Hospital

The "Hospitals" Tag is meant to group together films in which a health-care setting plays a significant role. Depersonalized medical centers traversed by labyrinthine hallways, emergency rooms, outpatient clinics, private doctor's offices, nursing homes, medical schools, operating rooms, etc. A microcosm rich with aseptic rooms, surgical suites, and a wide variety of departments populated by professionals in white jackets or scrubs - doctors, nurses, and other personages who, theoretically at least, are there to ensure the patient's health and well-being. Featuring scenarios drawn from contemporary life and society, and often sharing a post-modernist aesthetic, this Tag will focus mainly on films set after World War II (which is why historic institutions such as Victorian Era mental hospitals in all their Gothic splendor won't be considered here).

Among genres that best dovetail with this Tag, we would cite:

1. Thrillers - Here we have the notable "medical thriller", a popular sub-genre that unites scientific/medical concepts with elements more typical of a detective story;
2. Science fiction - Here the focus falls more on an obsession with (often unethical) experimentation, generally embodied in an eccentric genius and often involving mutations;
3. Horror - Here it comes down to mentally disturbed individuals: killer doctors, perverse interns, sadistic surgeons, indifferent anesthesiologists - so much for the Hippocratic Oath!

 
P.S. In rare cases, the horror has a supernatural origin - "The Dead Pit" (1989) with its zombies comes to mind as do the impalpable presences looming in the Danish TV mini-series "The Kingdom" (Original title: "Riget", 1994).