Big bug movies are always popular with horror fans, even if the bugs aren't bus-sized. In fact, one human-sized insect has enjoyed a long fright film career as you'll see when we reveal...
By STACI LAYNE WILSON Most of us hate them. Bugs. Ugh! They make our skin crawl — once seen, who could ever forget the vignette from the Creepshow movie, in which a meticulously clean man is consumed from the inside out by cockroaches. Or how about the M-TV skit, later made into a movie, Joe’s Apartment? Too gross. From Slugs to The Swarm, multipedes and things with wings have often equaled box office bonanza. But maybe you’re different. Did you have an ant farm when you were a tike? Have you seen Mothra, The Wasp Woman, and The Bat more than once? Do you like creepy crawlies, and things that go buzz in the night? If so, whip out those powder-sugar donettes, settle in, and get ready for a triple fly feature. The first film in the series, The Fly (1958), starring Vincent Price, is one of the most well-known sci-fi horror films of all time. Who could ever forget that classic bit of dialogue, "Hellllp meeeee!" as the spider closes in on the fly?
But did you know that there were two sequels made? (Not to mention the fabulous 1986 David Cronenberg remake starring Jeff Goldblum.) The Return Of The Fly came out in 1959. You know what they say — the acorn doesn’t fall far from the oak. Or in this case, the fly doesn’t morph far from the madman. While The Return Of The Fly isn’t usually considered nearly as good as its predecessor, I relished the dramatic overacting, passionate pauses, and intense musical punctuations. This movie is rockin’ good fun, complete with a basement lab, transmitter booths, dials that whir and whiz, blinding electrical flashes and of course, scientific experiments gone terribly wrong. As the story opens, Francois (Vincent Price) explains to Philippe (Brett Halsey) that years ago, one of his father’s forays on a "matter transmitter" went awry — that his head and one arm were transformed into that of a gigantic fly. Of course Philippe can’t resist trying it for himself; after all, who doesn’t want to try a fearsome fly’s head on for size and see everything in swirling multiples of ten?
Before Philippe gets to try the fun for himself, his duplicitous assistant, Alan (David Frankham), blends one part policeman, one part guinea pig in the matter transformer. The result is a cop with big, goofy paws, and a rodent with human hands and feet. When Alan’s extra-curricular morphing madness is discovered by Philippe, Philippe and a hapless housefly are dispatched to the booth quicker than you can grab your swatter and say, "Splat!" Fly-head Philippe escapes from the lab and runs off into the night, while Philippe-head fly stays back at the lab, trapped in a glass jar crying, "Help me! Help me!" It is never explained why the fly brain can still think like a human, or why the clothing of the victim never gets meshed in with the rest of the molecules, but hey — if you’re going ask questions like that, you should be watching PBS.
Alan goes on the lam, murder and mayhem ensue, and the intensely melodramatic Uncle Francois comes back to try and save the day. But the problem is, once the fly and Philippe are reunited, can the procedure be reversed? The Curse Of The Fly, a British production which was released in 1965, has a lot of potential. It combines elements of The Island of Dr. Moreau (menacing mutants created courtesy of a screwed-up scientist) and Rebecca (a mad maid hell-bent on destroying a beautiful young woman) with the original Fly. In this version of the fly fable, the trouble begins when crazy Carole (Patricia Stanley) escapes from Happy Acres sanitarium and winds up at the home of the Delambre family. One thing leads to another very quickly here, and soon Carole is wed to the mad scientist’s son, Martin (George Baker). And pretty soon after that, that pesky teleportation device is conjuring up a swarm of trouble. Make that double when Martin gets in on the act, and Carole discovers the cache of humanoid creatures in the basement.
Even though it is the last film of the series to be produced, the scientific equipment and lab looks a lot older and less sophisticated than the first two — in one scene, a man is using a supposedly high-tech telephone, which looks for all the world like a regular receiver attached to a high school gym locker! They even changed the teleportation device, making it a cylinder that the victim lies down in. Worse still, Vincent Price is not in this version, and he is sorely missed. The Curse Of The Fly finally redeems itself with a delightfully unhappy ending. Unhappy ending? Don’t let the question bug you — see what all the "buzz" is about and rent the Fly movies and save yourself a triple creature feature. In the end, you have to be a little horrified at the thought of actually becoming a bug. There is even a psychosis tied into this, called entomophobia. In the vast majority of movies, it’s us versus the insects. I like to see Joan Collins being devoured by fire ants (Empire Of The Ants) as much as the next person, but what do you think Freud and Jung would have to say about some people’s morbid fascination with watching people mutate into something that was born a maggot? Ah, what I wouldn’t give to be a fly on the wall for that debate! (Editor's Note: Staci is the author of Horrors Of The Holy, The Horse's Choice, and other critically acclaimed works. She has recently reviewed the film version of American Psycho on line here. Visit her website.) Actually, old Renfield thinks Freud and Jung would have said, "Pass the popcorn," and just enjoyed these fun fly flicks! But don't go by what I say...I'd rather eat flies than watch 'em act! Cheers! Article copyright Staci Layne Wilson |
