SHOCK editor sits down with his kids to watch classic horror movies.
If you love horror movies so much that the passion for peculiar cinema overwhelms the very foundation of what you are as a human being mingling in polite society, than I suggest you have children.
Not for breakfast. But actually legitimately become a mother or father to some sort of brood (not Cronenberg). Making more people is amazing and even more thrilling is being able to share your joy of the art and science of strange moviemaking with them. And even better than that is when they begin to take to such entertainments of their own accord.
As of this writing I have three lovely lads who collectively are the greatest things that have ever happened to me. And they love film. And they love horror films. But I have gently immersed them in darker, more fantastical pictures. I show them classics, nothing too emotional or intense; and if such things DO show up in a picture we’re watching, I explain everything to them, trying to help them understand the characters. If it’s an alarming special effect, I break down the process as to how the illusion was performed. They come with me on film sets, I show them the wizards behind the curtain. And I am convinced that exposing them to such art has enriched their imaginations and even mildly helped shape their sense of empathy and creativity.
So, with that, Jack (who is 9), Elliot (who is 7) and Ben (who is 5) recently sat down to watch a double bill of director Kurt Neumann’s iconic 1958 sci-fi shocker THE FLY and its Edward Bernds directed 1959 sequel, RETURN OF THE FLY.
Here’s how that went…
THE FLY
Popping in the DVD, Elliot asked if the picture was in black and white. Not that he would have balked, as he was schooled on and appreciative of monochromatic movies, but for a child, color is always preferred and tends to hold their attentions longer. He was pleased that the film was bright and its colors vibrant and saturated. Though pleasure turned to alarm when the first gush of blood came early on, when Patricia Owens crushes her husband’s head in an industrial press. This blast of day-glow gore was shocking then and it’s still queasy today. During times like this, it’s important to tell your young movie-mates WHY such things are happening. If it means spoiling secrets, so be it. I needed to tell them that the man crushed in that machine was indeed a fly monster and that he had to die as he was out of control. They accepted this and on we went…
The first quarter of THE FLY is typically too talky for the young ‘uns and while Elliot and Ben lost interest and began drawing and playing, Jack was rapt. He loves character development and appreciates slow immersion into a film’s landscape. This was not the first Vincent Price film I had shown the boys but I had never discussed Price’s legacy with them before. So I did, briefly as an aside, letting Jack know who this man was and what impact he had on scary cinema.
Once Al Hedison starts transporting thing in his machines, the younger kids came back and they stayed with the movie till the end. After he becomes the fly (which, with its shiny, twitchy blackness, is still a terrifying effect), Ben asked me “Daddy, is this movie scary?” I flipped the question back to him and asked him if he was indeed scared. He replied “No, but it’s cool”. Elliot chimed in, remarking that film wasn’t as much scary as it was kind of sad.
And it is rather sad. It’s a tragedy. And for the kids to watch a drama that is really about the disintegration of a family unit and the death of a parent, well, it might have been more intense than I had initially imagined. Though certainly, the average Disney film trades in almost the very same sort of kidsploitation.
When the climax arrived, the shuddery effect of the “white headed” fly screaming “Helllllllp meeeeeee!” while being trapped in a hungry spider’s web, I figured it might finish them. Not at all. I had shown them the classic Corey Haim family film LUCAS the year prior, a movie that Jack adored.
“Hey dad, this part was in LUCAS. Remember they watch THE FLY at the drive-in?”
I had forgotten this and commended Jack for his top-drawer movie memory.
After THE FLY, it was late so we went to bed. A housefly had gotten in the house and Ben and Elliot ran around cheerfully telling each other to “catch the white-headed fly!”
And that was a very cool moment…
RETURN OF THE FLY
The next day, Elliot woke up and demanded to watch RETURN OF THE FLY. The others echoed his sentiment. So we did. Elliot was confused as to why the original THE FLY was in color and its immediate sequel in black and white. And I explained about 20th Century Fox producing the sequel for a lower budget. I think he got it.
RETURN is a much more accessible, less elegant but still great picture, with Price returning again as the uncle of the first film’s sole survivor, the fly’s only son. The boys were upset that the mother character dies off in the opening, commenting that many movies lean towards killing off the mom. He’s not far off and I explained that such devices are in place to make people empathize with the hero even more, to identify with his emotional state.
The sequel has an added espionage plot twist that kept the older lads hooked, but lost Ben. All of them were back on board when the poor investigator gets crossed with a guinea pig and the villain then crushes the human-handed animal, which devastated Elliot. I tried to make light of the scene, commenting on the special FX and reminding him that this was all just fantasy…
Once the fly action starts, all the children remarked on how inferior the giant-sized fly mask is in comparison to the creepy first picture but otherwise, they stuck with the movie.
And when I told them that there was a third film, they asked to watch it. I refused, telling them it was too weird.
Then I showed them the surprisingly graphic theatrical trailer for the Cronenberg remake and they BEGGED to watch that.
“Wait 10 years, boys,” I said.
I am a responsible parent, after all.
Monster Kid Theater will return…
