THE FLY (1958)

Scream thy first scream

Neon science

Squashed

Title: The Fly
Year: 1958
Director: Kurt Neumann
Format: Blu-ray
Label: 20th Century Fox

Notes:

This is a justly famous classic horror film and I'm glad I finally got around to watching THE FLY. The story about a brilliant scientist accidentally fusing with a housefly in an experiment gone wrong leads to plenty of early body-horror and thematic allusions to the contemporary atomic age fear of science.

I was pleasantly surprised to see this was filmed in lurid Cinemascope colour. I'd assumed this would be a monochrome film, I think because that's how the spoof homage 'MANT' looks in MATINEE. I was wrong and the widescreen colour photography is striking. The special effects sequences used whenever the teleportation device is used are good enough to justify their gratuitous repetition. 

Another thing I was surprised by was how grim this is for a horror film shot in the late 1950s. The opening sequence before the flashback that forms the majority of the film was more graphically gory than I expected. There are a few unforgettable moments - the fate of the atomised cat being one and the reason for two presses of the killer machine being another.

I don't know why the Canadian David Cronenberg decided to remake THE FLY but it was nice to note this is set in Montreal, a city where he's shot several films. It's probably the most all-American portrayal of Canada I've ever seen though!