Friday, October 30, 2009

Masters of Horror S2 05: Pro-Life (2006)

Pro-Life is essentially John Carpenter having a little fun at the expense of all the absurd abortion clinic shootings, or the pro-life/pro-choice debate in general. It's got a lot of the typical Carpenter wackiness, and you could consider it a cheaper alternative to a film like Prince of Darkness.

It's also pretty dumb.

***PRO-SPOILERS***

Caitlin Wachs plays Angelique, the daughter of fundie maniac Dwayne (Ron Perlman), who has already earned himself a restraining order from the local abortion clinic. Angelique is nearly run over and picked up by two of the medical staff at the clinic, who then drive her there to take care of any injuries she may have sustained. Well, it turns out Angelique is pregnant...and not by the normal source. She wants her unborn child removed, but daddy just showed outside in a red van. The security guards and Dwayne try and work it out, but they're not budging. He's not getting in, and they're not letting the girl out. So Dwayne and his three sons blast their way inside, a firefight ensues, lots of people die, the 'baby' is born, more people die.

Ron Perlman tries to play the loyal, Godfearing militant, but in a story this absurd, could anyone pull it off? The deaths are rarely gruesome, except for a few gunshots. When the 'papa demon' shows up to retrieve its child, and confronts some of the surviving staff, you never get to see any of their deaths. It feels cheap after you were at least given some firearm gore. The rest of the acting sucks and it fails to even entertain for laughs. The only fairly cool part is where Dwayne gives the Head Physician a male abortion...

After an episode as great as Sounds Like, this was a major letdown, ranking among the lowest trash Carpenter has delivered (Ghosts of Mars, etc). It's not really preachy about its premise, but it's also a waste of what could have been a decent opportunity for a horror show.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

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