Masters of Horror/Sick Girl

Sick Girl
Season 1, Episode 10
Airdate	January 13, 2006
Written by	Sean Hood, Lucky McKee
Directed by	Lucky McKee
← 1x09 The Fair-Haired Child	1x11 → Pick Me Up
Masters of Horror — Season One

Sick Girl is the tenth episode of the first season of Masters of Horror.

An insect gets involved in the romance of two women.

Cast: Angela Bettis (Ida Teeter), Erin Brown (Misty Falls), Jesse Hlubik (Max Grubb), Marcia Bennett (Lana Beasley), Chandra Berg (The Ladybug), Malcolm Wolf (Mike McKee)

Plot Overview

Ida Teeter is a dedicated entomologist working at the McNaughton Museum of Natural History. Devoted to her work, including having many insects at home as pets, Ida lacks the social skills necessary to keep a relationship going further complicated by being a lesbian. Her latest girlfriend is 'creeped out' by her insects and breaks off any further dates. Confiding in her good friend from work, Max Grubb, she gets his advice that she has to make a decision between getting girls or keeping bugs.

Max mentions that there is a cute, but strange girl, who is a near permanent fixture in the museum. Ida finds her sketching nymphs and fairies downstairs and haltingly introduces herself. Where Ida is nervous and tries to conceal her work with insects, Misty is fast talking and conceals her face in her long straight hair to hide her own nervousness. Misty's offer of a date is unreturned as Ida tries to conceal a spider which has stowed away in her pocket. Excusing herself to the elevator, Ida gets a fleetingly glance at Misty's face and sees that she's beautiful.

At home, Ida is stopped by her disgruntled landlady Mrs. Beasly who complains about Ida's pet insects. Ida tries to ration with her about the cleanliness of her pets and has a notably good relationship with her young granddaughter, who dresses in a ladybug costume year-round. At Ida's door, being antagonized by Mrs. Beasly's small dog, is a package from Brazil from an unlabeled person. Inside Ida finds a very large and unidentifiable insect, which she nicknames Mick. In her race to remove all traces of insect-related memorabilia from her home, comically replaced with photos of cats and puppies, she leaves Mick's container unsecured and he is able to escape. Mick tracks down and kills the dog that was antagonizing him earlier and kills it, bringing it back to a nest it's made in Ida's pillow.

Ida, refreshed with new courage, asks Misty for a dinner date to a favorite restaurant. Misty says that's she's rented a DVD and recommends going back to Ida's place to watch it, something Ida draws up the courage to accept. Making Misty a drink, they watch the DVD while Misty gets progressively more drunk and draws closer. As Ida is about to reach out to make contact, Max calls to ask how the date has gone. While she is off talking, Misty falls asleep and Ida brings her a blanket and her pillow to tuck her in. Misty wakes up and the two begin kissing. As they are making out, Mick bites Misty on the ear although she mistakes it for something Ida did.

Ida and Misty grow very close, and Misty moves into her place although she's begun feeling weak and has slime coming from her ear. She begins secretly eating meal worms and other insects as well as varying between highly affectionate and very hostile. Their open relationship and Misty's aggressive taunting forces the issue with Mrs. Beasley who gives them two weeks notice to get out, accusing them of corrupting her granddaughter.

Ida gets a letter from the person in Brazil who had sent her the insect, which she feels is from someone familiar but can't place. A later letter provides much more specific information about the insect, especially about how it operates as a parasite by infecting an animal and how the animal begins to mutate from the toxin it provides before giving birth to more of the insects. Ida finally recognizes the handwriting as that of Malcolm Wolf, her mentor and Misty's father. She also realizes that Misty has been bitten by the creature and heads home.

Misty stops Mrs. Beasly on the stairs and asks why she hates them. While Mrs. Beasly smugly talks to her, Misty grows several insect appendages from her mouth and eyes and scares Mrs. Beasly into falling down the stairs. Ida calls Max for help and then confronts Misty about the missing insect. Misty tells her that her father meant for the insect to infect Ida, as Misty has had a long crush on her that her father disapproved of and the transformation would put an end to it. Misty then transforms into a horrifying human-insect hybrid and Ida trips and falls. Max arrives and hears Ida screaming for help. He breaks in and Misty turns on him kills him. Ida is on the ground stunned as the original insect crawls up and inserts its proboscis into her ear.

Several months later, the two women are happily pregnant and musing about their future insect offspring and how her father brought them together, as the insect sits between them.

Notes

• Deaths and Gore: Misty, transformed into part human/part insect, scares Mrs. Beasley down a flight of stairs and chews out Max's throat.

Trivia

Behind the Scenes

• Writer-Director Lucky McKee is best known for the independent horror film, May, and has also directed the film The Woods which includes Bruce Campbell and Angela Bettis.

• Co-writer Sean Hood has worked on several horror related films including Halloween: Resurrection, Cube 2: Hypercube, and The Crow: Wicked Prayer.

• Star Angela Bettis has had a long career specializing in awkward people in horrific situations, including the films May, the remake of Carrie (2002), and The Toolbox Murders. She is making her directorial debut on the film Roman, an indirect sequel to Lucky McKee's May.