Synopsis: A young British rocker, burnt out on the business, decides to get away for a holiday. He meets a young woman on the train heading to the same destination. Together they discover the deranged Dr. Storm is performing surgery on his guest for mind-control experiments.
Horror Hospital is one that I have never crossed paths with. Let alone even heard about. That is until I stumbled across this B movie cheese on Tubi. It wasn’t the monochromatic cover art that grabbed my attention. What caught me by surprise was seeing the name Michael Gough in the credits. For those that don’t know, this is the same gentleman that played Alfred in the Tim Burton films Batman, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Seeing him as the Mengele-esque Dr. Christian Storm is something I never expected but it somehow works.
Jason Jones (Robin Askwith) is tired of getting screwed in the music industry. Upon seeing an advert in the paper for Harry Holiday his friends suggest he needs a little vacation in the country. While en-route to Brittlehurst Manor he meets Judy (Vanessa Shaw), the niece of Harris (Ellen Pollock). Ex brothel owner and current wife of Dr. Storm. The proprietors of the country retreat.
Quickly getting familiar, Jason and Judy slowly start to discover that this retreat is all an elaborate ruse to get new victims for the good doctor’s experiments. This is the part of the movie where things start to get strange. You see, the doctor has been performing surgery on transients for his wild mind-control experiments. After just a small incision in the head, a little snip of the brain tissue and a gnarly forehead scar you’re completely under Storm’s control.
Horror Hospital is pure middle of the road 70’s British B movie horror. There’s nothing here that really stands out aside from the imposing presence of Gough. The man just eats up every scene he’s in. Aside from that, the acting is pretty sub-par but that’s pretty standard for the films of this era. There are elements of dark humor, mainly coming from the resident dwarf and Igor to the doctor. Frederick (Skip Martin) delivers some of the funnier lines and brief bits of physical comedy.
There are a few things that stand out. For one, Dr. Storm’s car that sports a neck height sword and bag that pops out in order to decapitate runaway patients. Catching their heads for basically no reason other than shock value. The Frederick character was a bright spot as well. Adding a little humor to a somewhat slow story. Apparently he was quite the cutup on set as well. Sporting a great sense of humor and the willingness to do anything asked of him. About 45 mins in, there was a monster that popped up with zero explanation. Luckily that gets explained in a final stretch twist.
All in all, Horror Hospital was a pretty middle of the line flick. Wasn’t great but wasn’t terrible either. Sure there was enough there to keep you watching. I wouldn’t actively recommend this though unless you are scraping the barrel for material. There are plenty of better flicks out there for this era. Although, it might be worth it just for the performances of Michael Gough and Skip Martin. If you’re looking for something to kill 90 minutes, you can find this one on Tubi.
2.5 out of 5
Grab your popcorn, kill the lights and join me again tomorrow as we continue our journey on this strange little trip down the 31 Days of Horror rabbit hole. See you soon…
