Playlist: Buckeye Love 2025

While the typical Valentine's Day film may be described as "mushy," Layla Benali thinks the Wex's choice for February 14th—David Cronenberg's The Fly—is a bit more... gooey.

“My favorite programming ideas kind of start off as a joke,” Benali says. “Like, ‘What if we showed The Fly on Valentine’s Day? How funny would that be?’ I think I threw it out there, but Chris [Stults, associate Film/Video curator] hooked onto it. It was a result of conversation and collaboration.”

For the uninitiated, The Fly is Cronenberg's 1986 remake of a classic sci-fi cautionary tale from 1958. It revolves around Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), an eccentric scientist who offers an inside scoop to journalist Ronnie Quaife (Geena Davis): He’s building a set of pods that can teleport objects between themselves.

What results is romance, passion, and a grotesque transformation into a human-fly hybrid.

“I watched it and was like, ‘Wow, I think this is a perfect movie,” Benali says. “I had a blast from beginning to end.”

A perfect movie for Valentine’s Day? Arguably, Benali says, because the movie begins with a well-known romantic trope.

“Early in the film, it’s set up almost like a meet-cute. A David Cronenberg, off-kilter meet-cute,” Benali says. “They have this moment of connection pretty early on, and maybe it’s not a conventional romance, but it’s a story of two people who find each other and get to know each other on so many levels, and that’s what makes the end such a tragedy.”

Benali says that they’ve only dipped their toe into the murky waters of the horror genre in recent years, crediting friends and the F/V team at the Wex for broadening her horizons.

“There have been programs we’ve done here that have opened my eyes to it, like when Jennifer Reeder comes in and shows her films, or when we did [a summer series on] Dario Argento. It’s a slow and steady process, but I do feel like I’m learning more, and I’m curious.”

Curiosity, Benali says, is also a driving force behind Cronenberg’s corner of the horror genre. What can one do with the human body? How gross can it get? And how long will we, as an audience, give in to our own morbid curiosity?

Benali likened the phenomenon to eating spicy food. “It’s fun to hurt, a little bit, and know you’ll be okay,” they say.

Sharing a really spicy dish—or a certified gross-out film—with a friend, partner or fellow moviegoers is just as enjoyable. When programming films, the audience experience is at the forefront on Benali’s mind; The Fly felt like the perfect choice for a packed theater.

“I thought it would be fun to show something that will be fun if you’re in love or not in love,” Benali says. “It’s just as fun if you are watching it with a partner or just with your friends… Or, if you need the catharsis of killing your ex.”—Honour Lackey, Wex outreach intern