Movies
The Fly
“‘The Fly’ is a screen gem that reminds us that there can be a social conscience in filmmaking. It takes a marginalized genre and breathes life into it, even after fifty-three years, and shows us just what a good film can do.”
With the fallout of the Manhattan Project and the ending of World War II, there was a lot of anxiety and fear over the power of an atomic bomb and radiation poisoning could wield over the planet. This fear and dread gave rise to a new genre of science fiction and horror films (ie the Atomic Age of Horror). One of the greatest B movie horror films that were produced during the 1950s was Kurt Neumann’s The Fly.
The Fly tells the tragic story of Helene (played exceptionally well by Patricia Owens) and Andre Delambre (David Hedison). Helene contacts her brother-in-law, Francois (Vincent Price), and informs him that she has killed Andre by crushing him in hydraulic press.
The tragedy of Helene and Andre is played out in an elaborate flashback (which is a majority of the film). Andre, a brilliant scientist, has experimented with matter transporting. His transporting of small animals and objects from one transport tube into the other has merited success. However, when he is confidant to experiment on humans, he is not met with the same luck. When a fly enters the tube with him, he is horribly disfigured. As such, he cloaks his face in a black cloth. The scene where Helene pulls the black cloth from Andre’s head, exposing a giant head of a fly, is one of the most famous scenes in horror film history.
So the question is: if Andre’s body has the head of a fly, then where is fly with the head of Andre?
Helene and Andre (his body anyway) deduce that the only way to return Andre to normal is to get the “fly with the white head” and place both in the tube to recreate the incident. Unfortunately, they are unable to find the other half of Andre. Andre’s desperation and despair lead him to a hydraulic press, where he decides to end his life.
The ending is dark and depressing. Andre, a scientist who “went too far” paid for his obsession with technology. We see the fear of technology that the atomic age of the 50s play out in this exceptional film. The mad scientist-playing God-storyline takes from Mary Shelley and does its own thing with it.
The Fly is able to pull off more drama and mystery than most sci-fi/horror films. When we see Helene at the beginning of the film, we notice her almost obsessive focus and attention to small flies. Before and after the flashback of the fate of Andre paints the talented actress’ portrayal of Helene as a stark raving madwoman. Yet, we forget all of that with the flashback story.
Vincent Price’s portrayal of Andre’s brother is strong as well. He is desperate to believe that Helene’s fantastic story is real, even though the police detective (played by Herbert Marshall) is obviously skeptical. This film’s actors do a great job portraying a wide range of emotions, which gives depth to a genre that has been marginalized for several decades. Patricia Owens carries a lot of the weight of the film. She plays off of the obsessive character of Andre and the sympathetic character of Francois quite well.
The cinematography of the film is quite strong. Neumann creates a vision for the “mad scientist” as a three dimensional character who is not necessarily self-aggrandizing, yet very obsessive. Unlike Victor Frankenstein, I can see Andre Delambre as an approachable gentleman who has a great love for his family; yet, it is his single-minded nature that causes his undoing.
The Fly is a screen gem that reminds us that there can be a social conscience in filmmaking. It takes a marginalized genre and breathes life into it, even after fifty-three years, and shows us just what a good film can do.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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