RICHARD MARTIN REVISITS THE MASTERS OF HORROR:PRO-LIFE, DIRECTED BY: JOHN CARPENTER

RICHARD MARTIN REVISITS THE MASTERS OF HORROR: PRO-LIFE, DIRECTED BY: JOHN CARPENTER

2/7/2021

We are living in a golden age of horror on TV. Shows like ‘The Walking Dead’, ‘Supernatural’ and ‘American Horror Story’ have effectively taken the genre mainstream, offering weekly doses of gore and mayhem to the masses. Go back a decade or two however, and genre fans had far fewer options to choose from. Anthology shows, like ‘Tales From the Crypt’, ‘Monsters’ or ‘Tales From the Darkside’ were king during the horror heyday of the 1980s, providing cheesy and cheerful tongue in cheek horror in half hour bites. It wasn’t until 2005 that the TV horror anthology show got serious, and delivered arguably the most consistent, memorable and scary anthology show to date.

The brainchild of horror legend Mick Garris, the show’s title is no hyperbole. ‘Masters of Horror’ brought together the best horror talent Hollywood (and beyond) had to offer. Episodes directed by undisputed genre luminaries such as John Carpenter, Tobe Hooper, Dario Argento and Stuart Gordon were like hour long movies brought to your TV screen. High production values, A-List talent and a free reign to do whatever they pleased resulted in some truly unforgettable work from a group of horror legends let off their leash. These are stories that have stayed with me in the fifteen years since many initially aired and, in this series, I’ll be revisiting all twenty-six episodes, one at a time, to shine a light on a fondly remembered and undeniably influential moment in horror TV history.
Join me as I take a look back at;

Pro-Life
Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Ron Perlman, Caitlin Wachs, Emmanuelle Vaugier, Mark Feuerstein
Original Air Date: 24 November 2006
Synopsis: A young woman seeks shelter from her judgemental family in a local clinic, as she wishes to abort her unborn demon child.

RICHARD MARTIN REVISITS THE MASTERS OF HORROR:PRO-LIFE, DIRECTED BY: JOHN CARPENTER

John Carpenter’s first season episode, ‘Cigarette Burns’, is probably the most fondly remembered and widely beloved episode of the entire twenty-six episode run, so his season two offering (‘Pro-Life’) had an awful lot to live up to, both when I first watched this episode back in 2006, and fifteen years later on my re-watch. The set-up is an interesting (and controversial one) and it boasts an outright movie star in its lead, Ron Perlman having suited up for the first time as Hellboy just two years prior, but does Carpenter steal the spotlight in season two as he did the year prior? Let’s find out!

The episode opens with Alex (Mark Feuerstein) and Kim (Emmanuelle Vaugier) carpooling on their way to work. Their light back and forth played alongside scenes of Angelique (Caitlin Wachs) as she desperately stumbles through the forest, desperately fleeing… something. She staggers out into the road just as Alex and Kim drive-by, narrowly missing her. Worried that she may be in shock, the couple get Kim safely into the car so that she can be checked out at the clinic they work at. When they arrive, however, they learn two troubling things in quick succession. That Angelique is pregnant, and that she is the daughter of a local militant, Dwayne Burcell (Ron Perlman) who has both a strong anti-abortion stance and an inkling of where his missing daughter may be…

The cast is a relatively big one in this episode, and by and large, are all pretty good, but when you’re vying for screen-time with Ron Perlman and a demon baby, I think it’s fair to say that it’s the latter two that make the most impact. If I were to call anyone out for managing the impossible, and being a memorable screen presence besides Hellboy himself, I thought Caitlin Wachs did a commendable job of playing Angelique, who goes through the wringer in this episode. Wachs, perhaps best known for kid-friendly, straight to TV movies at this stage (most featuring dogs. Think ‘Shiloh 2’, two ‘Air Bud’s’ and ‘My Dog Skip’) only revisited horror once after this episode, as the titular ‘Mary’ in 2008’s ‘Bloody Mary’ and it’s a shame because she has a knack for the material if this episode is anything to go by.

What follows is a tense stand-off between Dwayne and the staff working at the clinic. It seems Dwayne has a long and no so friendly history with them and is banned from entering the premises. He spends the first half of the episode outside the gates, making demands and generally being a threatening and dangerous screen presence. Meanwhile, inside the clinic, Angelique’s pregnancy is demonstrating some unusual symptoms, to say the least, when, during a routine scan, a hand presses up from her stomach and crushes the machine before anyone can proudly announce her baby to be a boy, girl, or demon spawn. Her story of an unpleasant encounter with a denizen of hell, and the fact that she’s gone from barely showing to heavily with child in the space of a few hours, send everyone inside into a bit of a panic and, when Dwayne hears a message from ‘God’ commanding that he save the baby, things get a whole lot worse.

I specifically wanted to call out the effects in this episode, because there are so many of them, and they look pretty great for the most part, particularly the practical ones. I was surprised at just how action-packed this episode got, just because of the budget and time constraints that must be present on a TV show from back in 2006, and I was impressed at how ‘big’ the episode felt at times. There are some smaller VFX shots, including some especially graphic gunshots to the head, alongside some great practical effects, like Kim’s undulating, demonic pregnancy belly, or the baby itself once it makes its appearance. There are some much bigger effects though, namely the demon fathers’ grand entrance when it bursts through the floor, that really give this episode the ‘movie’ vibe that Masters of Horror strove for.

The action kicks into high gear as a heavily armed Dwayne and his sons break into the clinic by force, shooting and killing anyone who gets in their way, determined to get to Angelique by any means necessary. As they are shooting their way in, Angelique goes into labour, and Alex and Kim do what they can to deliver the baby. When two pairs or crab legs begin to leverage their way out of poor Angelique, the sound of gunshots in the background, the pair make a hasty and undignified exit. This gross-out body-horror scene is cut alongside one that is, if anything, even worse! Dwayne and his sons finally get inside the office of the clinic manager and, seeing his office adorned with historic tools of the trade, decide that there is just enough time for a quick lesson in what it feels like to be on the receiving end of the ‘evils’ of what the clinic is doing. I cannot stress this last part enough... Do not watch this scene while eating!

One thing I loved about this episode as, not only a horror fan but specifically a John Carpenter fan, is the fun references to his other movies that are sprinkled throughout the episode. The demon baby will no doubt remind many of a particularly memorable scene from the director’s sci-fi horror masterpiece, ‘The Thing’ and the episode, in general, gives off strong ‘Assault on Precinct 13’ vibes, particularly in the finale. There are probably a ton I missed too, but it was a lot of fun seeing Carpenter include these little nods to fans.

The closing ten minutes or so are all action, as Dwayne continues his rampage, Angelique’s demon baby is born, looking like the result of a nightmarish coupling of a scorpion and a baby doll and, just in case things weren’t bad enough for everyone, the father decides to pay the new mother a visit in pretty spectacular fashion. Dwayne’s face when he realises who it was who was imploring him to save the baby, and why, is priceless, and Angelique doesn’t take to motherhood quite as expected, and the episode ends in an abrupt, but satisfying way as the viewer is left shell-shocked from the pure spectacle and madness of the third act.

Was it ‘Cigarette Burns’ level good? To be fair, that is a very high bar. Was it a great episode? Absolutely! A lot of the budget is right up there on the screen and for a fifteen-year-old cable network TV show, the effects are surprisingly big scale in places and look fantastic throughout. The episode tackles some controversial subject matter, with the episode being almost entirely set in an abortion clinic and featuring characters with some militant religious views, and as a social commentary, its stance is pretty clear, but Carpenter does wrap up his statement in a very entertaining and impressive looking package, making this a memorable episode for all manner of reasons. Speaking of memorable episodes…

Join me next time as I’ll be looking at episode six of the second season, Dario Argento’s ‘Pelts’. See you then!

If you missed any of Richard's previous Revisting The Masters of Horror articles, you can find links to them all here on our handy landing page
THE MASTERS OF HORROR

Richard is an avid reader and fan of all things horror. He supports Indie horror lit via Twitter (@RickReadsHorror) and reviews horror in all its forms for several websites including Horror Oasis and Sci Fi and Scary