The VHS Archives: Antony Balch's HORROR HOSPITAL (1973)

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HORROR HOSPITAL

Antony Balch's Horror Hospital (1973)

The VHS Archives Factsheet

Label: Gorgon Video

Catalog: MP3069

Box Type: Clamshell

Year of Release: ?

Runtime: 90:19

Print: 1.33:1 / English / No subs

Extras: None

About the Film

Director: Antony Balch

Year of Release: 1973

Country of Origin: U.K.

Stars: Michael Gough, Robin Askwith, Vanesa Shaw, Dennis Price, Skip Martin

AKAs: Computer Killers, Doctor Bloodbath, Dr. Frankenstein's Horror Clinic, Forbidden Diary of a College Girl, The Claws of Frankenstein, Human Butcher

Verbatim Box Synopsis

Welcome to Brittlehouse Manor, a "health resort" where young people are cured of all their hang-ups in one stroke. One stroke, that is, of Doc Storm's scalpel.

You see Doc Storm, a crippled demented genius in a wheel chair, has a laboratory where he performs hideous and graphic brain surgery on his young patients -- making them cooperative, brainless, zombies.

With the help of Frederick the dwarf, the "Bike Boys", and Doc Storm's infamous decapitating limousine the new patients are guaranteed all the "rest" they will ever need.

U.S. Gorgon Video / MPI Home Video sleeve!

U.S VCI Command Performance slipcase,
courtesy of reader Scott Gacek! 

U.S. VCI Home Video reissue slipcase, also courtesy 
Scott Gacek! You rock!

U.S. Bingo Video Inc. slipcase, courtesy of Jayson Kennedy's Basement of Ghoulish Decadence! Cover artist "Danilo" was responsible for a lot of Mogul Communications' better sleeves!

 U.K. Satanica sleeve!

Australian Vibrant Video sleeve, courtesy of Rolfens DVD!

 French Delta Video Diffusion sleeve, courtesy of L'antre de l'horreur!

 Dutch VC 2 Video sleeve, originally scanned by "shootgringoshoot"!

Swedish Red Baron sleeve, also courtesy of Rolfens DVD!

TV spot, uploaded by Craig Anderson!

British trailer, double-billed with 

Ted V. Mikels' The Corpse Grinders (1971). Uploaded by "anubis44"!

Looking for Horror Hospital on VHS? It's available on Amazon here. There's also a nice special edition DVD available from MPI's Dark Sky label, with commentary from producer Richard Gordon, stills, and more. (If you're a Horror Hospital completist, there's also an earlier non-anamorphic print from Elite.)

Investigate more titles with Project: MPI!

For a look at other labels, check out The VHS Archives!

© 2013 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.

It's Name that Movie Monday! Challenge #16!

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Welcome back to Name that Movie Monday!

It's time for Challenge #16 here at the ol' Arcana! Can you identify this week's mystery photo, scanned direct from The Holecheck Archives? If you think you recognize it, post a comment below. As the week goes on, if no one guesses correctly I'll begin adding some pretty useless hints. Easy, right?

Here ya' go -- good luck!

UPDATE:

Thumbs up to Dave S., who recognized Norman J. Warren's Satan's Slave (1976) through the satin scribblings of the censor's Sharpie.  Apparently filmed as Evil Heritage, the story follows young Catherine, who, after watching her parents inexplicably blow up in a car crash, moves in with her uncle Alex (a ridiculously-mustached Michael Gough). Unfortunately for her, it seems ol' unc' is a closet cult leader and has one hell of a birthday party planned for his new tenant.

Receiving its belated Stateside release in 1979 courtesy of Crown International Pictures (who also issued Warren's later supernatural slashfest Terror the same year), the film surprisingly never garnered a domestic VHS issue (unless there's something I'm forgetting) and the curious were forced to seek out the Canadian tape (sometimes popping up in more well-stocked rental outlets) or one of the European imports.

Things became even more problematic in the digital age.  Satan's Slave didn't get a U.S. home video release proper until 2004 when Rhino included it as part of their Horrible Horrors Collection, Vol. 1.  While the disc was completely uncut, notably showing a harder psychosexual scissor-assault than found in some foreign versions, it was also badly cropped to fullframe from the original 2.35:1 framing. Shortly thereafter, Britain's Anchor Bay UK issued a nice, correctly-framed special edition as part of their Norman J. Warren Collection, and it was almost perfect; as expected, the aforementioned scissor bit wound up being replaced by a less explicit alternate version.  (The BBFC wouldn't even pass the complete sequence for inclusion as an extra.)  Hopes were briefly buoyed when BCI Eclipse announced their acquisition of the Crown catalog, and their 2008 disc (paired with Terror) sported a new transfer in the correct ratio, but was cut of multiple sex & violence highlights.  It was this censored edit that eventually made its way to Mill Creek's 2009 Gorehouse Greats set. 

So what's a fan to do?  Buy the Anchor Bay UK DVD for the print and supplements, and grab the old Rhino disc for the complete harder cut?  One can only hope eventually someone will come along and finally present the hard export version in its intended scope.

(Since this writing, Scorpion Releasing have announced they'll be issuing the full uncut version in its correct scope ratio.  You can find it on Amazon here.)

Poster courtesy of Wrong Side of the Art.  Newspaper ad taken from Serious Exploitation.

For a look at last week's entry, click here. And don't forget, our Upcoming Releases List (the best on the 'net) is constantly updated, so stop by and preorder some cool stuff!

 
© 2010 -- Bruce Holecheck. All Rights Reserved.