2013 microbudget horror The Hospital somehow went totally under the radar for us at BAH, aside from the minor controversy it attracted some time after its UK DVD release when a Tesco store in Gloucester withdrew all copies of the film following a customer complaint (yes, just one) that it was too graphic. Unsurprisingly, this story broke in the pages of the Daily Mail, who quoted the disgruntled customer as declaring “I love horror films and I am not easily shocked. But I wasn’t prepared for the graphic sexually violent scenes depicted in this film,” before adding helpfully, “The quality of the film was terrible in my opinion so I’m not sure why Tesco would want to sell it anyway.”
As I hadn’t seen the film at the time, I didn’t pay this much mind; after all, if the BBFC had been happy to pass it uncut with an 18, I knew it couldn’t exactly be A Serbian Film Revisited (though I didn’t know then that The Hospital had been pre-cut before reaching the British censor’s office by a staggering 17 minutes and 30 seconds). Still, having since caught up with the film from directorial duo Tommy Golden and Daniel Emery Taylor, I can certainly see where the upset came from; The Hospital is one of those movies custom made to offend just about anyone, with more or less every female cast member (and at least a couple of the men) stripped naked, abused and humiliated on camera before the end credits roll. Naturally a lot of viewers, myself included, will doubtless find this rather unseemly – but even so, the film’s tone is so feverishly over-the-top, heavily loaded with sick dark humour and laughably cut-price special effects, that it’s hard to take very seriously. I find it difficult to look too disdainfully on any movie in which a guy gets killed whilst having sex with a hooker doggy-style, his blood sprays up her back, and she grumbles, “Already? Well, you’re not getting a refund.” On top of which, the film’s twisty-turny structure – blending paranormal investigation, slasher and torture porn, with some genuinely unexpected plot developments and reveals – adds up to something considerably more engaging and unpredictable than most microbudget horror. All in all, then, I confess I quite enjoyed The Hospital – though I obviously couldn’t say whether I’d feel similarly had I seen the fully uncut version.
When I was offered an early look at the sequel, this time directed by Daniel Emery Taylor and co-writer/actor and producer Jim O’Rear, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect; it seemed feasible that it would see a whole new ensemble enter the abandoned haunted hospital of the first film, and delve further into the history of the troubled place. However, it becomes evident early on that the team at Deviant Pictures have other ideas. For starters, though the film is entitled The Hospital 2, at best only a quarter of the film takes place at that location. Secondly, the ghosts who appeared sporadically in the original film are notable by their absence this time around. So what does exactly that leave behind, I ask you…? If you answered “lots and lots of rape and murder,” give yourself a pat (and/or a spray of ejaculatory blood) on the back. It’s not hard to see The Hospital 2 as a Devil’s Rejects to the original’s House of 1000 Corpses: somewhere along the line, it was clearly decided that the thing that worked best about the first film was those fucked-up individuals being generally cruel and despicable, and so for the sequel they decided to trim the fat and just pile on the cruelty. Again, I haven’t seen the fully uncut version of The Hospital so I can’t say for sure how it compares to the fully uncut sequel, but I suspect that if the original upset that guy from Gloucester, he’d almost certainly be driven to nervous nausea by this one.
Spoilers for the original The Hospital ahead…
Viewers of the original may be surprised to learn that Jim O’Rear returns in front of the camera as Alan – alleged paranormal documentarian ultimately revealed to be a snuff porn filmmaker – given that we saw his throat slashed (albeit in utterly unconvincing CGI) in the first film’s finale. However, utilising the time-honoured movie logic that if you don’t see them properly die then they’re not properly dead, it transpires that Alan was saved at the last minute by psychotic simpleton Stanley (co-director Taylor). When we catch up with them five years later they’ve branched out in their snuff business, setting up shop in – brace yourselves – an institute for battered and abused women. Offended yet? I suspect that’s the whole idea. Alan seems reasonably content in this new work environment with new cohort Samantha (Megan Emmerick – I won’t divulge the full nature of their relationship, which is a doozy); Stanley, however, remains fixated on the girls that got away, his first victim Beth (a returning Constance Medrano), and final girl escapee Skye (Betsy Rue replacing the original’s Robyn Shute). Inevitably, their worlds will soon collide again – and, even more inevitably, it won’t be pretty when they do.
The issue of sexual violence in horror movies is a thorny one and always will be. Given this is a movie review and not an academic treatise, I don’t want to dwell too long on the arguments for and against; however, I will say there can be something hugely liberating in breaking taboos, and this is something the horror genre has always reveled in. In the case of The Hospital movies, the whole enterprise is so shock-for-shock’s sake, so knowingly and willfully politically incorrect, that to actually get offended by it seems counter-productive somehow. Sick jokes only work when the person telling the joke and the person hearing it are both well aware that it’s sick; we’re not supposed to think otherwise, and so it is here.
The real problem, however, is the length of the rape scenes and the way they’re shot and edited. Slashers and torture movies have long been accused of having a pornographic structure – swathes of bland plot and dialogue serving no real function but to space out the money shots – and many viewers will doubtless find The Hospital 2 to work along much the same lines, only in an even more directly pornographic fashion. There’s a lingering, clearly voyeuristic emphasis on the women being stripped and molested, and there really can be no question that we’re intended to enjoy this spectacle. The BBFC’s big question about any display of sexual violence is whether or not it ‘eroticises’ and/or ‘endorses’ the activity shown, and I’d have a hard time arguing that The Hospital 2 doesn’t do this. And no, the fact that this time around a female character also has a role to play in all the sexual torture does not in any way defuse the issue.
But then, there’s the matter of what comes up between the rape and torture sequences. The Hospital 2 has a striking number of lengthy (in some cases overly so) dialogue-based scenes dealing with questions of faith and spirituality, from a minister who visits the women’s shelter to preach God’s love, to Skye’s hippy parents (one of whom is veteran scream queen Debbie Rochon) discussing karma. In the midst of all the cartoonish depravity, there do seem to be sincere efforts made here to tackle ‘the bigger picture’; ruminations of how, if at all, human morality makes any difference in the grand, cosmic scheme of things, and whether those that do bad deeds will ultimately see that same harm visited back upon them. Just how well these ideas are handled, and just how much bearing they have on the narrative itself is debatable, and it might easily be argued that such scenes are included in the hopes of somehow excusing the brutal and exploitative nature of the rest of the film. Naturally, by the finale The Hospital 2 does venture into revenge territory – but, to broach another oft-repeated question, does seeing the rapists suffer a terrible comeuppance ultimately justify rape as entertainment?
I’m not setting out to answer these questions – merely to suggest that if you, dear reader, know where you stand on such matters, you might be able to make an educated guess on whether or not you’re likely to enjoy The Hospital 2. As a microbudget horror movie (with all low production values that go with that label) it was never going to be to all tastes anyway, with or without the sexual violence. But of course, as we all know, the words ‘horror’ and ‘to all tastes’ were never meant to go together. I don’t believe it’s the object of horror films to be tasteful; the genre, by its very definition, should deal with upsetting subject matter, even if it is to seemingly make light of it. Equally, I don’t believe a film is inherently misogynistic just because it features misogynistic characters. The Hospital 2 sets out to be by turns grotesque, absurd and deeply unpleasant, and succeeds in doing so; as such, I can’t say it isn’t a success. Even so, I also can’t ignore that it does play rape for titillation, which I find deeply problematic. Again, whether or not you feel similarly might determine whether or not you’ll enjoy The Hospital 2.
Or, to put it a great deal more simply – if you didn’t like the original, you probably won’t like this one either. Got that, Tesco shoppers?
The Hospital 2 has its US theatrical premiere in Lebanon, TN on September 26th, with home entertainment release to follow. Learn more at The Hospital 2 Facebook page.