December 8, 2006: Apocalypse Wow
I am so relieved. Last week,
Dario Argento's
Pelts provided a pivotal turning point in what I was starting to lament to be a disappointing
Masters of Horror Season 2. After finding great satisfaction in maestro Argento's masterpiece, the big question for me was: Could the remaining masters keep this new momentum going, and would the second half of the season redeem the first? I had hoped so.
Well,
Joe Dante's
The Screwfly Solution is now my second favorite episode of this season, stepping up pretty closely in line next to
Pelts. Furthermore,
Pelts and
Screwfly Solution have now taken their places in my Top 5 favorite episodes of both seasons combined, and
Screwfly is definitely the best sci-fi/horror gene-splicing of the lot. Actually,
The Screwfly Solution is a far more sophisticated and significant work than many of the feature-length science fiction films I've seen over the years.
Last season, Joe Dante had opted for politically challenging, sardonic horror with the zombie election-apocalypse,
Homecoming. Along with
Lucky McKee's sci-fi entry,
Sick Girl and
John Landis'
Deer Woman,
Homecoming remains one of the funniest MoH episodes to date. Since returning director John Landis kept a tongue firmly planted in cheek with this season's
Family, I'd wondered if Dante would stick to humor, too.
Well, what did get a huge laugh out of me was a jab that only serious MoH fans would catch: A shot from
the torture scene that got last season's
Takashi Miike episode,
Imprint, banned. Ha! Take
that, censorship! The scene is shown on one of the televisions as Elliott Gould's and Jason Priestley's characters conduct aggression testing in the labs with various forms of... entertainment. Although it wasn't blatantly written as comedy, that moment was a great wink to the audience.
Besides a few intelligently written lines of character banter,
The Screwfly Solution is serious as an apocalypse, and a very creative one, too. I've watched a lot of science fiction in my life, and I've never seen anything like this. From the type of chemical warfare that becomes a ball-busting (literally) menace to the globe, to the twist that reveals how it got unleashed, this story kept me on my toes and kept me guessing.
At first, the metaphors of the science behind the fiction seemed to address male and female stereotypes, as well as fundamentalism and puritanism. But as the story unfolds, it becomes so much more than that. If there is somebody "up there," perhaps the most effective way to conquer the world would be to use our own advances in science and chemical warfare against us while we weren't looking. Forget laser beams and fireballs - how about something as teeny-tiny as the genetics of a fly? Wow. Suddenly, I feel so small.
See, I knew that all we needed were some good stories. Finally, we're getting epic story arcs and thought-provoking messages in some really great horror and science fiction. If the rest of the season turns out to be as great as these past two episodes, we're in for a treat once MoH starts back up after the holidays. And once again, I'm optimistic and hopeful for a
Masters of Horror Season 3.
