I won’t mince any words about my thoughts on director Joe Dante’s last entry into the Masters Of Horror series, Homecoming.  I thought it was a ridiculous and infantile attempt at stirring up debate for the sole purpose of publicity, but in a worse affront it was also completely devoid and lacking of anything “horror”.  While his 1981 film The Howling was a decent entry into the genre, I would hardly add together this film and a R.L. Stine adaptation and find the sum to be equal with a “Master” of horror.  Dante makes comedies...Gremlins, Innerspace, Matinee, Small Soldiers...these are all proof of his ability to create a successfully humorous movie (which is most likely why I wanted to laugh out loud at the absurdity of Homecoming).  So the question remains...was Dante able to pull off a “horror” movie after 26 years away, with his second entry into Showtime’s groundbreaking series, The Screwfly Solution?  Let’s find out...

First, some background.  Dante originally wanted Screwfly to be his first entry, but was having some issues wrangling the legal rights from the estate of author Alice Sheldon who penned the story under a pseudonym in 1977.  It wasn’t until the hubbub from Dante’s soap-box pulpit Homecoming made him a name again that the rights to the Sheldon’s story would be given over.  Hmm.  The story itself is a very bold entry into the world of science fiction, and was one of a handful of stories that raised Sheldon to the top of her genre before her tragic end 10 years later. 

To eliminate a bothersome or dangerous insect infestation, sterile males are released into the wild and as a consequence of their mating with the females, less and less offspring are produced until finally the entire population is depleted.  Taking its lead from this technique, which has been used to wildly successful results since its inception in the 1950’s, The Screwfly Solution takes a look at the consequences of a similar plague that has been introduced to the human species.  When a rash of murders, all of women, begins to spread through areas around the globe, it is immediately evident that there is more to these events than meets the eye.  Each murderer, all males, feels justified in their actions claiming that they were “driven” to their acts...that they were “required” to take these women’s lives.  Soon things get REALLY out of control.

When entire populated areas begin to erupt in violence towards women, something else rises into prominence alongside...a religion of sorts, the members of which believe it is their God-given destiny to eliminate mankind of its “undeserving” half.  When patterns begin to emerge in the areas affected by this mad behavior, a family of scientists who have been working on insect eradication abroad begins to search frantically for the truth.  The truth that someone or something has decided the human race has gone on long enough...has done enough damage...and now must be stopped completely.

Set less as a global conflict and more as the dissolution of a family unit, The Screwfly Solution focuses on the downward spiral of both a loving marriage and a rift between father and daughter when a terrible outside influence affects the trust inherent in these relationships.  Seen from the eyes of multiple main characters, all facets of the plague’s ravages are explored and laid bare as we, the viewers, are forced to watch as the situation disintegrates into tragedy. 

While the original short story falls much more into the realm of science fiction than horror, Dante and writer Sam Hamm have actually done a great job infusing this episode of Masters Of Horror with some seriously horrific moments.  This is exactly what this piece needed to avoid becoming another Homecoming...an overblown message with nothing to back it up.  Instead, Dante manages to show us the real HORROR behind the possibilities presented here...that sexual arousal in males could be chemically altered to produce bloodlust and violent outbursts against the opposite sex.

Dante has taken a brash step forward in this episode and seemingly declared, “I know how to make you cringe and I am not afraid to do it!”  Several scenes of no-holds-barred brutality are enough to send your girlfriend to a different room...which is good so she won’t see you wringing your hands and fidgeting in your seat.  This is not the fantastically stylized violence of Takeshi Miike’s banned episode Imprint, but is quite simply sudden and dramatic attacks against women.  One scene mixes an infected male, a broken beer bottle and a stripper’s bare neck in an orgy of shaky-cam violence that is unsettling enough without the scene less than a minute after that goes even further! 

I am pleased to see that Dante has figured out that there can be a message AND a good film to boot...you might just have to stop preaching long enough to let your message sink in.  While still not my favorite episode of the series, and Dante still not high on my list of contributors, The Screwfly Solution is entertaining on several levels.  Jason Priestly (90210) and Elliott Gould (Ocean’s Eleven) turn in some of the better performances I can recall seeing from them, and the subject matter is taken at face value, which is important when the overall expectation for the audience’s suspension of disbelief is bordering on ludicrous.

All in all, this is not only a solid entry into the Masters Of Horror series, but is also a faithful retelling of a popular and important original work and a brutal and unrepentant piece of horror television.  While I am not recanting any of what you’ll find in my Homecoming review, I will at least admit that Joe Dante still has some of that magic that put him into the horror game more than 20 years ago.  Maybe a little less preaching and a little more directing would assure Dante of another decade of two of relevant horror entries.

-aaron-