| The Hospital | |
| Producer: | Jim O'Rear |
| Cinematography: | Jared Hicks |
| Music: | Virgil Franklin |
| Distributor: | ITN Distribution |
| Runtime: | 90 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | 10,000[1] |
The Hospital is a 2013 horror film co-directed by Tommy Golden and Daniel Emery Taylor. Having a limited US release in February 2013,[2] the film has subsequently screened at various horror film festivals, was presented at Cannes Film Festival,[3] and took home the "Scariest Movie" award at Germany's largest genre festival, Movie Days, in Dortmund.[4]
College student Beth Stratman (Constance Medrano) decides to travel to the small town of Bridgeport to do some additional research for a paper about local folklore. There are many stories about the old abandoned hospital there. The police think it is full of drug dealers and prostitutes. The locals think it is full of ghosts.
Unfortunately, they are both wrong. Beth instead finds Stanley Creech (Daniel Emery Taylor) who introduces himself as the caretaker of the grounds. She soon finds that Stanley is a psychopath, necrophiliac, and serial rapist. He holds her for several days, repeatedly raping and torturing her, leaving her no apparent means of escape.
Meanwhile, a group of hapless paranormal investigators, led by the goofs Alan (Jim O'Rear) and Jack (Jason Crowe), descend upon the property to document the alleged supernatural activity. This puts the group on a collision course with Stanley since he will do anything to keep his secret from being known. Girls begin to disappear in the night and the group learns that there is more to the story than originally thought. Both Stanley and the ghosts are just the beginning.
Filming began in mid 2012 in South Pittsburg, Tennessee.[5] [6] The directors chose to film at an abandoned hospital in the area to play off of the current popularity of 'paranormal reality' shows and give the viewer hope that they may see actual ghosts caught on camera.[1] [7]
Mark L. Miller of Ain't It Cool News gave a mixed review of the film's violence; Miller stated that it features "some of the most depraved kills enacted upon anyone in cinematic history"[8] HorrorNews.net panned the film, which they felt had "offensive, ill-judged, unpleasant and misogynist film making of the worst kind."[9]
On 19 March 2014, Tesco removed the horror film off their shelves and apologised after getting complaints for being too graphic and violent for a family store after a customer from Gloucester, England contacted the supermarket.[10]