The limp Michael Ironside sports at the end of the movie was real. He broke his ankle on the first day of filming.
William Shatner really wanted to play the role of Colt Hawker. He nearly got the part but was told that before it could be offered to him, there was one more actor left to audition. The actor was Michael Ironside.
Michael Ironside was cast as Colt Hawker, partly because he had given such a sinister performance in David Cronenberg's Scanners (1981), which was also from the same producers of Visiting Hours.
This was the first of the UK's infamous 'Video Nasty' films to be aired on television. The ITV network aired the film uncut in 1989 and subsequently the network received a fine from the Broadcasting Standards Council.
Around four months before this movie was released, another horror hospital picture with a crazed killer released: Halloween II (1981). Both films featured a skull on their main movie posters, for Halloween II (1981), it was superimposed over a pumpkin, and for Visiting Hours (1982), it was formed as a pattern of switched on lights within the darkened shape of the hospital building. The theme music for (Visiting Hours (1982) was modeled after John Carpenter's iconic Halloween (1978) music score which is also featured in Halloween II (1981).