PRO-LIFE

Dr. Alex O'Shea and his assistant Kim accidentally hit Angelique with their car and bring her to the abortion clinic where they work to make sure the girl is not hurt. But Angelique was heading to the clinic because she intended to get rid of the fetus resulting from a mysterious sexual violence she suffered only a few days before. The girl says she was raped by the devil and in fact the speed with which her pregnancy progresses is incredible. Meanwhile, Angelique's father, accompanied by his other three children, assaults the clinic to retrieve his daughter. Mr. Burcell is very devout and firmly against abortion; moreover, the man says he was commissioned by the voice of God himself to do anything to make the girl carry the pregnancy to term. "Masters of Horror" is a singular project born from the mind of Mick Garris, a director known in the horror field mainly for the adaptations of Stephen King's novels. Garris thought of bringing together the most representative horror film directors in a project destined for cable TV Showtime and home video; the result is "Masters of Horror," a series of 13 short films of 60 minutes each, each directed by a great name in genre cinema; each episode has a budget of 1.8 million dollars, the location set in the Canadian city of Vancouver, and total creative freedom was granted to each director. The names involved in the second season of this project are: Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento, Stuart Gordon, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, John Landis, Ernest Dickerson, Brand Anderson, Tom Holland, Peter Medak, Rob Schmidt, Norio Tsuruta, and Mick Garris himself. After the excellent performance given in the first season of "Masters of Horror" with the beautiful "Cigarette Burns - Deadly Nightmare," John Carpenter tries again and makes another quality episode. With "Pro Life - The Seed of Evil" we are not at the very high quality levels of the previous episode, but we are still in purely Carpenterian territory, rich in atmospheres and themes dear to the director of "Halloween - The Night of the Witches." If "Deadly Nightmare" magnificently recreated the gloomy and surreal atmospheres of "In the Mouth of Madness," in "The Seed of Evil" Carpenter once again plays the self-quotation card, mixing the mystic-blasphemous suggestions of "Prince of Darkness" with the classic siege situation/action derived from "Assault on Precinct 13" and punctually proposed in many other famous works by the director. What stands out most in this film is Carpenter's constant desire to talk in his own way (anarchic and politically incorrect) about highly relevant social themes; this time, beyond a not entirely flawless screenplay and often a bit too "easy," the main theme is abortion and the ideological battle that has divided pro-life (those against abortion) and pro-choice (those in favor) for more than 30 years. Carpenter chooses to tell the story with a decidedly "biased" approach, describing the representative of pro-life as a bigoted religious extremist who does not hesitate to kill and torture in order to obey his ideology (and here a harsh critique of various religious beliefs with a subtle re-proposal of a "medieval" Christianity). On the opposite side, we have those who perform abortions and work in the clinic, (almost) rational characters who try to solve the problem from a scientific point of view, despite the obvious signs of a supernatural intervention. Although Carpenter is a convinced progressive democrat, from his description the characters who turn out to be more fascinating and multi-faceted are precisely the family of conservative Republicans who "hear the voice of God," led by a always charismatic Ron Perlman ("Hellboy," "Blade 2"), a new Abraham who drags his children to die for the satisfaction of divine will. The two abortionists, played by Mark Feuerstein ("Rules of Engagement," "Abandon") and Emanuelle Vaugier ("Zombie Hunters;" "Saw II"), are instead not very developed and unable to engage the viewer. As often happens with episodes of "Masters of Horror," violence and splatter abound, this time represented by exploding heads, repulsive parts with an abundance of liquids, and a very painful abortion performed on a man (!!!). Good special effects created by the trusted team of Berger and Nicotero, who this time indulge in recreating "the old-fashioned way" horned demons and horrifying arachnoid fetuses that greatly resemble the creatures that appeared in "The Thing" (another self-quotation). In short, "The Seed of Evil" is fun, paced, and risqué just right; in the opinion of the writer, it is the best episode of the second season of "Masters of Horror."