slowly and is dull.

The acting varies: Askwith is ugly and annoying with a horrible 70s hairstyle; Shaw is beautiful but wooden; Pollock looks embarassed...only Gough seems to be enjoying himself while chewing the scenery as Storm. Skip Martin, on the other hand, REALLY overacts...he makes Gough look like a Method actor!

I give this a 2 for Gough and the cool guys in leather on the motorcycles. Otherwise this is vague, boring and stupid. Don't bother.

"Let's give him a piece of his own medicine." You have to see it to believe it, outrageously entertaining horror or confused rubbish?

[poolandrews · 7/10 · 8 July 2005]

Horror Hospital starts with a black Rolls Royce parked in some woods somewhere in England. Dr. Storm (Micheal Gough) cracks his knuckles as he waits in the back with his assistant, a dwarf named Frederick (Skip Martin). A teenage couple are seen running through the woods covered in bloodied bandages, the Roller pulls up behind the escaping duo & a couple of sharp blades shoot out of the side of the car & as it catches the fleeing patients up & drives past the blades decapitate them both & their heads are caught in sacks also attached to the side of the Roller, this is a fantastic sequence by the way! Jason Jones (Robin Askwith) decides to leave the 'Mystic' rock group after they stole one of his songs & a fight broke out. Jason notices an advert for 'Hairy Holidays' & feels the time is right for a break so he wanders down an alleyway in London (NOT a good thing to do...) where the Hairy Holidays office's are located & meets Mr. Pollack (Dennis Price) the gay owner. After a brief sales pitch Jason decides to go to Brittlehurst Manor, a relaxing health resort. On the train Jason meets Judy Peters (Venessa Shaw) who is also on her way to Brittlehurst Manor to meet her Aunt Harris (Ellen Pollack) for the first time. But once there what they find is beyond their wildest (drug induced) dreams! The insane wheelchair bound Dr. Storm & his wife Aunt Harris, zombified teenagers, murder, a strange abused dwarf servant, biker helmet wearing guards, blood stained sheets that look as if someone has been slaughtering cattle on them, axe's hanging on the walls, water that runs red with blood & only one available room which they have to share. It soon becomes clear to both Jason & Judy that Dr. Storm has some unusual methods of treatment...

This English exploitation/horror film was co-written & directed by Antony Blach who also has an uncredited cameo in the film as a bearded man in the club, I thought Horror Hospital was a bizarre film that feels like it has everything but the kitchen sink, they don't, won't or can't make 'em like this any more! The script by Blach & Alan Watson is a real mess, there's guards dressed as bikers for some reason, a Rolls Royce which decapitates people, zombified back flipping teenagers, dwarfs, a deadly bog in the middle of an English wood, a deformed monster who likes to whip naked girls, brain operations, flashbacks, gay holiday salesmen, a rock group with a thieving transvestite lead singer, a weird train station attendant, severed heads in a water tank, a shower scene involving someone wearing a Knight's steel helmet & a real overriding sense of bizarreness throughout. In fact sometimes it feels like too much is happening, Dr. Storm's motives are never made clear & as a whole Horror Hospital is all over the place even though it has some great ideas it doesn't quite know what to do with them as it tries to stuff as much into it's 88 minutes as possible. This, as it happens, is a good thing though as it moves along like a rocket, is never dull or boring & is just so entertaining to watch if you take it in the right way. Horror Hospital is not set in any sort of Hospital I recognise, it was obviously shot in a stately house somewhere that has a basement lab for Dr. Storm next to the basement gym. After a fantastic opening sequence Horror Hospital loses it's way more & more as it progresses, it becomes more confused & feels more padded as it reaches it's predictably bizarre ending. At least Blach & his crew tried to make something a bit different & they certainly succeeded. Horror Hospital is one of those unique films I could probably talk about all day analysing it & pointing to various scenes that stay in the memory. A lot of Horror Hospital is very tongue-in-cheek & for the most part it thankfully doesn't seem to take itself too seriously. It's also very camp & garish, it's a real product of the early 70's, just check out Askwith's hairdo & clothes! Horror Hospital contains little in the way of blood or gore, the brain operation is off screen for the most part but that wonderful decapitating Roller provides some severed heads & gore when it pops up. Gough is good as the mad scientist but everyone else is rather undistinguished in their roles. Technically Horror Hospital is basic & a bit crude at times but more than acceptable & it gives the film yet another bizarre extra dimension. Overall I had tremendous fun with Horror Hospital but if your looking for a serious scary horror film then forget it, watch a Hammer Dracula or Frankenstein if you want serious British horror. Still with me? In that case make sure you check this out if just for laughs only of which there are many, definitely a unique viewing experience & a film everyone should see at least once...

HORROR HOSPITAL (Anthony Balch, 1973) *1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 3/10 · 26 March 2011]

Perhaps the late great Michael Gough's last stab at a leading role and he relishes it, but the film (made for another prominent exploitation figure, Richard Gordon) lets him down pitifully! Incidentally, I guess the reason why his name is not as well-known (apart from aficionados) as that of, say, Vincent Price or Christopher Lee is that, even at his best, the overall quality of the films were markedly inferior!

Anyway, this pits him in another typical environment – people being sent to a health clinic come face to face with their worst nightmare; similarly, we have a reconstituted fire victim for a villain with a dwarf as his all-purpose servant (played by Skip Martin). The hero is the future star of the sexy "Confessions" series Robin Askwith, while his female counterpart (who does little throughout the film but disrobe and scream her head off!) proves to be the niece of Gough's assistant and lover, a former Madam whose clients had served as the doctor's guineas pigs!! Typically, he intends building an army made up of wholly subservient subjects; amusingly, they are frequently made to exercise in his private gym but this does nothing to remove the very conspicuous scars on their lobotomized foreheads!

Also on hand is Dennis Price as the bemused (and openly gay) tour agent who advertises Gough's specialized treatment; a review I read claims his performance is hilarious but, to me, it only felt embarrassing! His character is eventually revealed to have been blackmailing Gough, but he is disposed of before long (as are a number of others) in inventively grisly fashion via decapitation-by-blades protruding from the doctor's Rolls Royce (with a strategically-placed basket to catch the falling head)! There is also the sinister elderly station master (perhaps intended to evoke Boris Karloff!) who informs Gough of new arrivals. What to make, then, of the slimy Swamp Thing-like monster which is revealed to be hiding under the villain's 'synthetic flesh'…?!

P.S. For a more rewarding (and sobering) contemporaneous film on the same themes, try Alain Jessua's SHOCK TREATMENT aka DOCTOR IN THE NUDE starring Alain Delon and the late Annie Girardot.

Groovy, funny 70's British horror

[meathookcinema · 7/10 · 24 October 2020]

When I saw that Robin Askwith headed the cast of this British 70's horror flick I instantly thought of the brilliant bawdy comedies The Confessions series which he starred in and were delightfully mucky and low-brow. Perfect for the era. If Mr Askwith could prove a huge hit with the sexploitation brigade surely he could score big when it came to another low brow form of entertainment, the horror film.

Here he plays Jason Jones who works in the music industry but after his manager rips off one of his songs he decides to escape via a company offering getaway breaks ('Hairy Holidays'!) and heads away from London and the music scene. He meets a girl on a train and they get on handsomely. She is even going to the same 'health farm' that he is headed to.

And so the adventure begins. Even the ticket collector at the station they arrive at is like someone from a Hammer horror film. However, this holiday destination is actually a hospital in which the residents are wayward hippies and permissive types who are then lobotomised.

The resulting adventure is part horror film, part groovy campathon which it accomplishes with relish. There is a cast of various oddball supporting characters that are just as entertaining as the main players and there are great touches such as the car fitted with a huge knife that shoots out to behead anyone brave enough to try and escape.

This film captures a great time in British film when films were made for the young with their content being just as boundary transgressing as the youth of the day themselves. Hence genres such as bawdy, racy comedies and bloody (but humorous) horror was the order of the day. A golden era.

As lurid as the paisley underpants Askwith wore in the Confessions movies.

Hospital of horrible horror, or much a lack of it

[PeterMitchell-506-564364 · 4/10 · 17 March 2013]

By judging the front cover, in the 80's, you would of thought this movie would of been modernized, and in no way, British. But the Brits have their own style of horror, one I like and it is of generally good standard. Here we do have quite a hairy and unique a story, much like House Of Whipcord. Only problem is, it keeps falling flat, mostly throughout. In layman's terms, scenes drag, and it becomes a chore to watch. Most of the strained scenes involve our newcomers, one girl, going to see her Aunt, and a would be rocker Jason (Robin Askwith who really ruins the movie) heading to the same place she is, for what they think is a holiday retreat. But, unbeknown to them, it's a hotel disguised as a madhouse, run by nuts, one of course is her Aunt, where really, they have no idea what's in store for them. The person running the show, is Michael Gough, in a real creepy and sinister performance, as a doctor who performs brain operations on his vacationers/victims, where they become virtual human zombies, slave like, after being put in comatose states. The two heads chopping opening is one of the best parts of the film, where two victims tried to make a run for it. One victim, now a baddie, Cedric, of midget size, who saves the day in the end, was another good thing about it. Too, a friend of Askwith's checks into this faux motel, and we have another one in peril, a great up tempo rock tune at the prelude of the scene. Those two storm trooper guards look great on bikes too-something out of Mad Max. Gore runs low in this film, another low. But having to watch this film again, I'd rather feel more disinclined, than say, having to watch House of Whipcord. We too, discover the Aunt's part in this, where she's not as evil as we think. On the whole, Horror Hospital, quite scared me when I first saw it at 15, but now on the very odd re watch, I just find it drags, and it's about as scary as a fly. With the intriguing idea, back then, this horror could of eventuated into something better, with tighter plot development, and more gore. As it is, we have something far from exceptional.

Chitty Chitty Chop Chop.

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 20 October 2021]

Any film that opens up with a decapitation where the guillotine comes from a speeding vehicle is fine by me, and the visual of the heads rolling is hysterical. You get to see this several times and each time is funnier than the time before. Of course it's gory, but that's the part that makes for funny moments when you go "eew" and find yourself laughing. Veteran British horror icon Michael Gough is delightfully sinister as the head of the hospital, turning patients into zombies to do their bidding. There's a demented little person, an over the top Ellen Pollock (resembling Joan Bennett in "Suspiria") as Gough's assistant and a string of weak younger actors playing Gough's victims.

This is a well-done funny horror comedy that may not have been intentional with a good majority of what ends up being laughed at her with but that makes it all the more enjoyable. There are plenty of pratfalls with a little person trying to deal with some of the bigger people, and of course, things occur that makes him become on the side of the young people against Gough. He's one of the great horror villains of film history although veteran actor Dennis Price as a blackmailing gay employee of the hospital may raise eyebrows. Pollock steals every moment she's on screen, and she features prominently in a flashback after sealing her fate. Donny Osmond lookalike Kurt Christian adds some eye candy in the film's last half hour. Lots of fun in the modern Gothic horror genre and worth seeking out.

Horror Hospital

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 9 December 2014]

The first thing I would like to say is that I fully understand that this was a low-budget horror movie costing only about £50,000 to produce. So I suppose it's unrealistic to expect too much from it. That said I was perfectly willing to make allowances here and there. Surprisingly, unlike many low-budget features the acting in this particular movie was pretty good with both Robin Askwith (as "Jason Jones") and Vanessa Shaw ("Judy Peters") certainly holding their own. Unfortunately, I must also add that there were quite a few dull scenes here and there and it was difficult for me to maintain interest past the first 30 minutes or so. Not only that but it also seemed like the scenario where Jason was caught, beaten and put into a cell was played out one time too many. Same thing with Judy being sedated. In any case, I suppose it's a border-line "Pre-Romero" type of zombie film and just marginally worth adding to any zombie enthusiast's collection. Not great by any means--but not terribly bad either. Accordingly, I rate it as only slightly below average.

Super 70's horror comedy

[Graham R · 10/10 · 22 November 1998]

Horror Hospital is an excellent slice of vintage British horror, produced in the early 70's when films were getting gorier (notice the numerous decapitations). Michael Gough is on top nasty form as a doctor who performs brain experiments (sound familiar?) on his young victims, and Robin Askwith is the unsuspecting youth caught up in his evil schemes. Dennis Price has an amusing cameo, and there's even a 70's guy called Abraham with big hair. Lots of comedy action scenes too with motorbike-helmet wearing leather-suited baddies. This is a must see!

Lovely 1970s Atmosphere

[derek-duerden · 6/10 · 31 March 2021]

This of course is not a "great film", but its heart is in the right place and many of the characters really go with it, despite the preposterous plot.

Michael Gough, in particular, is great as the evil doctor, and Skip Martin has a lot of fun with the "igor" role, as does Dennis Price with his cameo. The main couple as also good - so much so that I was intrigued to see that Vanessa Shaw apparently never did another film. Robin Askwith of course went on to create a reputation of enduring fame.

What I found most evocative, strangely, were the scenes on and about the railway - it looked convincingly like Victoria and the Brighton Line, and the interior carriage scenes took me straight back to commuting to school on trains that looked exactly like that.

I didn't find it as funny as I think I was supposed to, but it must have worked very well as a late-night TV horror treat as a complement to the Hammer canon.

So-so terror but passable terror movie with Michael Gough giving an iconic acting as a mad doctor

[ma-cortes · 5/10 · 7 February 2022]

Horror Hospital (1973) is a creepy and mysterious film in which some guests at a luxurious house come face to face with naked fears and horrible happenings . Jason (Robin Askwith) , a member of a 1960's pop group decides he needs a break at a country retreat house, as he meets on the train a beautiful young and both companions heading to the rural countryside resort to stay with a bizarre host of characters in a secluded, curious mansion . They meet Aunt Harris (Pollock) who owns the place with her husband Doctor Storn (Michael Gough) performing gruesome experiments where no anesthesia is used . Unknown to them , there is a sinister secret behind closed doors. As the nosy young couple get into trouble checking in and they snooping around, discovering some weird patients . Those who try to getaway are taken care of the doctor's guards . The Operation is a Success ... When the Patient Dies ! . Coma can't equal the shock of.... Horror Hospital !. The nightmare is about to begin! . She's trying to get out! . Black gloves of evil lay bare the ultimate horror! . The ultimate in blood and screams!. Black gloves of evil silence the screams of horror!. Nerves of steel and strong stomachs are not enough to face the terrors of . . . HORROR HOSPITAL !.

Slow-moving but sympathetic gorefeast with chills , thrills , ghastly events and lots of blood . It displays the classic plot about a mad doctor performing astonishing brain experiments resulting in fateful consequences . It blends all kinds of usual Horror genre ingredients such as a mad doctor , patients turned into zombies , cerebral experiments , a deformed monster and anything else . Nice acting by Michel Gough as Dr Storm who's using the guests for surgical and horrible mind-control experiments . Though Gough never achieved on the small screen and silver screen what he did in the theater , Gough's career in television and movies spanned sixty-plus years over eight decades. Michael Gough , who died at age 94 , had a long and prolific career. He even became a legendary figure of the terror genre in films as Horrors of the Black Museum , The Corpse , The House in the Woods , The Phantom of Opera , The Legend of Hell House and many others . He made four films with Peter Cushing : Dracula (1958), Doctor Terror (1965), The Skull (1965) . And he also made various Horrors with Christopher Lee : Dracula (1958), Doctor Terror (1965), Skull (1965), Curse of the crimson altar (1968) , Sleepy Hollow (1999) , Corpse Bride (2005). Along with Michael Gough there appears Robin Askwith as young singer from a very seventies band who decides he needs a vacation, so he travels to an eerie house , the unknown Vanessa Shaw as his gorgeous companion , Skip Martin , Kurt Christian and the prolific Dennis Price , Jess Frank's regular .

Being financed in medium-short budget by Richard Gordon who produced a lot of British terror films , such as : Naked Evil , Curse of the Voodoo , Island of Terror , Inseminoid , The Playgirls and the Vampire , Corridors of Blood, Tower of evil , Grip of the Strangler , among others . The motion picture was middlingly directed by the early deceased Anthony Balch , as it has some flaws , gaps and shortcomings . Anthony was renowned for buying up European art/exploitation films and giving them catchy new English titles as Weird Weirdo , Don't Deliver Us From Evil as well as being responsible for making some documentaries and the legendary sound version of Benjamin Christensen's silent documentary classic Haxan (1922) . With his friend William S. Burroughs, they began his film career with the shorts Towers Open Fire (1966) and The Cut Ups (1966), both extensions of Burroughs' writing technique . Balch's only two features were the surreal Burroughs-influenced Secret of sex (1970) and the twisted Horror Horror Hospital (1973) . Rated . 5.5/10 . Average, but passable and acceptable.