- Directed by Laura Moss
- Written by Laura Moss, Brendan J. O’Brien
- Stars Judy Reyes, Marin Ireland, Breeda Wool, Monique Gabriela Curnen
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iSSRWut50c
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This has a little bit of a slow start while we figure out what’s going on, but it gets going very nicely. Mix a hint of Frankenstein with modern science, obsession, and desperate motherhood, and you get this winner of a movie. Everything about it was really good.
Synopsis
We open in an ambulance as the EMT works on a patient. In the ER, the nurses say, “Your baby is going to be OK.” “What about me?” asks the mother. Then, the mother dies in the OR. We see the baby being cared for in the maternity ward while elsewhere, Rose does an autopsy on the mother. After the autopsy, she puts some organs in a suitcase and wheels them out. Credits roll.
Celie, the maternity nurse, is really tired as she picks her daughter Lila up from the daycare.
We see that Rose is not a fun co-worker, and she’s not a very fun person at the bar either. She goes into the restroom with a bar patron and gets him off, and she collects the semen in a collection device. She then goes home and administers an IV into her pet pig. Then she impregnates herself with the guy’s semen from before.
At Celie’s house, Lila is sick and can’t go to daycare, so Celie leaves the girl with Pauline. She drops her phone in the toilet at work, and by the time she gets home, she finds that Pauline has taken Lila to the hospital, as she’s very sick. By the time she gets to the hospital, Lila has died from meningitis.
Celie goes to the morgue and talks to Rose, who says Lila was already sent to the Medical Examiner. She later sees Rose loading a suitcase into her car in the garage.
After the weekend, Celie goes to the Medical Examiner’s office, but they say they don’t have the body either. She tracks down Rose, who knows she’s in trouble, but Rose drives away.
Celie confronts Rose at her home and barges inside. She finds Lila, alive, in her bed, hooked to a bunch of medical equipment. Rose says, no, Lila did die, but she’s brought her back. In the next room is Muriel the pig, who died two months ago, and also has been brought back. She’s using a serum from fetal pigs for the pig that triggers cell regeneration. Lila requires a serum from human fetal tissue. Celie offers to stay with her daughter and help with the experiments.
Sometime later, Rose gets an ultrasound, and she’s pregnant now. Later, she takes an abortion pill and saves the dead fetus for later.
It’s been some time now, and they decide to take Lila off the ventilator. She breathes on her own; maybe she’ll actually recover. Rose talks about cutting the arm off a starfish when she was little; then she tried it on a hamster, but that didn’t work out so well.
At work later, we see that Rose is bleeding heavily down there. Her coworker, Scott, tells Celie that Rose collapsed at work. Meanwhile, Lila has woken up, which is new. Rose had gotten an infection in her cervix, and she’s now unable to conceive new fetuses.
Rose comes home from the hospital and sees the fetus she was using in the serum has spoiled. Rose can’t make any more of it without more fetal cells. Celie isn’t an option because she isn’t the right tissue type. Lila is conscious enough to whine when the TV is turned off.
Rose finds a compatible woman, Emily, through bone marrow records. Rose thinks she can get what they need from her. Celie does the amniocentesis on Emily, who’s been trying to get pregnant for three years. She keeps a sample of the fluid and takes it home. It will be enough for Lila. Rose says she can work it so Emily has to come in once a month for the tests.
Rose forgets to give Muriel the pig serum one day, and the pig has convulsions. Lila, on the other hand, is learning to walk again and seems more aware of what’s going on.
Celie watches an old videotape that shows how Rose tried to bring her dead mother back to life. Weeks pass, and they get another sample from Emily. Emily’s uncertainty about her health is weighing on her mind and making her all depressed; she doesn’t plan to come back. Emily has decided to have her baby at a different hospital, which goes against Rose and Celie’s plan.
Muriel bites Lila, and Lila kills the pig in retaliation. After that, they start strapping Lila to the bed. Rose comes to the conclusion that doubling the serum will fix her up mentally. They cut some tissue samples from Rose, but that doesn’t work. Rose thinks it’s hopeless and time to give up, but Celie isn’t so willing to give up.
Rose is extremely distracted at work and messes up some reports. Her boss gives her a warning. Meanwhile, at home, Lila dies… again. When Rose gets home, Celie and Lila are both gone; she finds Lila in the freezer.
Celie goes to visit Emily. She doses her with something to induce labor– right now, so she ends up at Celie’s hospital after all. In the ER, Celie says, “Your baby is going to be OK.” “What about me?” asks Emily. Emily dies on the table, but the baby is OK. Celie gets the “parts” that she needs from her and goes home, where Rose says, “Let’s get to work.”
They wake up Lila again.
Commentary
It moves slowly, but once it gets going, it gets going. The body horror and gore effects are very realistic; it almost seems like a medical drama.
It’s good. How far would you go to save your child? Apparently, there are no real limits.
It’s good!