I had liked John Carpenter's first entry in the "Masters of Horror" series, "Cigarette Burns" and, while "Pro-Life" delivered some wicked effects and gore, the creativity was lacking.
Ron Perlman plays the dad of a pregnant 15 year-old girl who was picked up by a couple of doctors who almost nailed her with their vehicle after she staggered out into the road. They take her to their abortion clinic where her religious, anti-baby killing father soon arrives demanding they release his daughter. Turns out Perlman has stirred up some trouble there before in expressing his over-zealous beliefs and is sternly refused entry. The only way to go from here is: to war. Perlman rounds up his three fully armed, lackey sons and, together, they blast their way into the clinic in search of their relative. The girl, on the other hand, is inclined NOT to give birth, claiming she was knocked up by a demon and is rapidly spawning Satan's child...
There's some good stuff in this one, like Perlman taking some time out to perform a proper "aborticide" procedure on a male subject. This marks the first time I can recall a Carpenter joint making my balls twinge. Plus, there's a few CGI headshots, a demonic spider-baby crawlin' about (a scene not dissimilar to one of the major highlights in Carpenter's "The Thing"), and a neat looking demon to top things off. This creature is done entirely with practical effects which was a pleasant surprise. One thing that puzzles me about these "Masters of Horror" mini-movies is the on-and-off authenticity of the effects. You mean to tell me Berger and Nicotero couldn't have pulled off a few effective shotgun blasts? Anyway, Ron Perlman's simian visage does a worthy job as usual. No complaints, there. Still, I couldn't get past the complete lack of atmosphere in this thing. It felt too much like a TV show as opposed to, say, "Cigarette Burns" or many other installments in the MoH series. The mood could've been 'tweaked' a tad more to possibly add a more creepy vibe to this. Though, overall, "Pro-life" is a so-so flick. Not one of the best, but well worth checking out.