The Life Zone: If Saw and Human Centipede had a baby
The glow of pregnancy
Three young women wake up, confused and terrified, in a room that looks like a cross between a normal hospital room and the creepy underground lair of some mad scientist from a horror movie. A video screen flickers on and a creepy older man, looking a bit like Academy-award-nominee Robert Loggia, appears on it, telling the women that he’s their “jailer.” The women, you see, had all been getting abortions when their jailer’s shadowy accomplices kidnapped them and brought them to this strange prison, where they will be forced to live for the next seven months until they gave birth. “You were all on the operating table, all ready to commit murder,” announces a mysterious doctor. “Your babies will be given life just as God planned.”
This is the premise of a new horror film called The Life Zone, which recently had its world premiere at the prestigious, er, Hoboken International Film Festival, a festival that was, perhaps not coincidentally, founded and chaired by the film’s writer and producer, Kenneth del Vecchio. In case you think I’m making all this up, here’s the film’s trailer, which makes The Life Zone look a bit like an equal-parts mixture of Saw, Human Centipede, and The Handmaid’s Tale, with Robert Loggia in the role of Jigsaw/Dr. Heiter/The Commander:
Now, if you thought that something seemed really … off about that trailer, well, you’re not alone. For the film is not, as you might have assumed from my description, a warning against the fanatical misogyny of many in the anti-abortion movement.
No, the film – produced by a pro-life former judge, crime thriller author, and Republican New Jersey state senate candidate – is meant as pro-life propaganda. As the offical press release for the film’s premiere put it:
The film, which appears to cut right down the middle [of the abortion debate], examining the topic from both sides, offers a powerful, anti-abortion climactic twist. Del Vecchio and the cast invite pro-lifers to come to this historic event.
During the months the three women are held in captivity, you see, they are exposed to a barrage of films and books intended to, er, educate them about abortion –what their attending obstetrician Dr. Wise describes as “an abortion think tank.” Two of the captive women do indeed convert to the pro-life side; apparently we in the audience are supposed to develop Stockholm Syndrome along with them. The third, as we see in the trailer, tries to induce a miscarriage, which doesn’t go quite as planned.
And this sets us up for the final twist, which I’m just going to go ahead and reveal: once all three women have given birth, Dr. Wise tells them she’s going to sew them all, mouth-to-vagina, into a Human Abortion-pede!
Actually no: the twist is that the “life zone” the three women in has actually been … purgatory! All three “captives,” you see, had died on the operating table while getting their abortions. (Apparently they went to the world’s worst abortion clinic, as first-trimester abortions don’t involve anything more surgically invasive than the insertion of a suction tube; the risk of death from a legal surgical abortion is 0.0006%, one in 160,000 cases, making the procedure many times safer than childbirth itself.) Their time in the “life zone” was a test: the two women who changed their minds were whisked up to heaven, while their miscarriage-attempting, stubbornly pro-choice companion is sent straight to H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks. Dr. Wise, despite being on the right side of the abortion question, also goes to hell for committing suicide. And, oh yeah, their jailer – Loggia – was Satan. Why Satan and a hell-bound doctor were the ones trying to convert the abortion ladies to the pro-life side I can’t tell you; del Vecchio’s theology is evidently more sophisticated than I am.
The real twist here? As Jersey Journal writer Alan Robb notes:
The Life Zone went viral across the internet [last] Friday after blogs The Frisky and Talking Points Memo picked up on the film’s trailer. … But despite garnering more than 20,000 hits on YouTube in the last four days, only fifty people – including the film’s cast and producers – attended this weekend’s screening, and even those who starred in the movie didn’t know how to interpret its twist ending.
It’s impossible to tell from the trailer if the film is bad in a so-bad-it’s-good way, or if it’s just plain awful. I will try to get hold of it when it hits video, and will report back with my results.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a good horror film set in a creepy hospital, try renting Infection, a Japanese film from 2005. Or, if you’ve got a longer attention span, try Lars Von Trier’s supernatural soap opera The Kingdom, a darkly comic miniseries which takes place in what one might call, paraphrasing Bill Murray’s character in Tootsie, “one nutty hospital.” Both are conveniently available on Netflix instant watch, so you don’t even have to leave your pregnancy dungeon to see them.
EDITED: Added some info on the minimal dangers of abortion procedures.
Posted on June 8, 2011, in creepy, evil women, misogyny, patriarchy, reactionary bullshit, vaginas. Bookmark the permalink. 1,066 Comments.
MRAL-learn to google. Seriously.
*goes back to the Communist Hive Vagina*
@Sarah – oh, absolutely! And that is why I think it’s extraordinarily important to keep abortion legal. But some of the sex education in this country is astoundingly bad, and even when people (especially young people) DO know how to effectively use contraception, their financial and/or home/social conditions make it hard for them to get that.
I hate my brother. I don’t think that’s normal.
Hating someone is normal for you.
“It’s a community thing that ignores the individual and paints in absurdly broad strokes. Seem to describe FUCKING FEMINISM to a fucking tee.”
Did… Did no one catch the absolute whale of irony in there? No? *walks away shaking head*
My man’s father remarried two more times and did the same thing each time. Once the marriage was over, he wrote a check and promptly ignored his children. He’s trying to have a relationship with his father now that they’re both adults but it’s difficult. I don’t know that I’d bother but he wants to try. Like I said, his optimism is sexy.
And Holly, I really don’t mean to be all sanctimonious about this. I shit you not, your story reminded me of two of my very best girlfriends. I’d lock their mothers up and throw away the keys if I could. I’ve actually had words with one of them; it wasn’t pretty.
Like anything where it’s all just the luck of the draw this bio-parent/bio-child system is deeply flawed.
katz, that definition seems to pretty much describe feminism. Your point?
Hating your siblings is totally normal.
And stop it with your stupid double standards. Height does matter for a woman! People notice! They comment! They treat me like a freak! But it’s also not the end all and be all! Move beyond your very average height, man.
And I am totally a Fucking Feminist.
Sallystrange is attempting to teach me to read the whole thread before I comment.
Feminism isn’t about a nation or race, isn’t centralized, doesn’t have a leader… and really, the only rules it wants to impose are super restrictive things about “treat women the way you treat men except where significantly biologically necessary to make exceptions.”
On Beta Colony (in Lois McMaster Bujold’s sci-fi series), every girl, when she reaches menarche, has a little “coming-out” party. She has a party, she gets her ears pierced, she gets new clothes, and she gets outfitted with a permanent birth control implant.
Subsequently, if she wants to reproduce, she and her partner apply for a parenting license, which is only obtainable after taking a few classes and demonstrating financial stability.
Sounds alright to me. But I suppose that’s because I’m a Hitlerian fascist feminist.
People NOTICE, obviously, but in terms of looks, unless you are SUPER tall or SUPER short, it’s not as big of a deal. This is because women are arrogant and hyperprivileged and they all think they are entitled to alpha dick. I think, honestly, there may be an epidemic- not many men get sex, it’s just the alphas that are fucking all the women. The abstinent men are then shamed into silence. I don’t know this, it’s just a suspicion. That’s the way it is with me, anyway. If I said what I said in the real life, people would laugh. It’s misandry.
@ Zombie
haha, “jinx!”
“Seem to describe FUCKING FEMINISM to a fucking tee.”
Sounds like it’s time for little boys to go to bed.
If I think I’m entitled to alpha dick, why am I happily dating a “beta”?
I could ask this same question about–most men not meeting “alpha” qualifications–most of the partnered women I know.
Yeah but I mean, I really HATE my brother. I want to beat him up. I feel bad about that, but he has been given everything by God, and yet he acts like a total idiot.
No, MRAL, people aren’t laughing because they hate men. They are laughing because YOU are ridiculous.
As has been pointed out a zillion times, ascribing people’s disapproval of your rank stupidity and assholery to a blanket hatred of men is a handy crutch for avoiding actually doing anything about your stupidity and assholery.
@Holly: I am also 5’1″ Hurray!
And MRAL, if you’re feeling bad, let tell you a little bit about my genetic make up:
-Bipolar disorder? Check. Runs on both sides of the family. So does obsessive-compulsive disorder. Parents and brother escaped it but I am treated to crippling depression on a somewhat regular basis.
-Weird genetic blood disorder? Check. Cue chronic pain and fatigue because my spleen thinks it’s Pac Man and devours too many of my red blood cells. I’ll lose two of my internal organs eventually. One is my spleen. When it comes out I’ll be immuno-compromised for the rest of my life.
Eye? You want to talk about eyes? My dad is going blind. I’ve had glasses since I was eight.
I’ll trade my weird blood disorder for your alpha family, ok? You can have all my medical bills. Warning, though: oncologists are expensive shit.
And here ends my self pity. I promise. I am not looking for sympathy. My life is ok. But you need some perspective badly.
MRAL, you’re not illiterate. You can read the definition of fascism that Katz provided or look it up on the internet yourself. Either way, you know perfectly well that you’re repeatedly using the word fascist the way 14 year olds call their principals fascists when they get caught smoking pot in the stairwells. You’re using it to mean “I don’t like you, so there!”
It’s kind of cute when 14 year olds say it, especially if they’re like all emo and stuff. But it’s significantly less cute when it’s done by an adult who is actively in pursuit of higher education. If you don’t want to be treated like you’re stupid, don’t pretend to be stupid.
I refuse to discuss your appearance, your family, or any of the other shit you love to bring up in an attempt make every fucking thread ALL. ABOUT. YOU.
I should specify I could deal much better with my deformities (sans the eye, which is a REALLY fucking big deal) much better if that was it. But I’ve been hit by four or five in an alpha family, no less. Sometimes I just want to laugh at my constant metaphorical rape by the Powers.
MRAL, I think you’re using the label “feminism” to describe a lot of things that make you angry, about 1% of which have anything to do with actual feminism.
If you hang out with any hate group, they’ll tell you that all your problems are due to the people they hate–which is an appealing and strangely soothing thought. “My weaknesses are all a result of me being undermined by the evil foreigners/Jews/blacks/government/feminists!” has a certain wrapped-up-with-a-bow, defined-target appeal to it.
But it’s not true. And not only does it make you kind of a dick, but it makes your problems seem bigger than they are, it makes you feel like you can’t solve any of your problems as long as feminism exists, and it keeps you from facing those problems head-on.
Citation needed.
careful, he’ll reference Jonah Goldberg.
MRAL, you need to find yourself a hobby that doesn’t involve trolling this blog.
I recommend juggling.
How am I supposed to face my problems head on? As I’ve said it’s all genetics, so they are facts that cannot be changed. If feminism hadn’t turned the sexual arena into a bizarre eugenics (again- evokes Hitler) state in which only the top 1% of men can reliably get women while 70%-ish of women can get dick on command, it wouldn’t be QUITE as big of a deal.
MRAL, you have not been raped. That is deeply offensive to survivors. You have not been raped. I have not been raped because I have a couple of genetic disorders, either. But I have been sexually assaulted, and it pisses me off when people throw that word around.
Sally, I beat you; I’ve been wearing glasses since I was SEVEN!
not many men get sex, it’s just the alphas that are fucking all the women.
Dammit, men, he’s ON TO US.
….but wait, I’m an alpha?
I recommend juggling.
HIS FINGERS ARE TOO SHORT.
And stop with the eugenics talk! I am a feminist, and I have two genetically transmitted diseases. Please STFU. Feminism is not eugenics. It’s anything but.
MRAL – Feminism has dick-all, shit-all, and also fuck-all to do with beauty standards for men. In fact we’re kind of against harsh beauty standards for either gender.
This is, again, just using “feminism” as a label for everything that’s wrong with your life.
…And half the things that aren’t wrong, cause you seriously sound like a completely ordinary-looking person, and I know some fuck-ugly people who have great sex lives.
I knew it! i just fucking knew it! Why did I think we were going to talk about abortion? Obviously we’re going to talk about the Most Important Thing in the Entire Universe: MRAL and His Teeny-Weeny Little Problems!
MRAL, we aren’t therapists. We don’t CARE about your little problems. Grow the fuck up or get the fuck out.
Oh, and to answer Sarah, I can’t see 3-D because I can’t see out of my left eye. You need two.
Things MRAL and fascism have in common:
-They are both hate groups (except one is just a hate individual), defined by the things they oppose.
-They both divide everyone into three groups: the superior, the average, and the inferior. They both hate the inferior group and want to get rid of them.
-They are both obsessed with physical appearance and perceived deformities.
-They both are radically anti-female. (Eat that!)
-They both see themselves as inherently deserving power, respect, prestige, etc.
Sarahejones, MRAL doesn’t give a shit about you being sexually assaulted. In fact, he’s about to tell you that you should get over it, that not getting over it makes you weak, and that you’re probably lying about the whole thing anyway. He doesn’t believe in rape.
Is this what poorly socialized people do? Tell themselves that no one is having sex because of feminism? One percent of men are having sex with seventy percent of women? Either those dudes are totally exhausted or you’re completely fucking wrong as usual.
And they’re both violent! (Can’t believe I left that off!)
Man. I’ve been breaking ranks, clearly, in who I’ve been fucking lately.
Also, MRAL, your eye is so not a big deal. And it certainly isn’t equatable to rape.
And your bizarre “Greek System” isn’t equatable to genocide, Hitler or eugenics, ok?
Get a hobby, and a therapist.
Hey douchebag, I talked about abortion for like 3 damn pages. I brought up my genetic disadvantages because it was relevant to the conversation. Don’t be the back on topic asshole that permeates blogs.
How am I supposed to face my problems head on?
Yeah, how are you supposed to face something on your face?
Which Sarah, MRAL? And my dad can’t see 3-D either. Still hasn’t suggested that being unable to see 3-D is somehow worse than the blood disorder that affects both of his children, or the mental illness that has nearly cost me my life. Grow the fuck up.
“How am I supposed to face my problems head on? As I’ve said it’s all genetics, so they are facts that cannot be changed. If feminism hadn’t turned the sexual arena into a bizarre eugenics (again- evokes Hitler) state in which only the top 1% of men can reliably get women while 70%-ish of women can get dick on command, it wouldn’t be QUITE as big of a deal.”
How does feminism turn sex into eugenics?
Don’t be the twisted little fucker who has to make every conversation about himself. No-one cares about you.
I’m with Hippodameia. This is ridiculous. And MRAL doesn’t need a therapist; he needs a spanking. Whine, whine, whine. Bring back NWO. At least his batshit crazy ass had relevant regurgitated talking points.
MRAL: You and your problems are boring. No one gives a shit.
And your bizarre “Greek System” isn’t equatable to genocide, Hitler or eugenics, ok?
To be fair, it does, but it’s *him* applying crypto-eugenicist terms to everyone else.
Tell themselves that no one is having sex because of feminism?
He already thinks that no one over 40 has sex because that’s gross.
ok… I am not anti-female, do not think I am inherently entitled to anything, and I do not hate the “inferior group” (I myself am an omega), and I CERTAINLY don’t want to “get rid of them (ignoring everything else, from a completely objective standpoint, that just raises competition!)
You fail hard.
How am I supposed to face my problems head on?
1) Therapy. Learn to accept yourself and like yourself. Learn that your family is not out to get you. Learn that the ENTIRE WORLD is not out to get you.
2) Learn a musical instrument. Short fingers are not a problem. Dedication and perseverance is.
3) I would suggest taekwondo or judo. In addition to the physical conditioning, you develop honor, integrity, loyalty, perseverance, self-control, respect for others, and positive attitude.
4) therapy.
Or, just keep coming back here for mockery.
@theLaplaceDemon: No idea. Still reeling from the fact that someone without any actual genetic diseases is trying to bitch about his “genetic disadvantages.” Ableism FTW.
Let’s be fair, guys: everyone knows that the most basic platform of feminism is “don’t fuck an ugly dude.”
You may remember Gloria Steineim’s collection of essays entitled Ugly Dudes Not To Fuck, and Betty Friedan’s ground-breaking book If He’s Not Alpha, No Pussy, and of course bell hooks’ game-changer Make Sure You Only Fuck Hotties.
…This isn’t so much anti-feminist as completely irrelevant to feminism. I don’t think we really have any interest at all in how pussy gets allocated beyond “according to the consent of the pussy owners.”
Honestly, I kind of care about MRAL’s “problems,” the whole thing amuses me. Plus I’m really hoping he’s redeemable!
And, Sarah J, I really agree hard with the things you say and am sorry that happened to you.
You hate fat fat fatties, as you’ve said many times. And, since you also hate alphas and betas, you hate all women. And whatever you say to the contrary, you are second the most entitled person I’ve ever met.
I would trade places with anyone on this blog in a second. If any of you were in my place, I honestly think you’d committ suicide. That’s how strong I am.
I agree with Sarah. MRAL is amusing and I’ll take him over NWO in the spectrum of douchebaggery.
I do have a genetic disease, it’s called having a deformed eye. Also I’d consider a short height a disease, it’s certainly treated as one.
“I am not anti-female, do not think I am inherently entitled to anything”
Really? You certainly think you’re entitled to make the conversation all about you, and you do it in every goddamn thread. Shut the fuck up, little boy.
@Sarah: Thank you. It was sincerely not an attempt to get pity and I doubt I’ll ever bring my conditions on the blog again unless I think they’re relevant to the topic at hand. But I had to see the oncologist again today, and months and months of poking and prodding has exhausted my supply of patience with people who willfully refuse to acknowledge the experiences of people with disabilities. I have no doubt that’s a sentiment many can share.
MRAL – I’d trade places with you in a second too!
Shit, to be male, younger than I am now, still in school with all the open doors that represents, far taller than I am now, probably thinner, and completely average in appearance… I would take that deal.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are you telling me that all this time I could’ve just invoked my feminist status to avoid fucking ugly guys?
Shit.
Also I’d consider a short height a disease
That’s because you’re a dumbass. You may also consider backs to be bugs, but it won’t prove anything except your stupidity.
And no, unfortunately for you, stupidity is not a disease.
@MRAL: My father is nearly blind in one eye as well so of course, I acknowledge that it causes problems. But you can still see. You’re not in chronic pain. And as someone who’s well below the socially desired height for Western woman I call bullshit on your complaints about your height. To call it a disease trivializes the experiences of people who actually have one. Or more than one, as the case may be.
Why do you think I think I’m “entitled”? I make relevant posts to the discussion and it evolves organically. You’re free to not respond, and since you’re an asshole maybe you shouldn’t. I can post about whatever the fuck I want, and FYI we already discussed abortion to death. It’s an echo chamber anyway, everyone’s pro-choice except NWO.
HAHAHA BEING 5’7″ IS A GENETIC DISEASE! How cute. Do I suffer from giantism?
Man. I do suffer from a genetic disease. Clinical Depression. I have spent time in mental hospitals for it, and have almost died by my own hands. People treating suicide flippantly really bothers me.
And this is the same Sarah as always, I just added a name to help clarify between me and Sarah J.
And now I’m going to go get beer and cigarettes. I’ll be back! Have fun, kids! =D
MRAL why don’t you start your own blog? It can be all about your favorite subject: you. And you can mix it up by posting book reviews and doing occasional opinion polls about your eye. Sound good?
I do have a genetic disease, it’s called having a deformed eye. Also I’d consider a short height a disease, it’s certainly treated as one.
these are not genetic diseases, but genetic variations. They don’t even rise to the level of flaws.
YOU’RE NOT SHORT. the only person treating your height like a disease is you.
However, you are still of small stature.
Also for the lova god would you stop talking like being taller than Tom Cruise, James Dean, Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr., and Joaquin Phoenix is the worst disability that anyone has ever endured.
(To say nothing of being taller than me, my father, both my grandfathers, most of the men I’ve dated…)
I wouldn’t want to switch places with MRAL for two reasons.
One, I’ve worked hard to get where I am and it would be back to square one if I switched places with his lazy ass.
And two, I would have to take responsibility for all the stupid shit he’s said and done.
Why do you think I think I’m “entitled”?…I can post about whatever the fuck I want
Does that clarify things?
HAHAHA BEING 5’7″ IS A GENETIC DISEASE! How cute. Do I suffer from giantism?
Man. I do suffer from a genetic disease. Clinical Depression. I have spent time in mental hospitals for it, and have almost died by my own hands. People treating suicide flippantly really bothers me. And, honestly, I might seriously consider trading places with you to escape this disease.
Ok, apparently trying to change my name from Sarah to Sarah Elizabeth forces me back into moderation. Oh well.
And now I’m going to go get beer and cigarettes. I’ll be back! Have fun, kids! =D
FUCK YOU KATZ. I AM ONE OF THE HARDEST WORKERS I’VE EVER MET. THAT’S A WORSE INSULT THAN ANY OF THE SHIT SAID BEFORE. THAT IS ALL I HAVE DON”T FUCKING QUESTION IT. FUCK YOU.
Let’s see: the post is about a movie in which three women are kidnapped and forced to give birth against their will. Your contribution has been to move the discussion from the Anti-Choice movement to the idea that men should be free to abandon their biological children without consequences. And now we’re talking about your eye, again.
You’re boring. Shut up.
Sarah, I am NOT 5’7. I’m 5’8.5 (averaging morning height and night height).
MRAL YOU ARE LAZY
(Now, I’m really going. =p)
*watches Taub on House talking about he is a short balding guy who gets really hot women even though he is an evolutionary dead end*
Hey look! MRAL in twenty years without the hot women written into the script!
“I AM ONE OF THE HARDEST WORKERS I’VE EVER MET. ”
I have no doubt that you are one of the hardest workers you’ve ever met, but maybe you should get out more.