The Screwfly Solution (Masters of Horror episode)
| "The Screwfly Solution" | |
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| Masters of Horror episode | |
DVD cover for The Screwfly Solution
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| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 7 |
| Directed by | Joe Dante |
| Written by | Sam Hamm |
| Production code | 207 |
| Original air date | December 8, 2006 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
Elliott Gould
Kerry Norton
Brenna O'Brien
Jason Priestley
The Screwfly Solution is the seventh episode in the second season of Masters of Horror. It is based upon the 1977 science fiction short story of the same name by Alice Sheldon (under the alias Raccoona Sheldon), credited in the film as James Tiptree, Jr. Many of the scenes in Sam Hamm's script are expansions of single lines in this epistolary story. Director Joe Dante read the story in the 1980s and had wanted to make a film version ever since. He presented the story as straight horror, eschewing his usual humor and without using his usual company of stock actors.Jason Priestley and Elliott Gould were the stars. When interviewed while shooting the film in Vancouver, the director summarized it:
"It's vaguely political. It's not political in the same way that 'Homecoming' is. It is about a plague that starts in the southern half of the U.S. and moves around the rest of the world. It is a story in which men are moved to kill all the women. It is extremely dark."
When a virus overcomes the male population of the world and turns them into murderous psychopaths, a mother and daughter escape across a country where their safety is in question.
Over the summer, a series of femicides break out all over the world, which comes to the notice of Anne Alstein (Kerry Norton), whose husband Alan (Jason Priestley) is working alongside Barney (Elliott Gould) on the solution to an insect problem in the rain forest. The two have a daughter, Amy (Brenna O'Brien). Their friend/epidemiologist Bella Sartiano (Linda Darlow) leaves for Jacksonville, Florida, where a large group of femicides took place. She interviews an infected army private, William Holicky (Steve Lawlor), who murdered a stripper at a club. The aggression is linked to sexual arousal and many of the men use religious reasons to justify the murders. Bella is later killed by the infected mayor.
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