Masters of Horror: Pro-Life

APRIL 19, 2007

GENRE: SUPERNATURAL
SOURCE: DVD (OWN COLLECTION)

Another Emmanuelle Vaugier movie! But that’s not the coincidence, because I knew that she was in Pro-Life. But what I DIDN’T know is that both movies would have a hilariously goofy looking monster that had its own little spider-baby. Huh. And as I learned in the commentary, Joe Bishara (who composed Unearthed) had a hand in mixing the score. Goddamn these random ties!!!

This is also another Masters of Horror, which I added to today’s viewing because halfway through watching Unearthed I remembered that I promised to watch something that was officially released. If you promise something on a blog, and no one bothers to read it, does it make a difference? Probably not, but I still had an hour to kill before work, so Pro-Life went in the player.

I wasn't a big fan of the group’s previous MoH entry, Cigarette Burns. It was better than some of the other episodes (Tobe Hooper's Dance of the Dead, for example), but I wasn't big on Norman Reedus' character, and he was front and center for the whole thing. Plus it was a bit too similar to In The Mouth of Madness at times (with some Ninth Gate mixed in). It had great moments, and Udo Kier's death scene was AMAZING, but I felt everyone could be doing better.

This one looked to be an improvement for the first 20, 25 minutes or so. In fact, it’s only when the actual ‘horror’ elements start to come into play that it starts to go off the rails. The demon birth is sort of creepy, but the ridiculous sound it makes is laughable. Ever play with Popoids as a kid? That’s what it sounds like. In addition, the ‘father’ monster looks like the Devil at the end of End of Days, but even sillier. And in what has to be the silliest goddamn scene in recent cinema history, Ron Perlman, who is so hellbent on saving his daughter’s baby before it is aborted, stops to talk to the abortion clinic’s owner for a while, then castrates him. One would think perhaps he would, I dunno, stop the abortion first, and THEN go play Bond villain?

I had a great time with the commentary track though. The highlight is when Carpenter realizes it’s been 20 minutes since he’s had a cigarette so he has to leave. You can hear him put on his coat or whatever he’s doing away from the microphone saying “No go ahead guys, you’re doing great.” Hahahaha, God bless him. Be even funnier if he never even bothered to come back (he barely seems interested anyway, offering mainly “yeah”s for insight while the writers take charge).

It's not a total loss though, because Cody Carpenter’s score is quite good, Carpenter seems a bit more into it this time, and like I said, the first 20 min or so are pretty interesting. But the monster stuff sort of lost me (though the spider-baby has a human baby head, which is torn apart by a bullet, so there’s something). Apparently, the original script had no monster, it was a straight siege story. The supernatural angle was added in later, so I am curious how it all ended up before this was added, and if the changes were for the better or not. Either way, it's an improvement to be sure, but still, given the pedigree, I'm disappointed. Maybe in Season three the trio will knock it out of the park.

What say you?