Horror Hospital

Infobox Film | name = Horror Hospital
director = Antony Balch
producer = Richard Gordon
writer = Antony Balch
Alan Watson
starring = Robin Askwith
Michael Gough
released = 1973 (UK)
runtime = 85 min.
language = English
imdb_id = 0070190

"Horror Hospital" is a 1973 British horror/comedy film starring Robin Askwith and Michael Gough, the second and last film directed by Antony Balch.

After the success of his feature film debut Secrets of Sex (1969), an anthology sex film that flirted with horror themes, Balch envisioned his second film as an out and out horror film and one with a continuous narrative. The script was written by Balch and his friend Alan Watson during the 1973 Cannes Film Festival, although the films title was thought up before the plot. Both Balch and Watson had known the writer William Burroughs in the sixties, Balch as a collaborator/friend, while in 1966 Watson had moved in with and become the new boyfriend of Burroughs' lover Ian Sommerville, while Burroughs had been away. A situation that left Burroughs distraught, Burroughs regarded Watson as a nuisance. Watson briefly features in Barry Miles' biography of Burroughs, where he is described as "small, skinny and very affectedly gay...he had a nasal, campy voice and absolutely adored Opera. In Mason's Yard, behind Antony Balch's apartment in St James, workmen building the new Cavendish Hotel used to play football during their breaks. Alan would sashay past them, hand on hip, blowing kisses and squeaking 'Score a goal for me, boys!'". Among Watson’s ideas for the Horror Hospital script was the lethal Rolls Royce, with its giant blade that decapitates people as it passes them by.

As with Secrets of Sex, Horror Hospital was produced by Richard Gordon. The film was shot on a four week schedule with some shooting done at Merton Park (mainly the pop group scene) and Battersea Town Hall (which provided the interiors of Brittlehurst Manor). Shooting started on the 16th October 1972. Robin Askwith’s role was specially written for him, after he had appeared in Gordon’s previous production Tower of Evil (1972). Balch asked Michael Gough to base his performance on Bela Lugosi, screening him a 16mm print of The Devil Bat, in which Lugosi plays a mad, perfume manufacturer, although Gough’s role also recalls his own earlier performances as lecherous villains in Horrors of the Black Museum and Konga. Even though Gough was no stranger to full-blooded Victorian-style villainy (perhaps given its fullest form in Hammer's 1962 version of "The Phantom of the Opera", Gough decided to restrain himself a bit as Dr. Storm. The female lead was taken by Phoebe Shaw, who had previously appeared in several TV Commercials, and was renamed ‘Vanessa Shaw’ for the film. During filming Shaw and Askwith briefly became lovers. Her only two other known roles were un-credited bit parts in a 1969 TV adaptation of David Copperfield and a police cadet in Ooh… You Are Awful (1972). The film’s last night party on the 11th of November was compromised when Phoebe served up a ‘chemically challenged cake’ that left the cast and crew stoned/disorientated. In his autobiography Askwith writes “I don’t know what she put in the cake but I ended up with a twenty stone electrician Roy, sitting on my lap telling me he thought he was in love with me.” Only Richard Gordon managed to avoid eating the cake, having been on a diet at the time.

Also in the cast were Dennis Price and dwarf actor Skip Martin who ran a Tobacconist in between acting roles and whose inability to deliver the line “shish kebab” was the source of much on-set amusement. As well as Kurt Christian whose full title was Baron Kurt Christian Von Siengenberg, and who left the country not long after the film was released. His ambition at the time, according to Films and Filming magazine, was to "play a role that does not involve killing somebody" [http://img184.imagevenue.com/img.php?
] . Nicky Henson was originally considered for Christian’s role.

Plot

When attempts to break into the pop business leaves him with nothing but a bloody nose songwriter Jason Jones (Robin Askwith) decides to take a break with "Hairy Holidays", an outfit run by shifty, gay travel agent Pollock (Dennis Price). After failing to chat Jason up, Pollock sends him to pseudo-health farm- Brittlehurst Manor. On the train journey there Jason meets Judy (Vanessa Shaw) who is also on the way to the same destination to meet her long lost Aunt. Both are unaware that the health farm (ie "Horror Hospital") is a front for Dr Storm (Michael Gough) and his lobotomy experiments that turn wayward hippies into his mindless zombie slaves. The wheel-chair bound Doctor surrounds himself with an entourage that including Judy's aunt, and erstwhile brothel madam, Olga (Ellen Pollock), dwarf Frederick (Skip Martin) and numerous zombie bikers thugs. Dr Storm also has a Rolls-Royce fitted with a giant blade that decapitates escapees and interfering parties. Abraham (Kurt Christian) arrives at the Horror Hospital "looking for his chick" and is promptly whacked around the head by the motorcycle zombies. Frederick, fed up at literally being Storm's whipping boy helps the kids escape- paving the way for Seventies youth to put the final spanner in the works of Storm's scheme.

Mark of Death (song)

Horror Hospital also contains a pop music number “Mark of Death”, composed by Jason DeHavilland and performed by the group Mystic (James IV Boris, Allan “The River” Hudson, Simon Lust)

"My Blood runs stone cold,

I’m looking at the golden eyes of evil,

And the mark of death,

Is painted everywhere I go,

In the black of the night,

And the moon’s shimming light,

Something ain’t right,

Something ain’t right,

Something ain’t right,

Something is wrong!".

Alternative Versions

* In the 1993 UK video release on the Vipco label the flashback scene (after Jason has been gassed) is shown with various shots tinted different colours. This use of tints is not present in the flashback scene seen in the US DVD release.

Trivia

* Norwich (England) hip-hop group Stonasaurus recorded a concept album about the film in 2003.

* For the German release the film was re-titled “Frankenstein’s Horror-Klinik”, and Michael Gough’s character Dr Storm renamed Dr Frankenstein.

Critical reaction

* “Anticipates the day of the Video Nasty… twists the conventional elements of the horror movie to a new level of grotesquerie” - Time Out Film Guide

* “Michael Gough gives one of his most outrageous performances” - Shock Xpress

* “The characters are stereotypes to be relished for their sheer outrageousness” - Aurum Film Encyclopedia of Horror.

* “The Ultimate in Blood and Screams” - Dilys Powell, The Times

* “A brilliant piece of Surrealist film making… a film of genuine individuality and style” - The Financial Times.

* “an ingenious blend of the macabre and the camp” - Cinema TV Today

* “Amusing mockery” - Sunday Telegraph

* “Cheekily Entertaining” - Guardian

* “Hilarious extravaganza” - Sunday Times

* “An Obscenity” - Sunday Express

* “sad comment on the need for good actors to act in trash” - Daily Telegraph

* “Unhealthy horror, I’ve seen better films floating on the surface of a stagnant pond” - Daily Express

External links

*imdb title|id=0070190|title=Horror Hospital
* [http://www.britishhorrorfilms.co.uk/horrorhospital.shtml Britishhorrorfilms.co.uk review]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5UNuqqMmc British Trailer]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSnYaBajYio Australian Trailer]