Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

framptonhollis On a second viewing, my appreciation for this 80's oddity has grown significantly. I have not really "understood" it more per se (I'm not sure if I will ever truly be able to entirely "understand" this film and I do not think that I'm supposed to), but I certainly have found more moments to cherish, tiny details that add to the overall absurdity that this work of art so gloriously embodies.Bending and twisting genres and genre conventions, "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" is the greatest (and probably the only) black tragicomedy-horror-melodrama-avant garde- slapstick-thriller-love story I have ever seen, one that bathes in its gloriously Gothic and often sad atmosphere. Melancholy soaks the movie's rather scary surface, but this melancholy is also accompanied with a sharp sense of humor largely encompassed by witty and surreal visual gags, moments so absurd you cannot help but laugh. Despite its massive and bizarre combo of varying genres, "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" never feels jumbled because its style always has the same bite. The music and performances do not change, and the overall mood doesn't either, the only thing that changes is the audience's reaction, which I feel is the best way to mix and combine genres. Guy Maddin uses his signature, silent-film-mimicing style to great effect, capturing the charm of oldie horror films and classic slapstick with a totally weird and somewhat manic twist!

Michael Neumann Fans of David Lynch and early Luis Buñuel will find plenty to admire (or scratch their head at) in this esoteric, shoestring budget mock Icelandic folk tale, set in a bleak sub-arctic village where victims of a mysterious plague are treated by having their sores caressed with dead seagulls. Winnipeg director Guy Maddin borrows extensively from the primitive vocabulary of the early sound era (with grainy photography, a scratchy music score, and crude post-dubbed dialogue) to create a nonsensical 70-minute punchline with no joke attached. The antique style of the production would have to be considered its own reward, especially since the story itself (involving incest, hints of necrophilia, and a mysterious butt-grabbing duel to the death) leads nowhere in particular. The awkward emoting by Nordic characters named Gunnar, Snjofridur, and Einar the lonely; the Louise Brooks look-alike nurses; and the cameo appearance of a black-faced vaudeville minstrel are all reminiscent of some nightmarish, early 1930s melodrama, but Maddin's aesthetic is aimed squarely at today's midnight cult audiences.

ametaphysicalshark I can't think of a better introduction to eccentric Canadian auteur Guy Maddin than "Tales from the Gimli Hospital". Maddin's feature debut is as ingeniously bizarre and surreal as many of his later followings and despite being a bit rough around the edges it is more than deserving of its devoted cult following which regard it as one of the best films of the 80's. I can't agree with that particular statement but it is unquestionably one of the most unique and interesting films of the decade, and certainly among the more memorable Canadian films to emerge during the time period.While two children are witnessing their mother's slow death in a modern-day hospital in Gimli, Manitoba, they are told a story by their grandmother set in Gimli many years before. The story is a fascinating and complex one, echoing a parable at times and at others simply bizarre. Often compared to David Lynch's "Eraserhead", "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" is a far more straightforward film, actually, and one with a narrative that requires interpretation but can be followed quite easily. It is an interesting parallel to Lynch's debut, however.As noted previously the film is rough around the edges in terms of budget and other constraints and Maddin isn't as comfortable and confident a director as he would later become, but the film works wonderfully as a whole and comes highly recommended.8/10

HumanoidOfFlesh Guy Maddin is a truly unusual filmmaker.His movies are black comedic and supremely bizarre excursions into silent black-and-white cinema."Tales from the Gimli Hospital" is possibly his most famous and creepiest work to date.This is a wonderfully strange and puzzling movie filled with haunting and disturbing imagery.The action takes place in the small fishing town of Gimli,Manitoba, in some indeterminate time in the early part of the 20th Century.Einar and Gunnar,two men afflicted with the deadly smallpox virus,are housed in the small Gimli Hospital,their bodies covered with the scars of disease,their minds slowly slipping into paranoia and fear.Much of the film is silent,only archaic soundtrack is used regularly.The film is shot in equisite black-and-white and looks terrific.Give it a look,if you enjoy watching surrealist cinema.8 out of 10.