HORROR TEN SPOT: Top 10 Medical Horror

Last Updated on August 3, 2021

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.

1. DEAD RINGERS

Hard to imagine a more f*cked up situation in real medicine than the possibility of your twin, woman trading gynecologist showing up crazy one day and trying to use his “new” tools on you. You know, the ones he had specially crafted to use on chicks with mutant vaginas. And even creepier, said doc looks like Jeremy Irons. Shudder.

2. HELLRAISER 2

The doctor is in and he is mean. At the center of this film is a hospital/asylum that makes the character’s eventual trip into Hell seem almost kind. Dr. Channard’s a bastard of the first degree, and his fascination with human experimentation and manipulation in order to crack the secrets of the Lament Configuration are a mixture of cold blooded and outright sadistic. And that’s before he gets turned into a Cenobite!

3. THE MAN WITH X-RAY EYES

This may be the first appearance of a Roger Corman film on one of my lists, possibly because his work, while entertaining and awesome in it’s own way, doesn’t really tap what we serve here. But in this case of a doctor who’s self-experimentation with vision enhancement eventually leads to x-ray sight and madness, we’ve got one helluva a tasty low budget treat. Not only does it fully immerse itself in the subject of medical experimentation, but it also has one of the more interesting endings you’ll encounter. The film’s imperfect, and the visual f/x are dated, but it still packs a mean punch.

4. SAW 6

Who’da thought that healthcare would be the issue that returned the SAW franchise to a semblance of its former glory? On top of that surprise, we also get to see the character of Hoffman expanded into a more interesting dude, while the traps take on a consistent theme of there being no right choice when you try to determine that some people deserve to live and others don’t. Yet those choices when set up that way must still be made.

5. FLATLINERS

Given the collected star power in this movie at the time it came out, I’m not sure how they managed to pull it off, but man I’m glad they did. Sure most people would think that purposely agreeing to kill yourself and your friends so that you could then resuscitate each other is pretty stupid, but then we wouldn’t get to watch all these former It actors get haunted by all manner of creepy shite. And where’s the fun in that?

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.

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!”

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.

9. VISITING HOURS

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.

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.