I was dimly intrigued when I stumbled across this film on Amazon. It looked like a forgotten 80s suspense film set in a hospital. From the description, I thought it might be no more gruesome than an episode of Columbo. (For you young folks, that was an 80s detective show.)
It turned out to be one of the best, most psychotic, most over the top slashers I’ve ever seen. Seriously… you HAVE to see this.
The premise is solid. Susan, played by Barbi Benton, drops by the hospital to hear the results of some medical tests. She’s not expecting anything unusual, as the tests were ordered only to fulfill an insurance requirement.
When she finally gets a doctor to look at her results, he starts acting weird. The hospital needs to hold her for observation, he says, though he won’t say why.
This is a great setup, as the fear of the grim diagnosis (“YOU’VE GOT CANCER!!!”) is one of the great modern fears.
On top of all this, we, the viewers, have already observed a masked killer sneaking through the hospital and killing people.
The kills in the film are endlessly creative. An ax, bone saw and hypodermic needle are all put to deadly good use. One scene seems like a possible inspiration for a famous scene in the movie “Se7en”.
“X-Ray” kept me guessing who the killer was. At one point, the guy I strongly suspected of being the killer got an ax in the back of the head, conclusively proving his innocence. (Though I will say, there’s actually a very obvious clue—I’m embarrassed I missed it—that points to the killer’s identity early on.
I was familiar with the name Barbi Benton, but knew little about her work. I looked her up, and she’s mainly associated with the Playboy brand and dating Hugh Hefner, but she also recorded some songs, and I found the chorus of her pop anthem “Staying Power“ kind of catchy.
This is absolutely a film I would watch again.
Best line: Does she let you touch her special places?
