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Recap / Masters Of Horror S 2 E 5 Pro Life

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Directed by John Carpenter. 15 year-old Angelique Burcell (Caitlin Wachs) arrives in a remote abortion clinic convinced that she is pregnant with the spawn of the Devil. Shortly after, her Christian fundamentalist father Dwayne (Ron Perlman) and three brothers come with the intention of getting her out and stopping the abortion at any cost.

Tropes:

  • Badass Normal: Dr. Kiefer faces the Burcells alone and wins the first two assaults against them.
  • Boom, Headshot!: Not one, not two, but three of them!
  • Cell Phones Are Useless: The Burcells cut the clinic's phone line before getting in. Still, it was convenient that nobody was carrying a cellular (to be fair, they were rather less common in the mid-2000s than today).
  • Child by Rape: The baby, needless to say. The Demon doesn't ask for Angelique's consent before forcing her.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Dwayne Burcell does this to Kiefer when he finally gets him.
  • Dig Attack: The Demon emerges from the ground when he attacks Angelique and again at the abortion clinic.
  • Dragged Off to Hell: Just as it arrives in the clinic, the Demon grabs a male nurse and throws him into the fiery hole.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The Demon breaks down when he sees that his baby has died, then leaves carrying its body and without killing more people. Dwayne seems to genuinely love his children as well.
  • Express Delivery: Angelique goes into labor less than a week after conception.
  • Fetus Terrible: Doesn't get much worse than a demonic Child by Rape, and it shows itself to be just as terrible after it's born.
  • The Fundamentalist: Dwayne, and his children to a lesser extent.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The baby is the child of a human and a demon.
  • Hearing Voices: Dwayne hears a deep male voice that commands him to protect Angelique's baby. Of course he attributes it to God, but it is actually the demon that impregnated his daughter.
  • Imperiled in Pregnancy: Angelique. In this case the pregnancy IS the peril.
  • Killed Offscreen: Some of the staff, one of the brothers, and Dwayne are subjected to this fate by the demon. Curiously, its kills are pretty much all presented like this, as opposed to the far more graphic kills undertaken by Dwayne and his family.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Both Dwayne and one of his sons are killed by the Demon, the former after it reveals itself to be the voice Dwayne heard as God. The Demon also pays for his rape of Angelique and the murders when he's left to carry his child's corpse back to Hell. Even better, the one to slay his child is the very person he violated.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: The Demon reveals itself to be "God", which leaves Dwayne in a horrified stupor long enough for the monster to kill him.
  • Offing the Offspring: Angelique really doesn't want to give birth to a half-demon and succeeds in killing it after birth.
  • Revenge Before Reason: Dwayne's torture of Kiefer has shades of this, given his political beliefs and his mission to save Angelique.
  • Space Whale Aesop: "Support abortion, or else Satan's child will be born."
    • How 'bout this one: "If you hear a voice telling you to do things like torture a doctor or shoot up an abortion clinic, then maybe you shouldn't listen to it"?
    • Another option: "If the pregnancy is clearly a result of demonic rape, your pro-life stance probably does not apply".
  • Spider People: The baby has multiple, long, spider-like legs and walks backwards soon after its birth.
  • Strawman Political: Dwayne's a rather typical Christian Fundamentalist portrayal.
  • Teen Pregnancy: A teenage girl gets raped by a demon and has to go have it aborted. Her father and brothers attempt to stop it.
    Nurse: How old are you?
    Angelique: Eighteen.
    Nurse: In how many years?
    Angelique: Three.
  • Womb Horror: The baby carried by Angelique is monstrous in every sense of the word.

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