Horror Hospital

Last updated

Horror Hospital
Horror Hospital FilmPoster.jpeg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Antony Balch
Written by Antony Balch
Alan Watson
Produced by Richard Gordon
Starring Robin Askwith
Michael Gough
CinematographyDavid McDonald
Edited by Robert Dearberg
Music by De Wolfe
Production
company
Noteworthy Films
Distributed by Antony Balch
Release date
  • 1973 (1973)(UK)
Running time
90 mins
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Horror Hospital (also known as Computer Killers) is a 1973 British science-fiction comedy-horror film directed by Antony Balch and starring Robin Askwith, Michael Gough, Dennis Price and Skip Martin. [1]

Contents

A failed songwriter decides to take a vacation at a health farm. His hosts actually want to lobotomize him, in order to turn him into an obedient zombie slave.

Plot

When attempts to break into the pop business leave him with nothing but a bloody nose, songwriter Jason Jones decides to take a break with 'Hairy Holidays', an outfit run by shifty, gay travel agent Pollack. After failing to chat Jason up, Pollack sends him to pseudo-health farm Brittlehurst Manor.

On the train journey there, Jason meets Judy who is travelling to the same destination to meet her long-lost aunt. Both are unaware that the health farm (i.e. "Horror Hospital") is a front for Dr. Storm and his lobotomy experiments that turn wayward hippies into his mindless zombie slaves.

The wheelchair-using doctor surrounds himself with an entourage that includes Judy's aunt, erstwhile brothel madam Olga, dwarf Frederick and numerous zombie biker thugs. Dr. Storm also has a Princess car, fitted with a giant blade that decapitates escapees and interfering parties. Abraham 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 as paving the way for the 1970s youth to put the final spanner/wrench in the works to Storm's scheme.

Cast

Production

Background

After the success of his feature film debut Secrets of Sex (1969), an anthology sex film that flirted with horror themes, Antony Balch envisioned his second film as an out-and-out horror film and one with a continuous narrative. Location filming was undertaken in and around Knebworth House near Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

Writing

The script was written by Balch and his friend Alan Watson during the 1972 Cannes Film Festival, although the film's title was thought up before the plot. Among Watson's ideas for the Horror Hospital script was the lethal Rolls-Royce, with its giant blade that decapitated people as it drove by.

Filming

The film was shot during a four-week schedule beginning on 16 October 1972. Shooting was done at Merton Park (mainly the pop group scene), Battersea Town Hall (which provided the interiors of Brittlehurst Manor) and Knebworth House.

The film's last night party on 11 November was compromised when Phoebe Shaw served cake that was laced with drugs. In his autobiography, Askwith wrote "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 producer Richard Gordon managed to avoid eating the cake.

Casting

Robin Askwith's role was specially written for him after he appeared in Gordon's previous 1972 production Tower of Evil . 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.

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 other known roles were an uncredited bit part in a 1969 American TV adaptation of David Copperfield and brief roles as a boutique assistant in Say Hello to Yesterday (1970) and a police cadet in Ooh… You Are Awful (1972). [2] 'Dwarf' actor Skip Martin (who ran a tobacconist's shop in between acting assignments) and veteran character actor Dennis Price also appeared in the film, as well as Kurt Christian as 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".

Nicky Henson was originally considered for Christian's role.

Music

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

Home media

The film was originally released on DVD in the US by Elite Entertainment on 2 November 1999. A new remastered DVD with a new commentary from producer Richard Gordon was released by Dark Sky Films on 15 June 2010. The DVD release is set for 15 June 2010 by MPI Media Group. [3]

The film was re-released on DVD and released for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK from Odeon on 10 August 2015. [4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bela Lugosi</span> Hungarian-American actor (1882–1956)

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, known professionally as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian–American actor. He was best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in the horror film classic Dracula (1931), Ygor in Son of Frankenstein (1939) and his roles in many other horror films from 1931 through 1956.

<i>Bride of the Monster</i> 1955 American science fiction horror film by Ed Wood

Bride of the Monster is a 1955 American independent science fiction horror film, co-written, produced and directed by Edward D. Wood Jr., and starring Bela Lugosi and Tor Johnson with a supporting cast featuring Tony McCoy and Loretta King.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Wood</span> American filmmaker, actor and author (1924–1978)

Edward Davis Wood Jr. was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novelist.

<i>Frankenstein</i> (1931 film) 1931 film by James Whale

Frankenstein is a 1931 American gothic pre-Code science fiction horror film directed by James Whale, produced by Carl Laemmle Jr., and adapted from a 1927 play by Peggy Webling, which in turn was based on Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The Webling play was adapted by John L. Balderston and the screenplay written by Francis Edward Faragoh and Garrett Fort, with uncredited contributions from Robert Florey and John Russell.

<i>Zombi 2</i> 1979 film directed by Lucio Fulci

Zombi 2 is a 1979 Italian zombie film directed by Lucio Fulci, from a screenplay by Elisa Briganti and an uncredited Dardano Sacchetti, and starring Tisa Farrow, Ian McCulloch, Richard Johnson, Al Cliver, Auretta Gay and Olga Karlatos. It serves as an unofficial sequel to George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978), which was released in Italy under the title Zombi.

<i>Dracula</i> (1931 English-language film) 1931 film

Dracula is a 1931 American pre-Code supernatural horror film directed and co-produced by Tod Browning from a screenplay written by Garrett Fort and starring Bela Lugosi in the title role. It is based on the 1924 stage play Dracula by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston, which in turn is adapted from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Lugosi portrays Count Dracula, a vampire who emigrates from Transylvania to England and preys upon the blood of living victims, including a young man's fiancée.

Robin Mark Askwith is an English actor and singer who has appeared in a number of film, television and stage productions.

<i>White Zombie</i> (film) 1932 film by Victor Hugo Halperin

White Zombie is a 1932 pre-Code horror film independently produced by Edward Halperin and directed by Victor Halperin. The screenplay by Garnett Weston, based on The Magic Island by William Seabrook, is about a young woman's transformation into a zombie at the hands of an evil voodoo master. Bela Lugosi stars as the zombie master "Murder" Legendre, with Madge Bellamy appearing as his victim. Other cast members include Joseph Cawthorn, Robert W. Frazer, John Harron, Brandon Hurst, and George Burr MacAnnan.

<i>Session 9</i> 2001 film by Brad Anderson

Session 9 is a 2001 American psychological horror film directed by Brad Anderson and written by Anderson and Stephen Gevedon. It stars David Caruso, Peter Mullan, Brendan Sexton III, Josh Lucas, and Gevedon as an asbestos abatement crew who take a clean-up job at an abandoned mental asylum amid an intense work schedule, growing tensions, and mysterious events occurring around them. Its title refers to a series of audio-taped sessions with an asylum patient that run parallel to the crew's experiences.

<i>Return of the Living Dead Part II</i> 1988 film by Ken Wiederhorn

Return of the Living Dead Part II is a 1988 American comedy horror film written and directed by Ken Wiederhorn, and starring Michael Kenworthy, Marsha Dietlein, Dana Ashbrook, Thom Mathews, James Karen, and Phil Bruns. It is the first of four sequels to The Return of the Living Dead.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antony Balch</span> English film director and distributor

Antony Balch was an English film director and distributor, best known for his screen collaborations with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs in the 1960s and for the 1970s horror film, Horror Hospital.

<i>The Raven</i> (1935 film) 1935 film by Lew Landers

The Raven is a 1935 American horror film directed by Louis Friedlander and starring Boris Karloff and Béla Lugosi. Billed as having been "suggested by" Edgar Allan Poe's 1845 poem of the same title, excerpts of which are quoted at a few points in the film, it was adapted from an original screenplay by David Boehm. Lugosi stars as a neurosurgeon obsessed with Poe who has a torture chamber in his basement, and Karloff plays an escaped murderer on the run from the police who Lugosi manipulates into doing his dirty work.

<i>The Corpse Vanishes</i> 1942 film by Wallace Fox

The Corpse Vanishes is a 1942 American mystery horror film starring Bela Lugosi, directed by Wallace Fox, and written by Harvey Gates. Lugosi portrays a mad scientist who injects his aging wife with fluids from virginal young brides in order to preserve her beauty. Luana Walters as a journalist and Tristram Coffin as a small-town doctor investigate and solve the disappearances of the brides. The film was produced and distributed by Monogram Pictures, and was reissued in 1949 by Favorite Films Corporation.

Richard Gordon was a British-born producer and financier of horror films.

<i>Dolls</i> (1987 film) 1987 film by Stuart Gordon

Dolls is a 1987 American horror film directed by Stuart Gordon, written by Ed Naha, and starring Stephen Lee, Guy Rolfe, Hilary Mason, Ian Patrick Williams, and Bunty Bailey. Its plot follows six people who seek shelter during a storm in the mansion of an elderly puppet maker and his wife, only to find that the various puppets and dolls in the home contain the imprisoned spirits of criminals. It was produced by Charles Band and Brian Yuzna through Band's Empire Pictures.

<i>Diary of the Dead</i> 2007 American horror film by George A. Romero

Diary of the Dead is a 2007 found footage horror film written and directed by George A. Romero. Although independently produced, it was distributed theatrically by The Weinstein Company and was released in cinemas on February 15, 2008 and on DVD by Dimension Extreme and Genius Products on May 20, 2008.

<i>Absurd</i> (film) 1981 Italian film

Absurd is a 1981 English-language Italian slasher film directed, lensed and co-produced by Joe D'Amato and starring George Eastman, who also wrote the story and screenplay.

Evil Calls: The Raven, also known as The Legend of Harrow Woods, Alone in the Dark and simply as Evil Calls, is a 2011 British horror film written, produced and directed by Richard Driscoll, starring Rik Mayall, Jason Donovan, Eileen Daly, Norman Wisdom and Robin Askwith.

<i>Nightmare Beach</i> 1989 American film

Nightmare Beach is a 1989 slasher film directed by Umberto Lenzi and Harry Kirkpatrick, and starring Nicolas de Toth, Sarah Buxton, John Saxon, and Michael Parks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary D. Rhodes</span>

Gary Don Rhodes is an American writer, filmmaker, and film historian. His work encompasses research on early 20th-century films and key figures, including the filmmakers and actors involved in the process. Rhodes is notably recognised for his contribution to classic horror films and his biographical works on Bela Lugosi. In addition to his academic pursuits, he has also created documentaries and mockumentaries. Rhodes holds a tenured faculty position in film studies at Queen's University Belfast.

References

  1. "Horror Hospital". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  2. "Horror Hospital - 1973". britishhorrorfilms.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 11 November 2007.
  3. "Seventies Shocker Horror Hospital Coming to DVD". Dread Central. 30 August 2012.
  4. "Horror Hotel (Blu-ray)". Amazon.co.uk. 17 August 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  5. "Horror Hospital - Digitally Remastered [DVD]". Amazon.co.uk. 10 August 2015. Retrieved 3 January 2016.