Elderly horror films starring Michael Gough as a dangerously insane butcher are always great fun, since the gore is so over-the-top and the story lines are so hilariously inept. Just look at "Horrors of the Black Museum" or "Satan's Slave", for example! It simply seems that casting Michael Gough inevitably results in a horror film that can't possibly be taken serious. "Horror Hospital" lifts up this theory to an even higher level of grotesquerie, as the plot is indescribably absurd, Gough's character is more demented than ever and the script is just filled with goofs, stupidities and illogicalness! Michael Gough is Doctor Christian Storm, supposedly a brilliant disciple of Pavlov once, but now a crippled lunatic who enjoys swooping off people's heads with his Rolls Royce (now there's one killing method you have to see in order to believe!). Although he's not very good at it, Storm attempts to control and master human feelings of sexuality so he performs brain-operations on youngsters and keeps their zombified leftovers locked away in his rural castle. You can't really be too harsh on this film, since writer/directed Antony Balch clearly opted for a light-headed and comical tone. Cliché after cliché is unscrupulously presented while the violence (although plenty of it) is never shocking or disturbing. Not once during the whole film I really understood what exactly Storm is trying to achieve with his operations (my best guess is that he wants to copulate with the female patients after disfiguring their brains),but I gladly witnessed how he cut open their heads and served the brains on a plate for them to see! The castle (referred to in the movie as a "health-farm") is a great horror setting and there are a couple of very ingenious gimmicks. The most fun definitely is to track down all the things in "Horror Hospital" that don't make the slightest bit of sense: the machete attached to the car can't possibly reach someone's head (unless they were all midgets like Skip Martin) and Storm's biker-henchmen just seem to keep on coming, like they're appearing out of nowhere. This movie is one of those exquisite British horror oddities released during the early 70's; too silly to be produced by Hammer but way too much fun to forget about them entirely. Watch it when you can!

Any film that opens up with a decapitation where the guillotine comes from a speeding vehicle is fine by me, and the visual of the heads rolling is hysterical. You get to see this several times and each time is funnier than the time before. Of course it's gory, but that's the part that makes for funny moments when you go "eew" and find yourself laughing. Veteran British horror icon Michael Gough is delightfully sinister as the head of the hospital, turning patients into zombies to do their bidding. There's a demented little person, an over the top Ellen Pollock (resembling Joan Bennett in "Suspiria") as Gough's assistant and a string of weak younger actors playing Gough's victims.

This is a well-done funny horror comedy that may not have been intentional with a good majority of what ends up being laughed at her with but that makes it all the more enjoyable. There are plenty of pratfalls with a little person trying to deal with some of the bigger people, and of course, things occur that makes him become on the side of the young people against Gough. He's one of the great horror villains of film history although veteran actor Dennis Price as a blackmailing gay employee of the hospital may raise eyebrows. Pollock steals every moment she's on screen, and she features prominently in a flashback after sealing her fate. Donny Osmond lookalike Kurt Christian adds some eye candy in the film's last half hour. Lots of fun in the modern Gothic horror genre and worth seeking out.

The first thing that intrigued me about "Horror Hospital" (also titled "Doctor Bloodbath") is that Michael Gough plays the lead role. Gough is best known as Alfred in the 1989-97 Batman movies (he also co-starred in "Horror of Dracula", "The Horse's Mouth" and "The Boys from Brazil", and even provided a voice in Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland"). Here he plays a doctor who performs a lot of unnecessary experiments on people.

What I noticed while watching the movie was that the secondary character (Robin Askwith) was named Jason Jones. Jason Jones is one of the correspondents on "The Daily Show" (or was up to a point; I don't know if he's still on the show).

Anyway, the movie isn't anything particularly special, but it's entertaining enough, with a scene or two that probably gave boys their first carnal experience. You'll probably enjoy it.