Review of Terminal Choice

Quite a strange but intriguing find, this obscure and virtually unknown little 80's hospital thriller/horror movie. The plot doesn't always make perfect sense and the screenplay contains more holes than the average pair of fishnet-stockings, but the film definitely benefices from an oddly menacing atmosphere and a variety of truly ingenious ideas. There even is an even balance between genuine suspense moments and downright engrossing scenes of massacre, which is also quite praiseworthy to say the least. "Terminal Choice" is just a very peculiarly scripted film, and rather frequently you'll find yourself wondering how the hell the writers came up with some of the twists and story elements. The hospital setting is clearly a futuristic one, since all doors open automatically and routine interventions happen through medical devices that are built in the ceiling, but everything else outside the clinic's walls looks very much 80's and incredibly dated by today's standards. It's never mentioned in what year the story allegedly takes place and how modern medicine progressed specifically. We're just supposed to accept that hi-tech and pre-programmed computers now operate on people and all the supervising doctor has left to do is type in the correct dose of medication. This is probably why certain doctors develop alcoholism – yet continue to treat patients even though the entire hospital staff is aware – and others even set up a detailed and highly profitable gambling business in the basement, where fellow bored colleagues can put in money on the percentage of chance for full recovery of patients, the dose of drugs they require daily, etc. But there's another highly unethical and grim crime going on in the hospital, since patients with ordinary bladder infections suddenly die from excessive hemorrhages, and someone tries to blame it all on Dr. Frank Holt. See, the automated operations and particularly the undercover hospital gambling business are extremely ingenious and original key aspects in "Terminal Choice", but they should have been elaborated a little more. The film's emphasis wrongly lies on the love/hate relationship between Dr. Holt, who hates computers, and his ex-fiancée Anna Lang, who actually designed the programs for all the fully-functional computers in the hospital. The first death sequence is effectively unsettling and quite shocking, since you witness a defenseless young girl literally bleed to death. The remaining death scenes – one involving the sexy and still undiscovered Ellen Barkin – are mainly intense and disturbing instead of gross. I concur with my fellow reviewers in stating that "Terminal Choice" counts as a slasher; albeit a slightly atypical one. Some of the trademarks definitely (red herrings, characters behaving suspicious for no apparent reason, beautiful women stalked in the shower, flamboyant end-twist) but it's also one league above the majority of slasher outings of the 80's.