Cinema Crazed

2006

Rated: R for graphic violence, gore, torture, graphic language, and sexual content.

Genre: Horror Thriller

Directed By: John Carpenter

Running Time: 60 Minutes

Review by: Lillian Patterson

Review Date: 8/22/07

MASTERS OF HORROR: PRO-LIFE

I think I expected this to be terrible. I spent eight years of my life as a very conservative Christian and I went to church with people who acted a lot like Ron Perlman's character in this episode. Religious fervor can make people do crazy things, and there's no doubt that his character IS crazy... but I didn't want this movie to be one-note. And surprisingly, it's not.

While he is insane, the movie clearly shows that he believes he's listening to the voice of God and doing what he's supposed to do. There's a good amount of character development for an hour long movie. We get a real sense of who Kim, the fifteen year old daughter, is. She loves her father and believes in God, but she knows that something is wrong with her and that an abortion is the only way to fix it, even though she's been taught all her life how wrong abortion is.

As for Burcell's (Perlman's) sons, they do what they're told and what they believe is right, and they're very militant, ready to storm the clinic and shoot people in the name of saving an unborn fetus. Trust me, if you're thinking that contradiction is just a plot device, I know enough people who believe that killing doctors to save an unborn fetus is the right thing to do... it's far more prevalent than you'd like to think.

If I have one complaint with this episode (and don't I always?) it's the ending. It doesn't "end" so much as it just "stops" and I would have liked more of a conclusion, but that's a small quibble over what is really an excellent, gory little story.

Once the shooting starts, the movie doesn't let up. There are plenty of gruesome deaths, and one death in particular that is so grisly that even though it's not really shown, it made me flinch. Nicely done.

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