Two movies about disfunctional fathers trying to get their daughters back. And what two different movies they are. The Host is a Korean giant mutated monster movie and Pro Life is a movie about a girl getting knocked up by the devil.
The Host came out last year in Korea and the buzz was pretty good. It was the highest grossing Korean film ever. The Koreans saw the movie 13 million times. It came out in the theaters here a few months ago. Greg bought a Thai dvd at some convention. The USA dvd comes out in August. The movie starts with a scene, based on a fairly recent real incident, in which some US asshole doctor forces some poor Korean sap to pour 100 bottles of formaldehyde into the Han River. Some years later this giant fish monster pops out and starts killin' and eatin' the people it finds dottin' the banks. It's like a Han River Korean All-You-Can-Eat Buffet. Some good chow there and plentiful. No tipping. I liked the monster and I liked that it showed up right soon and stayed out in broad daylight. The CGI was darn good for a 10 million dollar movie. A pretty huge budget for a Korean movie. One of the largest. I liked the monster as it loped along terrorizing the fleeing citizens. Kind of playful. It didn't eat them right away. It almost seemed to be enjoying the enthusiastic reponse to it's presence. There was some good camera work and interesting shots. I liked the shots from the elevated train. The people on the train slowly come to realize there's a monster coming. Look out!
There's some humor and some sadness. Some bravery and some foolishness. There was a nice mix of characters. Like this odd little family. That's them there. They have their problems but like so many disfunctional families they all pull together then one is in trouble. The father and one of his sons run a small food and beverage stand just off the water. The son has an 11 year old daughter. The mother had the baby and ran away. The son has a brother and sister. When we meet the family they are watching the sister on the tv. She's an archery champion but she chokes and gets a bronze metal. The son with the daughter seems kind of out of it and that's sort of explained. The monster attacks as they all go outside after the sister fails at the archery games. The monster snaps up the young daughter and disappears down in the river. A little later they get a call from the daughter. She's still alive down in the sewers. The family pulls together and escapes the authorities to rescue her. They don't do so well at first and some of them die. Eventually the monster is vanquished and the survivors take a page from Mad Eye Moody's book and remain ever viligent. "Keep watching the waters!"
Pro Life is John Carpenter's second contribution to the Showtime Masters Of Horror Series. A young woman is running from something crosses paths with a couple in a car. Since they work in a clinic they take her there. It an abortion clinic. The girl is pregnant and wants to have the baby removed. Turns out she was raped by the devil. Nobody would want that baby. Nobody but her prolife father. God's been talking to him and told him to protect the baby no matter what. He brings his three sons and a shitload of guns. Many die in the assault. The daughter has her baby and it's a cute bloody demon spawn with a baby's head and a spider like body. The devil shows up to collect his child but the mother has already killed it. The Devil is sad as he leaves with his dead spawn. The father dies knowing that he had been tricked by the Devil. As Nelson would say: "Ha Ha!" Sadly the father dies off screen. It was disappointing. The movie occasionally made me laugh. I enjoy movies about religious fanatics being tricked by the devil. If there were a God, He'd be laughin', it was a good joke.
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