13 Nights of Shocktober: The Fly (1958)

by A.J.

This is my favorite time of year, second only to Christmas. Autumn has arrived, the weather is cooling down, and October becomes the month-long celebration of scary movies called Shocktober. So, in the days leading up Halloween I’ll be posting some scary movie recommendations to help you celebrate Shocktober.

Night 6: Creature Feature Night

“They wouldn't harm anything, not even a fly.”

The Fly (1958)

The 1950’s saw the rise of the science fiction genre as the framework to tell both adventure stories and horror stories. Concerns brought on by the Atomic Age and sudden advances in science and technology manifested themselves on screen with stories about mad scientists, man-made monsters, and the unintended consequences of science run amok. Given its premise and its more famous, and grotesque, remake, the original version of The Fly, released in 1958, may not be the sci-fi/horror movie you would expect.

The premise is certainly schlock B-movie material, but the screenplay by Shogun author James Clavell and solid performances from the cast give this movie just enough depth to make it a step above a hokey exploitation picture. The story of a brilliant scientist that accidentally merges his body with a housefly while experimenting with teleportation checks all the boxes of a 1950’s sci-fi/horror, but this movie also works as a drama and presents itself as a mystery. The film opens with the body of a scientist, Andre Delambre (Al Hedison), being discovered in a metal factory he owns. His head and left arm were crushed in a metal press. His wife, Helene (Patricia Owens), says she murdered him but was only following his final wish. Andre’s brother, François (Vincent Price) and a police inspector listen to her tell her story.

Most of the movie is of Andre and Helene’s happy, idyllic homelife with their son. Andre is a good husband and father and an ambitious, hardworking scientist. He is nowhere close to being like the mad scientists that were common in sci-fi movies of 1950’s. The movie invests so much in Andre that it is more tragic than thrilling when he is transformed into a fly-man creature. Hedison does a good job in human form, but when he loses the ability to speak, he uses exaggerated body language to communicate and goes a bit over the top. Patricia Owens gives a great and believable performance that is the emotional center of the movie. Vincent Price is a supporting player here and does an excellent job playing the kind and caring brother of Andre.

The Fly plays like a slow burn to a big reveal. You can see that reveal coming from several miles away, but it still feels like a shocking moment. This is by no means a gross film in terms of special effects, but because the subject involves flies, which nearly every person finds repulsive, it has an icky feel. Even with dated special effects, the shock value of The Fly still works. When Vincent Price finally finds the fly with a human head and arm, it is still a creepy and disturbing sight.

The Fly became an influential film thanks in large part to its two big reveals. It would become a common pop culture reference (even parodied in The Simpsons' Halloween special Treehouse of Horror VIII) and be remade with great success in 1986 by David Cronenberg. In Joe Dante’s 1993 film Matinee, the fictional B-movie promoter played by John Goodman is debuting a film called MANT, about a half-man half-ant creature. I put off watching this version of The Fly for a long time because I wasn’t expecting much more than a hokey drive-in movie. After finally watching it earlier this year, I can see why this film stood apart from others in the genre and has stuck around for so long.