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.
I’m infectious! 😀 Wheeee! :3
Also: Boston manboobz meetup = awesome!
I will be in Boston later this summer, so maybe I can get in on some future meetup action.
Any Man Boobzers in the midwest? Zombie, you’re in wisconsin? I’m in Chicago, as are several MB readers I know. Hmm.
Hmmm… I wasn’t sure whether to say yes to “do you ask others about your unattractiveness?” I don’t in the real world, but have online.
Typhoid Ami. It’s got a certain ring to it.
I will be going to the kind of midwest by going to Louisville, KY in July.
I want an all-middle brownie pan. Everyone always discriminates against us middle-lovers, though. You edgers and your fancy privilege. IT’S NOT FAIR!
I like Bride of No One btw xD
@MRAL that counts
Bee:
Hear hear! What’s wrong with liking gooey chocolatey yumminess? I want brownies I have to roll into a ball like a katamari! Onces that melt in my mouth because they are already melted! I want…
Dang, now I’m hungry. I want brownies!
It’s easy to understand where MRAL is coming from not wanting to do therapy; if you (feel like you) have legitimate problems, it’s easy to think that all you need is a solution to your real problem.
I felt that way when I was unemployed and depressed: “I don’t need therapy! I need a goddamn job!”
But, of course, sometimes shit happens that you can’t control, and if one of your goals is to not be miserable, therapy is a good idea.
I visit Chicago a fair amount. I’d be down with a Man Boobz meeting, maybe. Put me on the mailing list!
As to privilege:
* I am an able-bodied person, which means that I can make plans and go places without having to wonder if there is a handicapped spot for me to park or if I might get too tired halfway through and come home. I can order pretty much whatever I want in a restaurant and not worry that it’ll make me feel badly or threaten my life. I don’t have to spend money on medical bills, which means I can spend them on other things as well. My vision kind of sucks, but I only need glasses for computer/reading/sewing/close work. Despite having about 40+ cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents, only one aunt has had cancer.
* I am white, which means that my American citizenship is never questioned by anyone. Everyone assumes that my parents came here legally and that I have a right to be here. I’m part Cherokee, but not enough to show on my face.
* My parents were upper middle class when I grew up. They could afford to buy a house in a good school district, and my mother did not have to work; so she was alway available to help me and my siblings with our homework. My dad’s job was well paying enough that he did not have to work long hours, so he was also able to help me and my siblings with our homework. My mother taught me to read before I even entered kindergarten, which gave me an immense head start over my peers. My home was filled with books, which gave me a love of reading and a curiosity that has served me well.
* I am hetero and cisgender. I buy women’s clothing, enjoy wearing it, and grow my hair long. I was born female and truly feel female. I have the privilege of not having to question my gender. I can walk down the street with my boyfriend and not be gawked at. If we want to marry, we will be able to. I am privileged enough to live in a liberal state, where I have easy access to birth control and about five Planned Parenthood clinics within a two hour drive.
There, that’s some privilege for ya. There’s a bunch of stuff that I just don’t have to worry about, because of how I look, the way I was born or the social class I was born into. Despite having good genes for physical health, many of my male blood relations have some form of autism or Asperger’s, including my brother.
And I’ve still had challenges in my life. I’ve been disappointed, and being upper middle class didn’t keep my family from being borderline dysfunctional – getting over the idea that I didn’t deserve happiness has been a struggle. I’ve made mistakes and had my heart broken. I’ve been made to feel worthless and like I don’t matter. I haven’t been able to find sustainable employment, so I’m going back to school to retrain – and even though it might be challenging, I won’t have to take out a student loan to complete the program.
Privilege doesn’t mean that life sucks for women and is always sunshine and roses for men. Privilege means that some people have advantages in life, because of where they were born or the assumptions people make based on how they look – like your old viewpoint that fat women were worthless people. In your world, the naturally thin are privileged, because you don’t immediately make a snap judgement as to their moral character. Some of the stuff that I’ve mentioned above is pretty minor – and sometimes, privilege *is* a minor thing. But minor things add up, one to the other and over a whole lifetime and across cultures. Paris Hilton is privileged because she’s rich, white and beautiful. But she’s also famous and female, which means people get to make fun of her for being a woman known to have sex. President Obama has been privileged enough to get a good education and become President – but he’s also the subject of subtle and not so subtle racism.
Is any of this sinking in, or am I just wasting more of my time?
Oh, and if anyone lives in the Southern California area, I’m up for a MBZ pub crawl!
VvS: YES! I’m in Pasadena. Where are you?
Ami, you also left out YANKEES SUCK.
@Lady Vic on cis privilege you also don’t need doctors’ and psychiatrists to approve you to be the gender you are : (or fear violence for using the washroom)
Sry, just wanted to add those, not implying that you’re not aware :]
YANKEES RED SOX AND RAYS SUCK! >:O
But Orioles are awesome! XD
After the groping thread, I’m not so sure I even WANT to offer MRAL any help or that he’s anything other than a troll, but I dunno, the following seems like a generally good thing to post and let people know about. (I tried to post this before but I think it didn’t work because of links.)
http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome/new/splash
Mood Gym is website built by researchers and therapists at a university in Australia that lets you go through cognitive therapy exercises online. It’s not a substitute for therapy, but it’s free and can give you an idea what modern therapists are usually trying to accomplish. I think sometimes people are hesitant to go into to therapy because they think it’s going to be the sort of intense psychoanalysis bullshit you see in movies and on TV, but the reality today is much more prosaic. You’ll see that it’s mostly about recognizing and challenging distorted thinking and developing coping skills. It’s all very practical. IMHO, good cognitive behavioral therapy can also help strengthen your overall critical thinking skills.
Though, your mileage may vary, I guess.
/therapy boosterism derail
Holy Crumbs :O 743 (incl this one) comments! xD If this keeps up tmrw we could top 1000! :3
745 now :O
Quick, somebody get a troll, we only need a quarter of a thousand more comments! 😀
Quick Kirby, pretend to be an MRA troll!
VvS: YES! I’m in Pasadena. Where are you?
Woot! West LA, actually, near Venice Beach, so on the other side of downtown from you. And despite living in LA, I do not have car privilege 🙁
@Lady Vic on cis privilege you also don’t need doctors’ and psychiatrists to approve you to be the gender you are : (or fear violence for using the washroom)
Sry, just wanted to add those, not implying that you’re not aware :]
That is true, and it was something that I wasn’t acutely aware of because i don’t really have to think about it. Thus, MRAL, is privilege.
Umm umm umm umm… Oh you short people are all just fascists! You don’t understand the awful every-day predjudice us men of tall size face! Also men are more opressed with women, there is no gender gap… and.. and… OH! The Rothchilds are taking over everything and you all are too blind to see it! And… umm… The government is taking over your brains!
Canucks blow my ballsack.