82 - The Fly

    After a woman admits to killing her husband in an industrial press, the police investigate.  She recounts the story of his scientific experiments.
    The most striking thing about the original version of The Fly is how much the movie focuses on the romance between the scientist and his wife.  Their happiness is a major point, and it has a separate theme.  There’s surprisingly little horror for much of the running time.
    Almost the entire story is framed as a flashback.  This allows them to set up the mystery that keeps the audience curious, but it also feels strangely dated.  Maybe I’m just getting accustomed to the idea that flashbacks are a bit of a cheat.
    There was one misstep that bothered me, and it’s a thematic one.  There’s a message about there being certain things man isn’t supposed to mess with, and that somehow this experiment crossed some ethical line.  But it doesn’t feel like that.  It’s not like The Island of Dr. Moreau, where you can easily regard the experiments as a crime against nature.  This is simply an experiment with the goal of instantaneous transportation.  Really, no real ethical problems to consider.  You can make the argument that the human/fly hybrid is an abomination, but that seems to frame the problem in religious terms.  It’s just a mistake, and more of tragedy than anything else.
    There are a few affecting moments in the story.  The reveal of the fly-head on his body is really wonderfully done.  I love the mask, and the movements that the mouth makes.  The fly-arm isn’t as big a deal, but it’s still kind of nicely done.  The ending, with the human head on the fly crying out as the spider comes for him is surprisingly chilling.  I didn’t expect it to be as powerful as it was.