Pluskylang Great Film overall

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Foreverisacastironmess In the blink of an eye, humanity is lost. A mystery infection that compels all males to kill any potential sex partners rather than procreate with them appears, instantly making murderers out of parents, lovers and strangers. Ruthless beyond belief, as the plague spreads across the earth, so do these soulless men spread their twisted self- righteous gospel of slaughter - until our species approaches final extinction... I bloody-well love this unjustly neglected episode, I think that the concept of it is visceral and genuinely horrifying and its relentlessly tense atmosphere is just dripping with fear and danger. When I watched it again recently for the first time in a fair few years it actually gave me a nightmare and let me tell ya, I don't scare easy! For me it is one of the best and most frightening of the Masters of Horror episodes, and the apocalypse that's presented in the harrowing tale of the slow but sure destruction of mankind is the kind that I find the most disturbing, where we destroy ourselves. And the effects of which that are seen in the story are fairly minimal but they still go a long way to convey a tremendously effective tone of hopelessness and encroaching doom. The excellently done individual scenes of chilling violence really take the terror to the max and are highly unsettling on several levels. Men killing women is a lot less 'palatable' than women killing men, and 'common' ugly violence is something that I find a lot more distressing than any monsters of fantasy. The hateful predatory words of the men about how women being whores who exist to tempt men and have done so since the dawn of time and whatnot, eerily echoes actual insane attitudes about the fairer sex that have been expressed in the real world throughout history. It's truly scary! For me the best performance is from Kerry Norton, she's just the heart of the whole thing. She's very sympathetic and compassionate, but also a fighter at the same time, and you really feel for her all that she goes through and how she ends up at the end where it very much looks like she's going to freeze to death as she has no place left to go. And at that bitter end there is something almost hopeful in her spirit as she looks up at the stars and mutters the poignant final words. If it truly is the end for mankind, at least its last moments are given to one as worthy as her. As much as I like their ethereal vaguely feminine design, I also think that the aliens probably shouldn't have appeared, as it's a lot more ominous when there's a mystery involved, and it's 'up-in-the-air' as to whether it was aliens or nature striking back, or even act of god. But that said, I find it a great mix of sci-fi and horror that plays like a very dark episode of The Outer Limits. Whatever the cold aliens' ultimate motives were, morals and ethics clearly did not factor into the equation. They gave man no more regard than he did once upon a time in his efforts to exterminate a ravenous pest called the Screwfly... I personally think this is way better than the original short story which I found rather stuffy and underwhelming. This episode brings the nightmarish scenario to life in a far more effective way. Joe Dante did a fantastic job with this one, he did his best and I think it shows. See ya!

MARIO GAUCI THE SCREWFLY SOLUTION is my fourth venture into this promising TV series and what attracted me primarily to this particular episode was the involvement of Joe Dante (whom I often saw – and even spoke to twice – during the 61st Venice Film Festival in 2004); however, the fact that a hunk – BEVERLY HILLS 90210’s Jason Priestley – was going to be the lead didn’t seem too promising on paper and, in fact, the recurring steamy sex scenes (while related to the theme of the episode) almost made it seem like something out of the RED SHOE DIARIES series at times!Still, Priestley’s bedfellow – Briton Kerry Norton – gives a good performance, is the real protagonist of the story and, ultimately, the best thing about it; Elliott Gould is also on hand to offer fine support as Priestley’s scientific partner and, eventually, together with Norton, one of the last untainted earthly survivors.Unfortunately, the theme – the male population is infected by a virus which makes them viciously exterminate every female they come across indiscriminately – while interesting and engrossing in itself is just too similar to that of 28 DAYS LATER (2002) and its sequel, 28 WEEKS LATER (2007); besides, its resemblance to the screwfly’s predicament is tenuous at best (though the revelation as to the source of the epidemic is interesting).

Jonny_Numb 'The Screwfly Solution' is a refreshing rebound for Joe Dante, whose Season 1 "Masters of Horror" entry ('Homecoming') did very little for me. By toning down the ham-fisted sociopolitical satire of that episode, the director invokes a distinctly darker tone here. 'Screwfly' manages to go places that are extreme even for a show that prides itself on its freedom from meddling network censors (for the most part). The plot pertains to a plague that sweeps across the world, inexplicably converting male sexual urges to homicide, resulting in mass genocide of the female population; scientists Jason Priestley (surprisingly effective) and Elliott Gould (bringing a good mix of autumnal wisdom and flamboyant humor to the proceedings) are left to discover a cure as months pass and the epidemic escalates to a critical level. While many MOH episodes have been erratic in tone, script, or performance, 'Screwfly' is very consistent in those important aspects--the allegory is presented in a low-key manner by focusing on one family's crisis, and the resulting apocalypse is fittingly desperate and surprisingly palpable. Common, mundane activities like going to a store, boarding an airplane, or hosing off a patio cleverly tap into the natural human fear of our facades of safety being rendered 'unsafe.' Unfortunately, my second viewing of the episode was less fulfilling than the first--there are a lot of visceral shocks to be experienced (including a very disturbing scene in a strip club) that come off as somewhat diluted. Despite this, 'Screwfly' remains one of "Masters"' best offerings--even better for Dante, who sheds his comic-horror roots for something more sobering and serious.

Poe-17 I love the frequently misnomered "Masters of Horror" series. Horror fans live in a constant lack of nourishment. Projects like this (and the similar "Greenlight Project" with gave us "Feast" - like it or lump it) are breeding grounds for wonderful thought bubbles in the minds of directors with a horror bent to develop and bring to maturation food for we who love to dine on horror.This one began with a kernel of really-kool-idea and ran ... right off the edge of "where in the world am I going with this?!!!".I don't know how to spoil the spoiled but "SPOILER AHEAD" All of a sudden ... no, there was that light drifting across the night sky earlier ... we have long haired luminescent aliens (huh? ... HUH?) brain drilling males and ... yeah, I get it but ... well ... the worst curse of storytelling - a rousing and promising set up without a rewarding denouement.Cue to storytellers ... your build up has to have a payoff that exceeds build up. Not the other way around. Storytelling math 101.End of Spoilers - Big Oops!