Tuesday, September 6, 2016

The Screwfly Solution - Masters Of Horror (2006 episode)

The Screwfly Solution - Masters Of Horror

Joe Dante is mostly known for directing the mega hit Gremlins, but he has also directed many other films of note.  Recently BAM (The Brooklyn Academy Of Music) did a retrospective of his films :

Joe Dante at the Movies

and TV work, plus offered to show some films that Joe Dante was a fan of, or that influenced him.  There were multiple double features, and some pretty great stuff was shown.  He even showed up for some screenings, did a Q&A after a showing of his work print of Gremlins, and introduced a couple of screenings as well.  I got to meet him and chat with him, and he is not only a great guy, but very down to earth, personable, and very aware.  Talking with him felt like talking with any of my other movie obsessed friends, except that he has been amazingly successful, unlike the rest of us!

Normally I would not review an episode of a TV show here, but since this was shown in his retrospective and I did bother to go to a theater to watch it (since it was free and I had already seen the last movie), I felt it appropriate to do a quick review on each of the 2 episodes they showed.  The Screwfly Solution was the 7th episode of season 2 of the Showtime anthology horror series called Masters Of Horror.  Each one hour episode would bring in another horror director to create a standalone episode.  This episode revolved around the spread of attacks on women by men, at first seeming to be some weird religious thing, then possibly a virus. 

Once again art is being imitated by life as disease after disease is being spread, like SARS or Zika, threatening many humans in the world.  Will one disease just affect men and make them kill women one day?  Who know, but let's hope not. 

This episode was not as good as the last one, but was still enjoyable, especially since it had both Elliott Gould and Jason Priestly in it.  I am a fan of Elliott Gould in general, and of course I have some residual love for Jason Priestly due to my love of Beverly Hills 90210 from back in the day.  For me, seeing these episodes on the big screen, rather than on my computer or TV at home makes a huge difference, as I like to be in a dark room with no distractions, and that just cannot happen at home. 

7 out of 10 stars. 

Location : BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) , theater 2, Brooklyn, NYC
Date and time : Thursday, August 23rd, 2016 at 9:30 PM
Format : DCP
Audience : 17 people (3 people left between episodes)

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