The Life Zone (2011)

Simply Perfect

Nice effects though.

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

If you're going to make a movie that tries to persuade people to your beliefs, make sure you have confidence in what you're arguing. The movie is about three women who wake up in a dark, green- filtered, grungy hospital; they were planning on having an abortion, but they were captured and now they're being forced to give birth. It tries to visually emulate the Saw franchise, but instead of the characters being tortured, the audience is tortured with bad acting, annoying characters, boring dialogue and pitiful attempts at horror.There is one woman who is adamant about having an abortion. She's basically a straw-man who only spouts easily refuted arguments. This is where the movie shows its lack of confidence. If they truly felt like they were in the right, they wouldn't resort to making this character the way they did (i.e. immature, rude, prissy, entitled, stuck up). Instead, they would have created a real challenge for their position and countered it with clever arguments and thought experiments. I've seen thoughtful, insightful arguments for both positions, and none of them are in this film. This film won't convince anyone nor would it give people who are pro-life any better ammunition for their position. Aside from the debate, it also fails when it attempts horror movie tropes. It tries to use scary film techniques and settings, but doesn't know how to implement them, or just doesn't know how they work. I've seen high school students with better skills than this. I could go on about how most of the movie is just watching people debate, how nobody acts realistically, or the bizarre and confusing plot twist about one of the characters, but all I need to say is that this is a padded, boring movie that is more interested in making fun of someone rather than truly engaging in a discussion.

I found this item by chance while looking up the films of Charles Durning. The plot appeared that it might be of some interest. This film was described as "a thriller with a message." Three women, who had been expecting to abort their babies, wake up to find that they -- along with a doctor -- have been kidnapped by what they believe to be a fanatical anti-abortion group. Their "jailer" addresses them from a closed-circuit television. It is his intention to compel them to go through with their unwanted pregnancies and deliver their babies. Instead of your usual horror fare, the women are dressed in nightgowns and fed decent food, while reading and watching propaganda on why abortion is bad.They are shown purportedly video taped messages from their families and they settle into a routine. Inevitably, they go into labour -- simultaneously! The babies are delivered -- one woman (the most outspoken pro-abortionist of the three) gives birth to twins.Afterwards, the one who had twins is sick and in pain. After examining her, the doctor is dumbfounded to discover something that she says "is impossible." She informs the woman she is still pregnant. The woman says "it can't be." Suddenly the two other women are gone; it turns out that the woman had died on the abortion table and the doctor had committed suicide -- they are, and always have been, in Hell.The story for most of the film went along a clear and straight forward premise. It turned out to be a blasé story with little intrigue for the most part. But the twist at the end ruined it even on that level.The whole premise that a grumpy old man kidnapped three pregnant women from abortion clinics to force them to give birth is plausible. The whole story presents that premise with the videos from the families and the interaction of the three women and doctor. The reveal at the end that only the one girl and the doctor are real and that they are in hell totally invalidated everything that happened throughout the movie. The entire story of the film is shown to have been a deception; there's just no reason for such a development. They are in Hell -- there's no reason for them to be told otherwise. And the faked videos from the families really is a stupid turn. They are dead so their families wouldn't be sending any such messages -- there's no reason for it.The twist at the end only made a story that was lack-luster at best, a complete waste of time.

No, this is not a horror film. This is a film that argues women are simply baby-makers and if you have an abortion, you are going straight to hell. The man who made this film is a right wing advocate who thought he'd pull a fast one by disguising this as a horror movie to unsuspecting audiences. Fortunately, the film tanked as word got out by Stephen Colbert among others that this was vile propaganda of the cruelest kind. Only a fundamentalist would enjoy this film and that is who it should have been targeted to if the filmmaker had any integrity. Fundamentalists have actually tried to claim that this film addresses both sides of the issue, but given that the woman who has an abortion ends of being tortured in hell at the end, this argument is patently ridiculous.

I originally watched this movie because of my love for horror movies. I looked up some reviews on this site only to see this was apparently a terrible movie, witch only made me want to watch even more. I love horror movies, but I love the laugh a terrible movie can provide even more.If you are like me, however, you won't like this movie. The completely terrible and laughable concept of this movie is outweighed only by it's offensive nature. The movie revolves around 3 women who get kidnapped by some pro-life psychos just before having an abortion, and end up getting forced to have their children and debate about the topic of abortion. If you think the plot is already offensive, here's the kicker, throw in religion! Yes, this movie exists only to send the message that if you get an abortion, you go to hell.At first I thought it would be mildly interesting, I love debating and seeing other's views on matters such as this. However, both sides of the issue look completely laughable in this movie, and everything during the movie is completely pointless as it's later revealed that the women were already dead and in hell, dying from their abortions.Sorry for revealing the ending, but if you have an ounce of integrity and common sense, take my word, this movie is nothing more than propaganda for pro-life fundamentalist parents to show their kids to scare them into not only avoiding abortion, but also having them force their mortality on other people, just as this movie did.