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.
Nobinayamu, equal child custody should be enforced not support, (nice try). And nooooooo to any State support of any kind.
And if the man doesn’t want the child, what then?
NWO definitely seems to be more into the lashing than the actual babies that might be produced.
Hey NWO – What’s your view on government supported early childhood education, college financial aid, food assistance programs for women and children, adoption and foster care programs, maternity leave, subsidized childcare?
(Presumed answer: “LASHES! Also maybe she could be wearing really high heels and latex and then after the lashing they use a paddle and oh yeah she deserves the paddle and oh then a bigger paddle with holes in it and… *drowned out by wanking noises*”)
I’ve answered enough questions as I always do. Now heres mine that won’t be answered.
1) If you were successfully aborted would you be posting here?
2) If you were successfully aborted would you be dead?
A.) Don’t call me sweetheart again.
B.) You’re not making any sense. I don’t think anything you just posted was even remotely connected to anything I argued. Are you drunk or just hopelessly stupid?
I think this is like a trick question on a philosophy test. The only answer to show how deep you are is to leave it blank xD
And NWO, you fucking moron: No we wouldn’t be posting here. Nor would we be in any position to care. I would never have existed. Your questions prove absolutely nothing.
*tosses a few peanut shells at NWOslave* BOO! Get off the stage!
1. No
2. No
And
3. I happen to actually be the ghost of the fetus my mom aborted. I am just that awesome.
Now answer Lady V’s questions NWOaf.
NWO definitely seems to be more into the lashing than the actual babies that might be produced.
I’m still thinking he’s more of a bottom than a top–what with his name and all. And those chains in his avatar…I mean, tell me he’s not just begging to be tied up!
“First off glad to hear you were one of the 70% who make thru the abortion gauntlet. You can be drugged and killed and not “suffer” and be just as dead as little Johnny.”
On behalf of someone who will soon be tearing you a new one, fuck you, you worthless piece of scum.
“Kirbywarped” Clever…
“Oooo, that fuzzy boundary, that little clump of cells. You’re a clump of cells aren’t ya? A newborn is a little clump of cells too. Hmmm, it’s got less cells than you. Kill it.”
So.. If someone has to amputate a finger, they’re committing mass genocide? Ever scratched your arm? 20 lashes and 20 years in prison for ye! Its not just the number of cells, but the type as well. A round ball of cells is not a human, and it cannot be murdered. Don’t know why this is such a hard concept for you, slavey.
“The fatman, a newborn has no intelligence; can’t live on their own. Kill the fucker.”
Actually, a newborn baby and a zygote are have remarkably different cognitive capacities. Yes, it is just a clump of cells – and depending on your perspective, you could say we’re all clumps of cells. But you know what? So is moss. So is asparagus. So are cows. So are nematodes. Despite the fact that we are all remarkable clumps of cells with the ability to replicate, we still differentiate between these organisms.
If I were successfully aborted I’d be in the same place I’d be if I were never conceived–nowhere, the Universal Consciousness, the land of potential, fuck if I know. I’d be whatever place or nonplace that people who never were, and had no life to lose, go.
Are you drunk or just hopelessly stupid?
Given how often he comments here, he either drinks very heavily or…yeah, I’m going to go with stupid.
If I were successfully aborted I’d be in the same place I’d be if I were never conceived–nowhere, the Universal Consciousness, the land of potential, fuck if I know. I’d be whatever place or nonplace that people who never were, and had no life to lose, go.
And, you’d be blissfully unaware of the existence of NWOslave. So there’s that to recommend it.
Today seems worse than usual. Or maybe that’s just because I’ve had the time to actually pay attention.
“1) If you were successfully aborted would you be posting here?
2) If you were successfully aborted would you be dead?”
1) No. Why? Because:
2) I never would have existed.
So if somebody would never have been born had their mother not gotten an abortion earlier in her life… what does NWO say to THEIR face btw? o_O “I wish you never existed”? “your real existence and experiences as a person is not important to me and less valuable than some hypothetical other child”? o_O;; “I wish you were dead?” (following his logic that we’d be dead had we never been born) xD
I can play this game too xD
hey guyz, what if HITLER’S MOM had had an abortion? what then huh?
No, this is par for the course. He get’s especially worked up over abortion, but he’s just as laughably clueless about everything else. He once repeatedly told me to stop talking about race when I hadn’t said anything remotely related to race. Classic slavey.
Of course, he could be both stupid and drunk. That would explain a lot.
So how about it, slavey? Been drinking? I’m sure you don’t have a problem 😉 I’m just curious.
1) If you were successfully aborted would you be posting here?
2) If you were successfully aborted would you be dead?
You seem to be operating with the underlying assumption that all women would terminate their pregnancies if they could, that all women would make exactly the same decision for exactly the same reasons.
Some women like being pregnant. Some women hate being pregnant, but think its worth it to have kids. Some women don’t mind being pregnant but can’t handle having a baby. And there are about a dozen other situations that could be described, but I’m not.
So asking us if we were aborted as fetii is assuming that our mothers really just wanted to abort us, but were prevented from doing so for whatever reason.
Actually, Captain, I’m going to give NWO the benefit of the doubt and presume that he is capable of a consistent argument. I’m not really sure why. Boredom, perhaps. It could also be the heat. Still, NWO has been adamant since he first appeared on these threads that he believes abortion is murder and that women are terrible people for having them. He genuinely believes that having abortion is a crime that should subject to corporal punishment and incarceration. He believes that a woman having an abortion because she isn’t financially ready is frivolous.
Logic demands that he believe that children should receive as much financial support as they can.
I won’t hold my breath or anything.
On ANOTHER note. xD
Is it just me or is “The Life Zone” a terrible name for a movie? and ESP this movie… it’s so… it’s like naming Friday the 13th the “The Virgin Zone” or something xD
So new question… what SHOULD this movie be named? What would YOU name it?
Any ideas for sequels? xD
A newborn has intelligence, to suggest otherwise belies a failure of understanding on you part. You would be served by learning the facts of human existence, perhaps greater understanding of reality would help you to abandon your irrational belief systems.
As to your questions they are unanswerable, a person cannot be aborted only a pregnancy. If however you meant to ask would I be posting here if the pregnancy that resulted in my birth were aborted the answer is of course no, and if you meant to ask would I be dead if the pregnancy that resulted in by birth had been aborted the answer is again no, because in both cases I would never have existed. There is no sum without cogito, to use the familiar phrase.
Nobinyamu,
He’s already replied to you. He believes the state should have no role, and that only equal custody should be enforced, not child support. So, yeah, if one partner or other is abusive (which we know never happens) then, oh well, shit out of luck. One size fits all.
I admire your faith in humanity, though.
2) If you were successfully aborted would you be dead?”
This is a silly question to ask a zombie.
Also, I happen to know that there are 200 ABORTED POSTERS WHO ARE NOT POSTING HERE!