Sick Girl (Masters of Horror)

Sick Girl is the 10th episode of the first season of Masters of Horror. It originally aired in North America on January 13, 2006. It was directed by Lucky McKee and based on a story written by McKee and Sean Hood.

Plot

Ida Teeter (Angela Bettis) is a shy entomologist who has a wide variety of insects all over her home which happen to be the cause of her recent girlfriend standing her up. She is “informed” by her fellow entomologist Max Grubb (Jesse Hlubik) that her obsession with her job is the reason that her lady friends are constantly breaking up with her. Ida is crestfallen by this, although she is introduced to the beautiful and strange girl named Misty Falls (Erin Brown a.k.a. Misty Mundae) who sits with her sketch pad drawing pixies in the lobby of the McNaughton Museum of Natural History where Ida and Max work. Instantly, Ida is enamored by the chance to be with her, although Max gives her the warning of “babes or bugs, you can’t have both”.

Simultaneously, a mysterious package arrives for Ida at her apartment door, which is revealed to contain a large, unidentifiable mantis-like insect. Landlady Lana Beasley (Marcia Bennett) is concerned with the “pets” of Ida and the effect that may be laid upon her seven-year-old granddaughter Betty (Chandra Berg), dubbed “The Ladybug” because of her continuous habit of wearing a ladybug costume. The Ladybug looks up to Ida as a heroine influence, much to Beasley’s dismay, and Ida promises to keep the insects under check. Later that night, she examines the new insect, which she fondly names “Mick”, and informs Max via telephone of the creature. “Mick” escapes from its plastic tank shortly after Ida leaves.

The next day, Ida walks over to Misty and to asks her out to dinner, which Misty accepts. The two women go out on a date that night in a Chinese restaurant, where Misty embarrassedly states that she thinks Ida is attractive. Misty then asks whether or not that the two of them can watch a movie about “Texas Pixies” on Ida's DVD player, which Ida accepts as their date, although she is concerned about what Misty would think of her large collection of bugs. In the meantime, Mick escapes and attacks Beasley’s pet dog, dragging it into one of Ida’s bedroom pillows where it consumes the animal. Later, there are posters advertising the lost dog.

Misty is introduced to Betty and the apartment, though Ida keeps her away from the bedroom where all her insects are hidden. They proceed to enjoying some bourbon and watching the “Texas Pixies” movie together. The two get closer until their moment is interrupted by Max, who is curious about their date. Ida returns to find Misty asleep on the couch. She proceeds to the bedroom and returns with the pillow (with the Bug Mick hidden inside) to give to Misty, who suddenly wakes up from her drunken slumber. Still too drunk to drive, Ida allows Misty to stay with her. In gratitude, Misty returns the favor by stripping off her shirt and seducing Ida. Below, Mick’s proboscis reaches for Misty and nips her ear, which Misty dismisses.

The next morning, Ida awakens to find that Misty has discovered her secret bug stash and has a great interest in bugs. She also discovers that Misty is Ida's favorite professor Malcolm Wolf’s daughter (her last name came from her hippie mother), and the two search for the escaped Mick. Later, Misty feels pain in her right ear, where she finds a small sample of foreign saliva in it, and soon becomes weak to stay up. Ida turns to Max with drawings of the creature by Misty, but Max does not take the matter seriously and even makes derisive jokes about Ida's new relationship. She comes home and finds Misty moving in. They spend more time together, although Misty (to her own consternation) begins displaying unusual tendencies, such as an appetite in straying bugs.

Beasley encounters Mick as it runs past her. About to complain, she finds Ida and Misty locked in an extremely passionate kiss and leaves, keeping this hidden from her ever-interested granddaughter. Misty later comes across the pillow with Mick in it during a laundry excursion, and she discovers that she has strange urges to lie next to it. The insect then invades her much chewed and saliva-doused ear with its proboscis.

Ida receives an almost apologetic letter from a mysterious source (she suspects that it is Malcolm Wolf), which tells her that the insect could be dangerous. At home, she is pulled into a loving kiss by Misty right in front of Beasley and Betty. Disgusted, Beasley berates the two women, even suggesting that Ida is sexually attracted to her granddaughter as well. Beasley gives Ida and Misty two weeks to move out, which is reduced to one week when Betty asks for “some skin” (a handshake slap) from Ida. Ida is horrified by Misty’s strange behavior and her abrupt and crude remarks. Enraged, Misty loses her temper and yells at Ida about how much that she has done for her until she suddenly passes out.

Misty awakens and explains about a storybook-style dream where she was a fairy resting upon a lily pad and encountered a “beautiful” giant bug (Mick) that landed on her and forced its proboscis into her navel, drawing blood and inserting “his juices” into her. Max calls Ida for her to come to the lab, and as she leaves, Ida notices how Misty has placed the pillow between her legs.

When she arrives, Max delivers the information from her “Brazil homey” about the insect which he finds humorous and impossible: The insect is known to inhabit the nests of birds and other small animals, where it behaves like a parasite, inserting its proboscis and drinking the animal’s blood, while at the same time invading the host’s reproductive DNA and making the hosts carry out the insect’s young. While Max finds this funny, Ida is horrified to learn that Misty may have been bitten by the insect. Meanwhile, the insect Mick inseminates Misty during a sexual meeting. When Beasley staples an eviction notice to Ida’s apartment door, she encounters Misty, who meets Beasley's criticisms with crude and offensive remarks. Beasley is revolted, calling Misty a monster; Misty thereupon morphs two insectoid eyes and multiple tendrils. The terrified Beasley falls over the stairway to her death.

Ida arrives home to witness medics hauling away the corpse of Lana Beasley on a gurney and Betty crying. Misty makes light of the situation, much to Ida’s repulsion. Ida calls Max over to her apartment and finds Misty in the bathtub, who later reveals the location of the hidden predatory insect in the pillow. Ida is convinced that the insect has indeed infected Misty, who then reveals her own secret: her father, Professor Malcolm Wolf, sent the insect to Ida so it would bite her and make her repulsive to Misty, who has long been in love with Ida. Misty then undergoes metamorphosis into a bug-human monster. Responding to Ida’s screams, Max breaks into the apartment, only to be encountered and killed by the monstrous Misty. Then Mick scurries to the terrified Ida lying on the floor and inserts its proboscis into her left ear, beginning the same insemination process with her.

Some time later, both Ida and Misty are sitting in the living room couch with large pregnant abdomens, joking about their condition, as the insect Mick continues to inseminate them through left and right ears respectively.

DVD and Blu-ray

The DVD was released by Anchor Bay Entertainment on June 27, 2006. The episode was the tenth episode and the sixth to be released on DVD. The episode appears on the second volume of the Blu-ray compilation of the series.

External links

• Sick Girl at the Internet Movie Database