Monday, September 7, 2015

Quick Reviews: Pro-Life (Masters of Horror)

After his last edition of Masters of Horror, I'm really excited for the new one by John Carpenter...
In this Episode/Film, we see what happens when you get stuck in between your Dad and The Devil!
 A young woman goes to a Clinic- after nearly getting hit by the Doctors in their car- with a request.
She wants this baby out of her.

Of course, there's a catch: she claims that she got pregnant yesterday...by a Demon!
To make things worse, her Dad (Ron Perlman) is a big Anti-Choice Activist.  He's also willing to kill over this- gotta love the lack of understanding regarding THAT irony...
Along with his sons, he breaks into the Clinic and does some pretty bad stuff.  Meanwhile, the Demon Baby appears to be on its way!
Speaking of on its way, the other 'Daddy' is on his way too.  Don't you just love Parallel Structure?
 What happens when both forces meet up for the big finale?  I won't say.  Yeah, I'm a dick like that- sorry.
Damn good fun.  Pro-Life is much more of a Monster Movie than you might think.  While others like Joe Dante make clear Political statements in their MoH works, Carpenter doesn't here.  They make a point of it in the Making of Featurette- almost to the point of absurdity.  Alright- I believe you.  Once you get past that, you have a good Story, good Actors, good Effects and a good Director to hold it all together.  Perlman really shines as a menace that thinks that he is in the right.  That is truly how these Characters work best, as opposed to cackling caricatures.  I was less impressed with some of the Supporting Cast, but they don't really drag this down either.  They do their job, but nothing more.  Kudos to Greg Nicotero and his team for making a good, solid Effects for this one.  The creature is better and bigger than you might expect, but still shot more in the shadows than usual.  I kind of wanted to see it more, but I respect Carpenter's choice all the same.  Since this one is so good, I have to get pretty nit-picky for a joke.  In the Making Of Featurette, they explain that Perlman's van was originally covered in propaganda pieces.  Carpenter apparently shot down that idea, but you can still see the residue of where some of it was in the final product...
A good, solid Episode.  It is nice to see Carpenter shine once again!

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