super marauder Okay, okay! I can clearly see from the other reviewers this one is a mixed bag. Either love it it or hate it, well that's fine. That's okay because it deals with a touchy subject.Set aside the politics for a moment, the movie is about a teenage girl who wants an abortion because she feels the baby is evil. But her father wants to protect the baby at all costs.Ron Perlman is excellent as usual playing the tragic hero who knows it's there is going to be bloodshed. He knows it's going to get ugly and he's not happy about it, but he feels it has to be done. Catlin Wachs is great playing the victim. Bill Dow and the rest of the cast is great too.I feel the both sides of the issue is being served. But it's Ron Perlman's character that really sells me on this. He is a father who loves his kids and do whatever it takes to protect them. I feel if you love this movie or hate this movie you can't hate Ron.John Carpenter has never been above pushing people's buttons, just look at 'They Live'. He said of this "it's just a monster movie", and Cody Carpenter's score captures the mood.I'm not trying to mock other people when I say this one is not for someone with a closed mind. If you feel strongly one way or the other about abortion, I suggest you avoid this one. I myself enjoyed this not because I am pro-life or pro choice. I enjoyed it because all of the characters most notably Ron and Catlin because they were real people.

trashgang I was looking forward for John carpenter's entry in this excellent series but what a mess this was. I didn't like it at all. This isn't another Halloween (1978) or The Thing (1982) two of his masters pieces. This episode was even a bit boring because nothing happened. What really saved Pro-Life are the effects done by Berger and Nicotero. Dwayne (Ron Perlman) a religious man wants to save his daughter from abortion. She's only 15 years old. But soon at the clinic the doctors come beware that she's being raped only one week earlier and it's already time to give birth. God is telling Dwayne to let the baby live but the baby is made by a demon. What did work is one gunshot that goes into the neck of a youngster. That looked messy but the demon itself was a pure fifties, a man in a rubber suit monster and once the demon baby is born it did remind me of The Thing but again. Nothing else really happens except a lot of discussions going on. Further we do have one nice CGI gunshot in the head but by then it's all too late. This is clearly one of the bad things Carpenter has done. It isn't creepy or doesn't have one element of horror in it. Avoid it, you wont regret it. Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 3/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Witchfinder General 666 Horror master John Carpenter contributed one of the best entries to the first "Masters of Horror" season with "Cigarette Burns" (Season 1, Episode 8), but he sadly didn't keep the high quality Horror up with this fifth episode of the 2nd season, "Pro-Life". "Pro-Life" certainly has its qualities, as it's pretty disturbing at times and furthermore stars none other than Ron Perlman, who is always an enrichment to the films he stars in. The episode also has its faults, however. Strangely, all MoH episodes that have a somewhat political theme or subplot seem to be lacking in many departments and "Pro-Life" is no exception to that. While the episode is brutal, disturbing and occasionally also quite creepy I couldn't say it was genuinely scary. A religious fanatic (Perlman) attempts to 'rescue' his pregnant teenage daughter from an abortion clinic, and is determined to use any violence necessary to do so. His daughter however, has some very particular reasons for wanting to abort... While "Pro-Life" is not one of the very good episodes of the series, it certainly isn't one of the bad ones either. Ron Perlman is great as always in the role of the religious fanatic, and his performance alone saves this episode from mediocrity. The daughter, played by Caitlyn Wachs, is the only lovable character in the episode. The problem about the episode is that, other than the innocent daughter, there is really no character one would care about. Actually, I almost wanted everybody else to die. Like "Cigarette Burns" this is again one of the most violent entries to the series. One scene, in which abortion devices are 'misused' is especially nauseating. Overall, "Pro-Life" is not breathtaking, but a worthwhile episode for MoH fans.

Scarecrow-88 An abortion clinic is besieged by an enraged activist and his boys because his pregnant 15 year old daughter wants her unborn demonic child(!)killed before birth.Yep, Dwayne Burcell(Ron Perlman, not overplaying the role, playing his character less intense, and more like a burdened father)has been a nuisance towards the abortion clinic to the point that they got a restraining order against him. A religious man, pro-life, has a pregnant young daughter who wants an abortion..certainly rife with irony and the true meat of this Masters of Horror episode's story. The daughter, Angelique Burcell(Caitlan Wachs), was molested and impregnated by the demon whose hands rose from the earth to pull underground from a swing-set. Dr Alex(Mark Feuerstein)and his nurse/lover Kim(Emmanuelle Vaugier)are the ones Angelique confides in to kill the thing inside her. This episode also has another family with a grumpy father who shows his disgust towards his young daughter rather loudly.A monster movie with social commentary, much like the old days whether it was stopping nuclear testing or catching commies, John Carpenter's mini-film focuses on the issue of murdering an unborn child. I didn't find the story as a whole satisfying, but I liked the idea of having a film about abortion where both sides have their say. But, this episode goes a bit off the rails when Dwayne, believing it's God's will to save his daughter's unborn child(..it was actually a demon whispering to him in prayer), performs a similar abortion procedure on the head of the clinic, Dr. Kiefer(Bill Dow). I found this rather unpleasant exercise a bit over-the-top in the examination of how the child might feel if it were eliminated by the hand of a physician. Not only does this exercise take an insane amount of time(..time he could be spending searching for his daughter), but it paints Dwayne, who seems rather reasonable, into a sociopathic monster. Perhaps that's the point, but it's awfully chest-pounding. Was it really God's will for Dwayne to torture and cruelly administer that procedure on Kiefer making him "see how it felt to be killed the way the unborn infants were." That's an extreme example of how religious folks protesting against abortion must seem to the writers of this episode. There's one murder, Dwayne's weak son kills the father of a family for no apparent reason whatsoever, that should've been left out of the episode..it serves no real purpose other than to show that the sins of a father can influence a son.The monster is quite nifty. Sure it's a demon creature suit with a man inside, but I was proud to see it in this episode. While the gore effects from gun shot wounds were clearly CGI, seeing a good old fashioned monster, not created digitally was a great thrill to this horror fan. The half-human/half-demon baby is obviously modeled somewhat from the spider-head of Carpenter's "The Thing"..it's quite a wild concoction. The CGI effects consist of Dwayne blowing a hole through one victim's skull with brains splattering on the sidewalk, and a shootout resulting in one of Dwayne's sons getting caught in the throat opening a bloody wound. I found the CGI effects underwhelming, but okay..I've seen worse. I'd say this is an entertaining, if flawed, episode in the series, with some great, and not-so-great moments. I do feel the message of the film regarding abortion comes across as muddled..perhaps siding with the pro-choice crowd.