X-Ray (1981; Boaz Davidson)

Back in the good old days, this slasher entry from Cannon (produced by head honchos, Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus) was released on an MGM-UA big box VHS with the more familiar title, Hospital Massacre, which at least sounds more fun than the film really is. The Scream Factory DVD-BD combo pack (which pairs this with Schizoid, another Cannon slasher from the day) carries it under the title X-Ray- referring to a pivotal piece of its meagre plot, in which Susan Jeremy (Barbi Benton) is mysteriously kept at the hospital, over an x-ray which alleges she has a terminal condition, while some maniac in a surgical mask slices and dices all the staff on the floor around her. 

 

Those who have seen one slasher film will properly surmise that the reason for these killings, and her confinement, have something or other to do with the obligatory opening "prologue" sequence, in which a traumatic moment from the past hints at the reason for the present-day bloodbath. Even the recycling of this familiar trope (set in "Susan's House - 1961"), represents just how lazy this picture is. These kids' long blow-dried hairstyles scream "1980" (even a haircut would've helped the period setting). Ex-playmate Barbi Benton tries, God bless her, but even she can't do a thing with this by-the-numbers material. She is given little else to do but chain smoke in bed while the bodies pile up around her, and the viewer constantly eyes the counter on the DVD player. 

One could feasibly mistake the otherwise wooden acting as an aesthetic choice, as everyone else is portrayed as ineffectual or insane, perhaps to suggest a moral ambiguity among the other players to hint that anyone is culpable in the murders. Instead, the people are just cardboard cutouts that elicit zero suspense or sympathy.  Still, because the hospital corridors are so dark, it's a wonder the killer can even find anyone to hack up. Without the plentiful supplies of gore or nudity (despite the presence of its leading starlet) that at least typified other slashers of the day, this film simply cannot operate on its bare bones mechanics. 

This is sadly indicative of much Cannon fodder of the time, which simply hasn't aged well with leaden pacing, one-dimensional characters and uninspired execution. The prolific director Boaz Davidson (who wrote the story, which Marc Behm adapted to a screenplay) had made the highly successful Israeli-produced Lemon Popsicle series of films which were distributed by Cannon, and then made several other domestic products (Seed of Innocence; The Last American Virgin) around the same time of this release, while the film company was still shakily trying to find its niche. You can see why Goran and Globus needed for Chuck Norris and Sho Kosugi to come along.