"Masters of Horror" The Screwfly Solution (2006)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Joe Dante

Writers:

Mick Garris (creator)
Sam Hamm (teleplay)
(more)

TV Series:

"Masters of Horror" (2005)

Original Air Date:

8 December 2006 (Season 2, Episode 7)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

When a virus overcomes the male population of the United States and turns them into murderous psychopaths, a mother and daughter escape across a country where their safety is in question. |

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Flight Attendant | Teenage Girl | Gardening | Log Cabin

Cast

Jason Priestley	...	Alan
Kerry Norton	...	Anne
Linda Darlow	...	Bella
Brenna O'Brien	...	Amy
Steve Lawlor	...	The Private
Elliott Gould	...	Barney
William S. Taylor	...	The Mayor
Don House	...	Storekeeper
Nels Lennarson
Steve Makaj
J. Winston Carroll	...	General (as J.W. Carroll)
Tara Leigh
Rob Morton
Nelson Carter-Leis	...	Rodney Bearden
Bill Mackenzie
Michelle Jeanpierre	...	Stripper #1
Dalias Blake
Dena Fox	...	Stripper #2
Randy Flagler	...	Male Passenger
Raugi Yu
Court Young	...	Cameron
Sean Allan
Thomas Orr-Loney
Anthony Harrison
Myfanwy Meilen
Myk Gordon
Joshua Hinkson
Matthew Gray	...	Billy
Brent Chapman
Agam Darshi	...	Travel Agent (as Agam Darsh)
Ian Brown	...	Male Flight Attendant
Bart Anderson
Silya Wiggens
Richard Hendery
Marcia Moulton	...	Woman at airport
Sean Devine	...	Hunter #1
Ted Kozma	...	Hunter #2
Darla Vandenbossche		(as Darla Vanderbosche)
Colin Chapin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Artine Brown	...	Bartender (uncredited)
Angela Case	...	Bikini Girl (uncredited)
Diego Martinez-Tau	...	Actor (uncredited)
Juan Carlos Velis	...	Dude (uncredited)

Directed by
Joe Dante

Writing credits
Mick Garris		(creator)
Sam Hamm		(teleplay)
James Tiptree Jr.		(short story)

Produced by
Keith Addis	....	executive producer
Morris Berger	....	executive producer
Steve Best	....	associate producer
Ben Browning	....	co-producer
Stephen R. Brown	....	executive producer (as Steve Brown)
Andrew Deane	....	executive producer
Mick Garris	....	executive producer
Adam Goldworm	....	co-producer
John W. Hyde	....	executive producer
Lisa Richardson	....	producer
Tom Rowe	....	producer
Pascal Verschooris	....	line producer

Original Music by
Hummie Mann

Cinematography by
Attila Szalay		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Marshall Harvey

Casting by
Stuart Aikins
Sean Cossey
Lindsey Hayes Kroeger
David Rapaport		(as David H. Rapaport)

Production Design by
David Fischer

Art Direction by
Teresa Weston

Set Decoration by
Ide Foyle

Costume Design by
Lyn Kelly

Makeup Department
Howard Berger	....	special effects makeup
Lyne Denomme	....	first assistant makeup
Mike Fields	....	on-set key makeup artist (as Michael Fields)
Sarah Graham	....	on-set key makeup artist
Marcy Hodel	....	first assistant hair stylist
Gregory Nicotero	....	special effects makeup
Adina Shore	....	key hair stylist
Margaret Solomon	....	key makeup

Production Management
Margo Coughlin Zimmerman	....	production manager: Starz Productions (as Margo Zimmerman)
Sally Dixon	....	post-production supervisor
Sheri Mayervich	....	unit production manager
Stacey Jade Smart	....	executive in charge of production: Starz Productions
Pascal Verschooris	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ania Musiatowicz	....	third assistant director
Darren Robson	....	second assistant director
Ian Samoil	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Andrei Andrianko	....	assistant art director
Nick Dibley	....	property master (as Nicholas Dibley)
Jim Geddes	....	construction coordinator
John McIntosh	....	greens
Jake Miller	....	assistant property master
Nathalie Morin	....	assistant set decorator (as Natalie Morin)
Zbibgniew Scheller	....	construction foreman (as Zbish Scheller)
John Wilcox	....	paint coordinator
Jean Brophey	....	on-set dresser (uncredited)

Sound Department
Anke Bakker	....	sound supervisor
Kevin Belen	....	re-recording mixer
Brian Campbell	....	dialogue editor
Jay Cheetham	....	background sound editor
Jacqueline Cristianini	....	adr supervisor
Jacqueline Cristianini	....	dialogue supervisor
Kris Fenske	....	sound designer
Devan Kraushar	....	sound effects editor
Jason Mauza	....	foley editor
Laurie Melhus	....	audio post-production coordinator
Glen Noseworthy	....	adr mixer
Iain Pattison	....	re-recording mixer
Sebastian Salm	....	sound mixer
Paul A. Sharpe	....	re-recording mixer (as Paul Sharpe)
Shane Shemko	....	foley artist
Colin Smith	....	boom operator
Cam Wagner	....	foley artist
Matthew Wilson	....	sound effects editor
Todd R. Mason	....	sound effects recordist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Randy Ball	....	effects crew: K.N.B. EFX Group
Derek Heselton	....	best boy special effects
Wayne Szybunka	....	special effects coordinator
Veronica Torres	....	effects crew: K.N.B. EFX Group
Mike Hyrman	....	special effects technician (uncredited)
Attila Vaski	....	lead/fab/asst (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
Derel Babchishin	....	cg artist (as Derek Babchishin)
Matt Belbin	....	digital effects editor (as Matthew Belbin)
Sébastien Bergeron	....	digital effects supervisor
Julie Bergman	....	cg artist
Andrew Domachowski	....	cg artist
Annabelle Kent	....	digital compositor
Todd Liddiard	....	digital compositor
Adam Marisett	....	cg artist
Les Quinn	....	digital compositor
Lisa K. Sepp	....	visual effects producer (as Lisa Sepp-Wilson)
Jonah West	....	digital compositor
Lee Wilson	....	visual effects supervisor
Jayson Castro	....	visual effects production assistant (uncredited)

Stunts
Jim Dunn	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Sandy Cooper	....	first assistant camera
Lane Koch	....	first assistant camera
Mike Kolafa	....	gaffer (as Michael Kolafa)
Brock Miller	....	best boy grip
Steve Sherlock	....	key grip
Jared Smith	....	best boy lighting
Peter Wilke	....	camera operator: "b" camera
Richard Wilson	....	camera operator: "a" camera
Ian Gariepy	....	dolly grip (uncredited)
Jeremy Spofford	....	second assistant camera (uncredited)

Casting Department
Sandra-Ken Freeman	....	extras casting

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Glenna Owen	....	assistant costume designer
Tyler Tone	....	set costume supervisor
Debra Torpe	....	costume truck supervisor (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Nathan Atkins	....	assistant editor
Richard Cordes	....	color timer
Andrea Dixon	....	color timer
Asim Matin	....	assistant editor
Troy Sitter	....	post-production assistant
Matt Venables	....	post-production coordinator
Mike Williamson	....	editorial coordinator

Music Department
Mike Beckett	....	music editor
Jennifer Ross	....	music supervisor
Ed Shearmur	....	composer: main title music (as Edward Shearmur)

Transportation Department
Louie Hausner	....	transportation captain
John Swetlikoe	....	transportation coordinator
Duane Shearer	....	office driver (uncredited)
Jovan Vujatovic	....	picture car coordinator (uncredited)

Other crew
Christine Barrie	....	stand-in
Laura Collini	....	script supervisor (as Laura June Colini)
Genessa Davis	....	assistant production coordinator
Jim Desroches	....	production coordinator (as James Desroches)
Annie Doyon	....	assistant accountant
Scott 'Big Dog' Franklin	....	assistant location manager (as Scott Franklin)
Cameron Grierson	....	assistant to producer
Cameron Grierson	....	script coordinator
Richter Hartig	....	production auditor: Starz Productions (as Richter Q. Hartig)
Dave Harvey	....	assistant accountant
Elissa Howarth	....	production administration manager: Starz Productions
Andrea Kaufman	....	production coordinator: Starz Productions (as Andrea M. Kaufman)
Katy Lew	....	executive administrator
Susan Nestibo	....	location manager
Ross Redhead	....	assistant to producers
Adrian Salpeter	....	assistant to producers
Stephen Tibbetts	....	stand-in (as Stephen Tibbets)
Bill Vigars	....	unit publicist
Beverly Wiens	....	production accountant
Stephanie Brown	....	production assistant (uncredited)
Nancy Heller	....	office manager: Anthem Visual Effects (uncredited)
Peter Munro	....	location scout (uncredited)
Simona Pandele	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Thanks
Dan Walton	....	thanks (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Starz Productions
• Nice Guy Productions
• Industry Entertainment

Distributors

• Kadokawa Entertainment (2008) (Japan) (DVD)
• Premiere (2009) (Germany) (TV)
• Showtime Networks (2006) (USA) (TV)
• Splendid Film (2008) (Germany) (DVD)
• Starz Home Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (DVD)
• Starz Home Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• K.N.B. Effects Group (special make-up effects)
• Anthem Visual Effects (visual effects)

Other Companies

• Thomas Cobb Design  main title design (as The Thomas Cobb Group)
• Sharpe Sound Studios  audio post-production
• Background, The  walla artists
• Rainmaker  post-production services
• Reunion Pictures  production services

Runtime:

59 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-MA | Australia:R (2007) | Italy:VM14 | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Starz Productions

Goofs:

Factual errors: The photos of the girl murdered in Jacksonville, FL. are titled "Duval County Sheriff's Department". While Jacksonville is located in Duval County, the city and county governments are consolidated. The photos should read "Jacksonville Sheriff's Office".

Movie Connections:

References Alien (1979)

While Not a Strong Movie, Some Very Strong Writing

There exists a way of eliminating insects where the bugs can be tricked into forgetting how to mate, thus lowering the population of harmful species. But what if this method were tried on humans? As humans are wired so that aggression and sexual energy are very close, could they be cross-wired to confuse one with the other? What would the results be?

This episode of "Masters of Horror", starring "Beverly Hills 90210" alumnus Jason Priestley, comes across as more of an "Outer Limits" episode and less of a horror story. More science fiction and less macabre, if you will. But a great story just the same, with some deep themes and plenty of gratuitous violence for the horror buffs. (Nudity, too.) Not surprisingly, this look at culture is coming from Joe Dante, who last season satirized the war in Iraq with "Homecoming"... a film that was of a much more horror nature and less serious than this one, but ultimately more satisfying (I'll get to that in a bit).

We have some heavy issues here: domestic violence, global warming, bird flu, radical Islam, fundamentalist Christianity. They're all tied in to the growing trend of men mass-murdering women the world over. We even have the discussion of how young women should dress, which calls to mind the words of the Australian Muslim leader who compared uncovered women to "rotting meat" recently (I write this February 2007). The clothing designed for younger women is something society should address, I think... though not necessarily for the reasons this film discusses.

Dante and his screenwriter (Sam Hamm) pay a great service to the original Alice Sheldon (aka Raccoona Sheldon aka James Tiptree) story. They have stayed incredibly close, and with good reason: Sheldon has nailed everything one could want: the religious cults ("the Sons of Adam") and even the subplot of the Marine who kills his wife. Sheldon was very much ahead of her time, with 2006 having radical religious people in the news constantly and the threat of new diseases looming like never before. And as far as the idea that man is a germ that destroys the planet -- true more now than ever before, as evidenced in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth".

Screenwriter Sam Hamm quotes Richard Dawkins' new book "The God Delusion" in an interview he did: "Natural selection builds child brains with a tendency to believe whatever their parents and tribal elders tell them. Such trusting obedience is valuable for survival .... But the flip side of trusting obedience is slavish gullibility. The inevitable by-product is vulnerability to infection by mind viruses ... The child cannot know that 'Don't paddle in the crocodile-infested Limpopo' is good advice, but 'you must sacrifice a goat at the time of the full moon, otherwise the rains will fail' is at best a waste of time and goats." Hamm quotes another part of the book where Dawkins says, "Could irrational religion be a by-product of the irrationality mechanisms that were originally built into the brain by selection for falling in love?" Why am I or Hamm quoting Dawkins? Because this film explores that aspect of religion with the Sons of Adam cult Sheldon has cooked up. Not only do we clearly have "mind viruses" where irrational ideas are spread from one person to the next, but we are dealing with a religion that takes something irrational (the mass murder of women) and weaves a story around it to make this something for God. Dawkins surely did not have Sheldon in mind, and Sheldon may not have agreed with Dawkins were she alive today, but the themes cross over very nicely.

With all this praise, you may be wondering why I gave the film a fairly lackluster grade. And the reason is this: while the ideas and writing are superb, the film tends to trail on at the second half. As time passes, the story becomes less interesting and the exploration of the themes pretty much comes to a standstill. The closing scene (which, as usual, I won't discuss) was for me a huge disappointment, inserting aspects into the film which in my opinion really were better left out.

Despite the low rating, I do encourage everyone to see this film and I would consider it better than many of the episodes in Season Two (though still not as gripping as "Pelts" or as endearing as "Family"). Dante has a way with bringing critical issues to the forefront and I hope if he returns for the next season that he continues this... I see no way he could disappoint me with this track record.