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.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Matinee

by A. J.

Happy Halloween! The countdown is over and Halloween is finally upon us. Tonight, hopefully, you'll be relaxing, eating some candy, and watching a scary, or not-so-scary, movie. There are a lot of options for tonight and I hope I've been of some help. Here is my final recommendation to help bring an end to Shocktober:

Night 13: Matinee
Theater Manager: “The country is on red alert. People are already scared.”

Lawrence Woolsey: “Exactly! What a perfect time to open a new horror movie.”

Matinee, directed by Joe Dante begins with real images of actual horrors: stock footage of nuclear blasts annihilating a house, bending and breaking trees. This is what was on the minds of Americans in October of 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis, especially those in Key West, Florida where Matinee takes place. Film producer and showman Lawrence Woolsey comes into town to test screen his latest movie, MANT, a cheesy B-horror movie about a man turning into a radioactive ant monster. Woolsey thinks the atmosphere of nuclear hysteria that the town is feeling is perfect for the premiere of his film. He needs it to be a big success to impress a big time theater owner and get nationwide bookings. Luckily, Woolsey has a few tricks up his sleeve.

The other main character is a young teenager named Gene Loomis. His family just moved to Key West because his father is in the Navy and is serving on one of ships surrounding Cuba. Gene and his little brother, Dennis, spend their free time at the local movie theater watching low budget horror movies. When another boy that lives on naval base asks if they want to shoot frogs with an air gun, Dennis is excited until Gene politely tells the boy no and whispers to Dennis, “that’s disgusting.” Dennis immediately agrees. These boys only like horror and death when it is fake and on a screen.

The boys are both big fans of Woolsey and get to meet him outside of the movie theater when Woolsey shows up to address some men protesting his upcoming movie. Gene recognizes one of the protesters from Woolsey’s previous movie and realizes the protest is staged. When he brings it up to Woolsey in a later scene, Woolsey is impressed and befriends Gene. As they walk around town Woolsey talks to Gene about the appeal of horror and monster movies. He tells him that people that put their hands over their eyes for the scary parts aren’t getting the full experience of the movie. When the scare is over you feel safe and alive, you know you are alive. That’s what horror movies are all about.

Matinee is inspired by horror movie producer/director/promoter William Castle and the kitschy, but loveable, movies he made in the 1950s and 60s. John Goodman is great as the kid-at-heart Lawrence Woolsey, who is based directly on Castle. The first time we see Woolsey is in a trailer for his upcoming movie. He is in a pose recreating William Castle's famous silhouette (the second most famous silhouette in movies): sitting in a director’s chair with a cigar and looking up. Castle’s films succeeded largely because of the gimmicks he used to enhance the viewing experience and scare the audience. Perhaps his most famous gimmick is from The Tingler starring Vincent Price. Certain theater seats were rigged with buzzers to give the moviegoers in those seats a jolt, at just the right moment, and scare them out of their seats. Woolsey uses the same effect for MANT, along with a few others. He also hires someone to run out into the audience in an ant suit during certain scenes and requires everyone seeing MANT to sign a waiver in case they are scared to death (another gimmick Castle used for one of his movies).

The screening for MANT is the climax of Matinee and is over the top, to say the least. It’s the kind of showing that William Castle would’ve dreamed of having. However, the real heart of the climax is what is happening between Gene, his friend Stan, and their respective dates. Matinee does a great job of showing us the romanticized version of life in the early 1960s, but also the real fears and dangers of the era. The kids are just as worried about nuclear war as the adults, but they also have average teenage worries that keep them from slipping into hysteria.

Matinee is not just a movie about movies, a genre I happen to love, it is about moviegoers and storytellers. It is about how movies can be a type of catharsis and help us escape from reality, even if that reality is impending nuclear war. It is a rare love letter to horror movies and why we go to them, even bad ones. It does its best to try to show us the intangible experience of going to the movies. William Castle did his best to give his audiences a true and memorable experience and Matinee is a fitting and loving tribute to him and his movies.