Since the idea of even attempting to make sure everyone in the U.S. has access to quality healthcare apparently inspires people to hate life and politics, it seems like as good a time as any to look at some of the best horror set in and around the medical establishment.
Docs, hospitals, hell even medical experimentation is fair game this week. What’s most important is to make everyone see that it could be so much worse for us all than the socialist, Hitler-style hellscape that our healthcare system is now guaranteed to turn into. And if your first thought is that socialism and the Nazi regime under Hitler are nothing alike then you have no business offering your informed opinions about important policy issues in a world run by CNN and FOX News.
So anyway, onward my friends. And if you want to offer up some other medical terror that I missed, then spit those bullets below.
WARNING – HEALTHCARE GONE BAD BELOW!
10. DR. GIGGLES
This is a fun damn movie, even though it tries too hard. And Larry Drake, still trying to escape the shadow of slow-witted Benny on L.A. LAW turns in another impressive villainous performance to follow up his role in DARKMAN. If the producers had been a little less intent on forcing a new genre tentpole on us, they might have succeeded in their goal.
9. VISITING HOURS
Buy the VISITING HOURS DVD here
Did Canada give us another underappreciated gem with this pic? I wouldn’t go that far, but it is fun in its own stalker crazy, misogynistic kind of way. It’s also a fun one to watch now because of the heavy handed subtext of criticizing socialized medicine. A great way to get a rousing healthcare discussion going with your friends. Or, you know, not.
8. PATHOLOGY
Medical students with a God complex crop up here and there because it’s such a strong set up for genre fare. They start messing around with things they shouldn’t, and ultimately pay a horrific, and often gory price. At least most of them do. And when you add in the stressed out students penchant for sex and drugs you’ve got the makings of a helluva good time. In this case a good time featuring a far better cast than you’d expect, but not so good that it becomes distracting. Yeah, I’m looking at you Alyssa Milano.
7. TURISTAS
Here’s a fun little paranoia inducer about getting your organs ripped while travelling in Brazil. I interviewed director John Stockwell when this came out, and he was clear that it was never his intent to dissuade people from visiting Brazil. Which I found funny, because the first thing I thought after I finished the movie was, “I am never going to f*cking Brazil!”
6. HALLOWEEN 2
HALLOWEEN 2 (the original) could have easily kicked off the franchise, but instead it was a gorier version of the first and gets some heat for that. But the hospital setting is great for a stalker flick, the sense that poor Jaime Lee really shouldn’t still have to be dealing with this sumbitch adds significant tension, and what do we mostly want from a horror sequel but the stuff we loved the first time taken to another level? All in all I’m definitely a big fan of this one.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!