The Screwfly Solution (2006)

In the blink of an eye, humanity is lost. A mystery infection that compels all males to kill any potential sex partners rather than procreate with them appears, instantly making murderers out of parents, lovers and strangers. Ruthless beyond belief, as the plague spreads across the earth, so do these soulless men spread their twisted self- righteous gospel of slaughter - until our species approaches final extinction... I bloody-well love this unjustly neglected episode, I think that the concept of it is visceral and genuinely horrifying and its relentlessly tense atmosphere is just dripping with fear and danger. When I watched it again recently for the first time in a fair few years it actually gave me a nightmare and let me tell ya, I don't scare easy! For me it is one of the best and most frightening of the Masters of Horror episodes, and the apocalypse that's presented in the harrowing tale of the slow but sure destruction of mankind is the kind that I find the most disturbing, where we destroy ourselves. And the effects of which that are seen in the story are fairly minimal but they still go a long way to convey a tremendously effective tone of hopelessness and encroaching doom. The excellently done individual scenes of chilling violence really take the terror to the max and are highly unsettling on several levels. Men killing women is a lot less 'palatable' than women killing men, and 'common' ugly violence is something that I find a lot more distressing than any monsters of fantasy. The hateful predatory words of the men about how women being whores who exist to tempt men and have done so since the dawn of time and whatnot, eerily echoes actual insane attitudes about the fairer sex that have been expressed in the real world throughout history. It's truly scary! For me the best performance is from Kerry Norton, she's just the heart of the whole thing. She's very sympathetic and compassionate, but also a fighter at the same time, and you really feel for her all that she goes through and how she ends up at the end where it very much looks like she's going to freeze to death as she has no place left to go. And at that bitter end there is something almost hopeful in her spirit as she looks up at the stars and mutters the poignant final words. If it truly is the end for mankind, at least its last moments are given to one as worthy as her. As much as I like their ethereal vaguely feminine design, I also think that the aliens probably shouldn't have appeared, as it's a lot more ominous when there's a mystery involved, and it's 'up-in-the-air' as to whether it was aliens or nature striking back, or even act of god. But that said, I find it a great mix of sci-fi and horror that plays like a very dark episode of The Outer Limits. Whatever the cold aliens' ultimate motives were, morals and ethics clearly did not factor into the equation. They gave man no more regard than he did once upon a time in his efforts to exterminate a ravenous pest called the Screwfly... I personally think this is way better than the original short story which I found rather stuffy and underwhelming. This episode brings the nightmarish scenario to life in a far more effective way. Joe Dante did a fantastic job with this one, he did his best and I think it shows. See ya!

Clever, well-written, generally well-directed Masters of Horror episode about what would happen if someone or something created a plague or virus that affected mankind in the manner of men killing women instinctively. I do understand there are many gender themes floating in this script - sub-textual ones, metaphorical ones, symbolically, and even allegorically. Okay, I get that - well, at least some of it, but I would rather focus on what The Screwfly Solution is for sure. It is an interesting story about how mankind shall cope with its impending destruction though it not even clearly understands its impending doom. Jason Priestly and Elliot Gould play entomologists who are called in when cities all along a disease vector start having thousands of women killed by men who believe they are killing them for God or religion, etc... The story is cut here and there to fit into its hour, but the script is the piece's best trait. The acting is solid - isn't Gould always fun to watch? A strong supporting performance is given by Linda Darlow as Bella. And beautiful Kerry Norton is the lead. Did I say she was beautiful? Well, she is and you get to see all of her too! Director Joe Dante does a very workmanlike job with material that suits him. This is a fairly strong addition to a pretty good horror anthology.

Yah, I thought "Gender social-political statement cleverly disguised as action horror scifi" about covered it, to put in succinctly.I am disgusted by the many superficial comments about how this is Joe Dante's work, or that its a ripoff of "28 Days Later" ???? I mean, BUNCH OF MORONS! This is an accurate adaptation of a James Tiptree Jr. story which was written before the "28 Days Later" maker was even born! Literally. Dante should get kudos for almost exactly following the story. James Tiptree Jr. later revealed that she was actually Alice Sheldon, a 63 year old college psychology professor, who would later commit a murder-suicide with her husband 13 years her senior, at age 71.The story is in line with James Tiptree Jr.'s gender themed work. What's the easiest, cheapest way to take over Earth but still get rid of those pesky humans? You disturb the reproductive cycle, of course, just as humans have done with insects, so the humans get rid of themselves. And not via war, like the west v the Muslims or Americans v Russians/Chinese or even cowboys v Indians, but simply via Man vs Woman. That the Man is chosen to be the instrument of death rather than woman, is only seemingly connected to Tiptrees AKA Sheldons political beliefs but is heavily based in actual scientific fact (and simple common sense): men are far more easily led towards violence than women ....The Melancholic Alcoholic.

THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION is my fourth venture into this promising TV series and what attracted me primarily to this particular episode was the involvement of Joe Dante (whom I often saw – and even spoke to twice – during the 61st Venice Film Festival in 2004); however, the fact that a hunk – BEVERLY HILLS 90210’s Jason Priestley – was going to be the lead didn’t seem too promising on paper and, in fact, the recurring steamy sex scenes (while related to the theme of the episode) almost made it seem like something out of the RED SHOE DIARIES series at times!Still, Priestley’s bedfellow – Briton Kerry Norton – gives a good performance, is the real protagonist of the story and, ultimately, the best thing about it; Elliott Gould is also on hand to offer fine support as Priestley’s scientific partner and, eventually, together with Norton, one of the last untainted earthly survivors.Unfortunately, the theme – the male population is infected by a virus which makes them viciously exterminate every female they come across indiscriminately – while interesting and engrossing in itself is just too similar to that of 28 DAYS LATER (2002) and its sequel, 28 WEEKS LATER (2007); besides, its resemblance to the screwfly’s predicament is tenuous at best (though the revelation as to the source of the epidemic is interesting).