Product Description

For the dedicated staff of an isolated women s clinic the ultimate nightmare is waiting to explode. Trapped inside is a terrified pregnant 15-year-old girl. Lurking outside her crazed anti-abortion activist father (Ron Perlman of HELLBOY) and heavily armed brothers are ready to smash their way in. In this health- centerturned- slaughterhouse there is only one certainty there will be Hell to pay. Emmanuelle Vaugier (SAW II SMALLVILLE) and Mark Feuerstein (THE WEST WING) co-star in this graphic and provocative shocker directed by John Carpenter.Runtime: 58 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 013138990280 Manufacturer No: N9902

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64270 in DVD
• Brand: Anchor
• Released on: 2007-03-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 57 minutes

Amazon.com
John Carpenter's (Halloween) contribution to the second season of the Masters of Horror series, Pro-Life, tackles one of the most abject horror film topics--abortion--with absurdity, showing how humor can be rooted in disgust. Fifteen-year old Angelique (Caitlin Wachs) Burcell has been raped by the devil, and seeks an abortion at the local abortion clinic in this homage to Rosemary's Baby. Unfortunately, her right wing Christian father, Dwayne (Ron Perlman), is not only pro-life, but also has a psychotic belief that she is about to birth God's child which justifies fighting his way into the clinic with guns to prevent Angelique's operation. Two doctors are shocked to learn that they can't exterminate the evil spawn, as they watch it bulge and buck inside Angelique's belly. Graphic birth scenes coupled with the Devil's visit to the clinic to meet his newborn will cause both laughter and repulsion. The baby, with human head and six crab-like legs, crawls around the operating room floor until he meets his demise. Demented as it is funny, Pro-Life contains less metaphoric horror than the Alien series, but has a similar aesthetic. For those who appreciate mutant birth scenes, Carpenter's rendition will satisfy. --Trinie Dalton

Customer Reviews

The Abortion Debate Has Never Been So Loony--John Carpenter Is Pro-Entertainment
John Carpenter returns to Showtime's "Masters of Horror" series with Season 2's offering "Pro-Life." As with most anthology series, the quality of any given episode and the reaction to it can be widely divergent. Carpenter's entry from last season, "Cigarette Burns," is one of its most divisive. It is regarded in some circles as the best the show had to offer and dismissed out of hand by others. I fell somewhere in between the debate ranking it in the middle/upper part of the pack.

Intriguingly enough, the Takeshi Miike episode banned from Season 1 involved a storyline revolving around abortions. "Pro-Life," as you might guess from the title, also has this as a major theme. But don't worry, this is no heavy handed diatribe--it's light and loose but still has some sting to its barbs. This is a brand of horror that I like to think of as "everything but the kitchen sink." It is a social satire and a commentary on pro-life extremists--but it also throws in a grisly birth, a massive gun fight, torture, a insectile creature with a baby head, a chasm to an alternate world, and what appears to be the devil himself. In other words, I pretty much loved it! Easily one of the more entertaining episodes, no one will confuse this with great art--but it's a whole lot of fun.

The action gets going when a doctor from a local abortion clinic almost runs down a young girl fleeing from an unknown pursuer. Taking her into the hospital to make sure she's all right, she confesses to being pregnant. She thinks God has brought her here to get an abortion. Her father ends up at the front gate demanding her return, he is a pro-life activist who has had previous run-ins with this establishment. What follows include a revelation about the unnatural origins of the fetus, a supernaturally fast pregnancy cycle, and a battle for the father to save his unborn grandchild.

There is lots of humor in "Pro-Life," plenty of gore, and some crazy creatures. Ron Perlman and Caitlin Wachs are particularly effective as the pregnant girl and her father. For sheer loony entertainment value, this gets high marks for me. KGHarris, 12/06.

Excellent and entertaining horror.
I really enjoyed "Pro-life" and some of the gory deaths had me laughing. Whilst the subject matter is controversial, I feel this film was not propaganda (as the paranoid christians who have "reviewed" the film has said) but a good story of an interesting guy "Ron Perlman" who happens to be a religious nutter!

The irony of being "pro-life" as he is will not be lost on you. Great performance by Ron Perlman, he sure is ugly to look at but makes an imposing figure.

Well put together and vastly entertaining horror.

Pro-Life is a Killer -- So Bad It's Good Halloween Treat!
John Carpenter's bloody gore-fest involving a girl, Angelique, who is raped by a demon and wants an abortion She happens to run into two people who happen to work at an abortion clinic who happen to have a court order against her father for some vague reason.

Yes, the plot is thin, but the blood flows as a doctor gets shot up and tortured and an evil man and his three sons perform blood and mayhem in God's name.

I think what made up for the thin plot was the overacting of the players as they confronted each other with their own personal problems, none of which mattered as each got their brains splattered across parking lots.

Does blood really churn out like that with a bullet to the jugular? A little too gory for my taste, thus the three star average.

So bad it's good Halloween marvel.

Better Carpenter Outings:

They Live
Prince Of Darkness
The Thing (Collector's Edition)
Halloween (Divimax 25th Anniversary Edition)