Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters: Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror

How much of a commentary is it in Hollywood that a graphically violent horror television show features a more normal view of an lgbt relationships than most shows on network television?

Masters of Horror was a show on the Showtime cable network which featured stories directed by various directors. The stories featured various things such as the Iraq War, Native-American legends, serial killers, and cannibals.

To say the least, Masters of Horror was very well-done, but I cannot watch some of those episodes (such as the episode Pelts). They were too violent for even me.

But one of my favorites is called Sick Girl.

Sick Girl, directed by Lucky McKee, told the story of a shy entomologist, i.e. a studier of bugs, Ida Teeter (Angela Bettis) who has absolutely no social life, mainly because of her pet bugs which fill her apartment.

That changes when she meets Misty Falls (Erin Brown), an interesting character who sits in the lobby of her building drawing pictures of fairies all day.

The two hit it off and start dating. However, at the same this relationship starts, Ida receives a mysterious large bug in the mail. The bug escapes and infects Misty, causing a bizarre change of behavior.

Don't worry. At the end of the episode, it will all make sense.

What I liked about this episode is the casual way it presents Ida and Misty's sexual orientation. And the scenes when the two are together in the restaurant are just awesome. Nothing big or spectacular; just normal behavior between two people who like each other but unsure of how to express it.

In the long run, this is what all lgbts want our sexual orientation to be - no big deal and a normal passage of life.

Granted, there is a conflict with Ida's landlady, who, in an ugly scene, accuses the two of looking at her six-year-old grand daughter as fresh meat. She evicts the two, setting up a scene which, in all honesty, despite its graphically violent nature, is most likely what some of us would want to do with homophobes.

A bit of comic relief is provided by Jesse Hlubik, Teeter's oversexed but surprisingly tolerant colleague.

Unfortunately seeing that this is an episode of a horror series, he - like the landlady - is doomed.

Believe it or not, Sick Girl actually has somewhat of a happy ending. And make that heavy on the "somewhat."

The following clips are the trailer and then a little of the initial meeting between Ida and Misty:

3 comments:

Unknown11:55 PM
And now I know what I'm doing tonight.
Joshua6:38 AM
This was one of my absolute favorite episodes of this show! I adore Angela Bettis, who played Carrie White in the remake of CARRIE and the titular character in MAY, also by Lucky McKee. She's just so sweet and harmless-seeming and awkward and she's so great in these small, cerebral horror flicks.

Good call, man. Good call!
Unknown1:51 PM
her little head tilt at 2:06 was priceless.

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters

Friday, May 20, 2011

Know Your LGBT History - Masters of Horror - Sick Girl

3 comments: