August 13th, 2007
by
Laura Q
I recently checked out the 2006 production of “The Screwfly Solution” from the Showtime “Masters of Horror” series. (No, I haven’t watched it yet, and no, this post is not about that episode.) The TV series is an anthology series that features a new director every episode, often basing their story on some classic work of SFnal horror. The series has just been renewed for a third season, and has featured 20 or so different directors. Just out of curiosity, I looked for women directors, and found — not one. I then looked for women screenwriters, and found — not one. Looking for the original works on which the stories were based, I found only two that were apparently written by women. Predictably, the stories almost all featured male protagonists. Ethnic diversity was also poor: Most of the writers didn’t have pictures, but virtually all the directors were white men; there were only three non-white men that I could see, one African-American and two Asian men.
What’s up with this series? Are there feminists watching it who could comment on what’s good, and bad, about this series, beyond the obvious gender discrimination in hiring and source selection?
Sources: wikipedia, FSFwiki
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Laura Q at
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Filed under TV & Film | Comments (8)
I’ve seen two episodes (“Cigarette Burns” and “Dreams in the Witch House”) of The Masters of Horror. I’m kind of leery of seeing the “Screwfly Solution” adaptation, because, scary as that story is, it elides the majority of the acts of violence which it mentions, and I’m not particularly interested in seeing them, especially from the POV of the male characters. (Though I’d be curious to listen to the director’s commentary.)
Also, I should note (and will edit the FSF Wiki on this shortly) that the story isn’t credited to Raccoona Sheldon, but to Alli’s better-known male pseudonym.
There’s also a Masters of Science-Fiction television anthology series, which is currently on the air on a United States TV network. This series seems unaffiliated with Showtime and Masters of Horror.
There are no female writers credited on that series’s six episodes, and only one episode was directed by a woman.
The advantage to having different directors, writers and storylines for each episode is that while one episode may be so sexist you want to put your foot through the TV (Jenifer), others star strong, competant, developed female characters.
As for The Screwfly Solution…..they managed to do it without egregious maiming of women. No torture porn in this episode. The whole episode was from the women’s point of view – relegating the men to the side and giving a couple supporting female characters more screen time and depth than they recieved in the original story. One of whom is an outspoken feminist – you’ll love her. I’m not saying it was as horrifying as the story, but a pretty good adaptation.
There are other bonuses to the anthology – the premise is that the so-called “Masters” are given a budget and a 45 minute window to do whatever they want. NO studio interference. This leaves room for some pretty blatant political messages.
“Homecoming” has soldiers who died in Iraq coming back from the dead, not to mention some fantastic caricatures of right-wing leaders.
“Sick Girl” follows the most painfully awkward and realistic relationship between two lesbian characters I have ever seen on screen. That one spends so much time building the relationship that the horror seems to be more of an afterthought at the end of the episode.
“Pro-life” has the daughter of a militant right-tolife activist running away to an abortion clinic saying “god wants you to kill my baby”. And the assault on the clinic, though quite gruesome, does highlight the courage of abortion providers. (Though you will probably be as irritated as I was at the gender divide between doctors and nurses).
“Incident on and off a Mountain Road” puts a whole new spin on the damsel-in-distress horror slasher flick.
Granted that is only 5 of the 20 or so episodes out there…but they aren’t all bad. Except for “Jenifer.” I lack the words to accurately describe the agony that episode inflicts on the feminist brain.
draconismoi, this is very helpful — i couldn’t tell from descriptions which ones to prioritize watching. i think i got most of those listed at the FSFwiki, but if you have additional notes or can fill in information that would be great.
The description on Wikipedia of “Incident On and Off a Mountain Road” (which I haven’t seen) compares the twist of that film to the French slasher film Haute Tension, which I *have* seen: it was an extremely misogynist twist, so it wouldn’t appeal to me at all, unless they did it in a *very* different context.
(Also, it looks like the Masters of Science Fiction series *is* affiliated to the makers of Masters of Horror.)
“Cigarette Burns” is about a man who runs a movie theatre (who is mourning for his dead wife), who is hired by a male film collector to find the ultimate horror movie. “Dreams in the Witch House” is adapted from a Lovecraft story, about a male student trying to study in a room in a run-down boarding house, where his neighbour is a single mother whose baby is the target of demonic forces. They both have sexist elements: the women in refrigerators trope; women as monsters.
Draconismoi: I would never have guessed that the “Screwfly Solution” is from the women’s POV. All the packaging & promotional information I’ve seen concerns the male characters and/or the medium-name actors who play them.
I know I said “Jenifer” was the most painful episode….but I forgot that I couldn’t even finish watching “Imprint” – it also had strong torture porn overtones. I walked in right as a woman (dressed as a generically Asian prostitute) was hanging upside down from the ceiling being tortured by other women.
As for the depictions of the women’s deaths in the Screwfly Solution – they were bloody, but you view them from the perspective of women (a doctor hearing a man’s account of what he did, a women being smuggled out of the hospital, a mother in a car with her daughter). I felt that the strong point in the original story was the insight into the mind of men who had committed these acts. It made it more horrifying. The director here chose to show the violence through the eyes of women witnessing it, not the men committing it.
Incident on and off a moutain road was structured very much like an episode of Lost – the current action interspersed with flashbacks. I didn’t think it was particualry misogynisitic. In fact, I was pleased that the woman managed to fight the bad guy without drawing on a maternal need to protect some random child. Nor did she scream and stupidly run up stairs when being chased – she used her brain, hiding her tracks and trying to set traps. I though the ending came out of left field, but then I haven’t seen “Haute Tension.”
I wondered about “Imprint”. It turns out that it is the only other book based on a work by a woman (Shimako Iwai), and she played one of the torturers.
… Todd just posted the upcoming lineup for Masters of SF on the forums …
My only response to this question is “horror sucks, and women hopefully/thankfully have the sense to stay away,” but I realize that lots of people would argue the first part, and alas the second part is also false, so I don’t quite know…
In any case, I sort of remember a lesbian love story where they turned into bugs and ate a dog. (see what I mean about horror sucking?) and I while I didn’t catch any of the names (and it was a pretty white cast.) I think someone mentioned it above. Anyway, while it wasn’t pleasant to watch, in any typical sense, I felt like it was sort of aesthetically consistent, and it didn’t fall into any of the really bad tropes regarding lesbian characters. But that’s not exactly a ringing endorsement…