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!

With only one more "Masters of Horror" episode yet to see (that one being "Valerie on the Stairs"), I can now safely begin to list my favorites and least favorites of the series. "The Screwfly Solution" is definitely in my top three of favorite episodes and I already regret that I kept it as one of the last ones to check out. This short movie has an excellent story outline, perhaps even the best of ALL "Master of Horror" episodes, and benefices tremendously from the skills and experience of its director Joe Dante. Most episodes in the franchise rely on gore and awkwardness, but "The Screwfly Solution" is the sole episode that is truly thought-provoking, disturbing and petrifying. Of course, Dante wouldn't be himself if he didn't also grab the opportunity to insert a lot of social satire and pitch-black humor, so the wholesome remains supportable in spite of the heavy themes of depressing content. The outbreak of a mysterious and horrifying virus threatens the survival of humanity. Suddenly, and without a confirmed origin, all males in the Northern hemisphere develop extremely misogynic sentiments and proceed to killing females without any form of remorse or guilt. Scientist Alan and his best friend Barney are convinced this is some sort of terrorist attack and desperately attempt to find a cure. Alan nevertheless notices the virus infects him as well and encourages his wife and daughter to travel as far North as possible. "The Screwfly Solution" has a unique and original narrative structure. For example, the film opens with (genuine?) documentary footage about the extinction of the parasite screw-worm fly. The connection with the events in the film only become apparent once the story develops itself. This, as well as other small gimmicks, makes "The Srewfly Solution" one of the most intelligent and profound episodes of the two seasons combined. Most of the "MoH" episodes are notorious for being a gore-galore (like "Pro-Life" and "Jenifer"), but this is a different type of masterful horror film- making. The gore and bloodshed are kept to a minimum, but numerous sequences are genuinely tense and disturbing, like the scene inside the airplane. Also, Joe Dante's social criticism here is much more subtle and effective than in, say, his previous episode "Homecoming". The episode deals with political statements, xenophobia, post 9/11 paranoia, but it doesn't get shoved down your throat so obviously. The only minor complaints that I have about this episode are the dubious ending and, quite frankly, the fact that it wasn't a long-feature film. One last thing that pleasantly surprised me about "The Screwfly Solution" is the more than adequate acting performance of Jason Priestley. I honestly must admit I only know him as handsome teen-girl idol Brandon in the early 90's TV-show "Beverly Hills 90210", but here he demonstrates that he has become a very mature and charismatic lead actor. It's a shame that he isn't starring in more movies. Highly recommended. It's in my personal top three of "Masters of Horror" episodes, alongside "Imprint" and "The Fair-Haired Child".

My summary line could be talking about the genders or something else. Although you'd only really know, if you watch the episode. A very interesting one, with a strong premise and as another user has said (and I do agree on that) could be either a movie or a TV show itself. But instead we get one episode. Almost hardly enough to get us going, with this idea ... but too little to be really engaging ... especially with the ending on hand here.While there have also been people who liked the ending, I think it was letting the movie down a bit. It seemed as if they were out of ideas at the end. There is a few things, that would have been nice to have an answer too. On the other hand, maybe the audio commentary on the disc will provide some of the answers. I will have to watch/hear that some day.All in all, a strong episode, strong performances, but there isn't that much gore and some people might dismiss this as not being "horror".

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!