Canada, 1982/1985
Review:JA Kerswell
A criminally overlooked—and today largely forgotten—Canadian slasher adjacent medical thriller that was filmed in 1982 and sat on the shelf until a belated theatrical bow in 1985. As of time of writing, it has never had a digital release. Patients are dying bloody deaths at a futuristic medical facility. A doctor and his ex-girlfriend uncover an illegal betting ring amongst the staff, placing wagers on recovery times. However, is someone both shortening the odds and shortening patients’ lives?
Frank (Joe Spano), a doctor at the Dodson Medical Centre, is perplexed that a patient of his fatally haemorrhaged in her hospital bed, especially as she had a stroke but was an otherwise healthy 20-year-old woman. He is concerned that her death is partially blamed on a bladder infection, which he supposedly missed and may mean medical malpractice on his part. He asks the house coroner, Mary (Ellen Barkin), to check during the woman’s autopsy. When she discovers no evidence of an infection, she prepares a report for Frank. However, the document goes missing, and she is targeted by a shadowy figure in black at the local supermarket who injects her food with a drug that leads her to be admitted unconscious to the hospital where she works.
Meanwhile, Anna (Diane Venora), who works at the facility installing and maintaining the advanced computers that manage the medical care of the patients, begins noticing some anomalies. Anna, who is the on/off girlfriend of Frank, confides in him that something is wrong. As they get closer to the heart of the mystery, other senior medics suggest that Frank’s drinking may have affected his judgment, as more patients start dying at the facility. Are the staff at the hospital going to great lengths to cover up their gambling ring, or is something even more sinister going on?
Admittedly, it would be a stretch to call TERMINAL CHOICE a slasher movie in the conventional sense. However, it has enough of the elements from the early 1980s examples to feature here. Certainly, it is a murder mystery where the killer utilises the hospital’s then cutting-edge technology to both kill and cover up his or her crimes. Yet we also see the killer lurking, silhouetted in black in a number of scenes that are certainly reminiscent of other slasher movies from the time. Whilst it may share more with medical conspiracy thrillers such as COMA (1978) than, say, VISITING HOURS (1982) (the more traditional Canadian hospital-set slasher made the year before), it is surprisingly gory and blood-soaked. Of course, what would have looked futuristic in 1982 now looks dated, but it doesn’t detract from the film’s momentum and gives it something of a retro charm.
TERMINAL CHOICE benefits from some excellent acting, and Spano and Venora make for engaging leads. The central mystery is a good one, but is perhaps easy to guess from the halfway point onwards. However, the film builds to an exciting closing act as the killer uses every trick in the book to neutralise the intrepid investigators. Barkin is great in an early role (she had her breakthrough role the same year this was made in DINER (1982)). David McCallum plays the ambiguously motivated head of the facility, and fans of Canadian slasher MY BLOODY VALENTINE (1981) will spot Don Francks as a nosy medical investigator. The slasher movie associations extend to both the film’s co-writer and executive producer, as both Peter Lawrence and Jean Ubaud were involved in the making of THE BURNING (1981). TERROR TRAIN’s (1980) Sandee Currie also appears in a small role as a nurse.
It appears that TERMINAL CHOICE may have originally been intended to be more of a slasher movie. Perhaps because the subgenre had begun underperforming by 1982, plans were altered. Joe Spano—who was best known for appearing on the cop show HILL STREET BLUES—told the Toronto Star in July 1982 that the film was originally “another exploitation horror movie”, but expressed his surprise and relief that “… it’s turned into a suspense film.” The same paper reported in April of 1982 that the plot had been altered to focus less on the deadly lottery the staff play and more on the hunt for why patients were dying.
The original working title was CRITICAL LIST. Production started under that title in April 1982 in and around Toronto, with a mooted budget of $2 million. It was directed ably by Sheldon Larry, who was better known for his soap opera work but proved to be able to handle thriller material with some skill. For whatever reason, the film sat on the shelf for almost three years until its belated North American theatrical release in May of 1983 under the title TERMINAL CHOICE (to limited territories, Los Angeles and Arizona). It got OK notices. Michael Wilmington, in the Los Angeles Times, called it: “… one of those frustratingly “in-between” movies: not quite good enough to class as a “sleeper,” basically flawed on a number of levels, but still done with more intelligence and talent than you’d expect.” It was released by Almi Pictures, who had also dusted off the film SUPERSTITION (which was lensed in 1981) and gave it a US cinema release.
Arizona was often used as a testing ground for movies, and presumably, the distributors thought that the high-tech thriller angle didn’t work, so the film was re-released as DEATH BED in September 1985. The film was advertised with a much more schlock/horror-oriented approach, with an image of a skeleton sitting up in an ornate bed and a trailer seemingly trying to make it look like A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984) rip-off of all things! Under this title, Eleanor Ringel in the Atlanta Journal gave it a bad review, saying it was “ … about as subtle as a hypodermic in your neck. And, ultimately, about as much fun.” The film eventually got a theatrical release in its native Canada, but not until 1987.
Personally, I remember seeing the VHS of TERMINAL CHOICE for rental back in the 1980s in the UK. Inexplicably, that is still currently the only way to see this nifty little Canadian thriller movie with its slasher movie leanings. Given its sci-fi leanings, it richly deserves to be rescued for the digital age.
BODY COUNT 6:
Female 6 / Male 10
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TERMINAL CHOICE (as DEATH BED) trailer