Be afraid, be very afraid
Its very possible that no other movie has freaked me out with its goriness more than the 1986 remake of The Fly. Here's the thing. Looking back its not half as gory as I remember, its the use of body horror that gets me. Who would have thought that someone standing in front of a mirror peeling their nails off and then squeezing them so a white substance fly's on to a mirror would gross me out more than any other horror movie, but it does.
Cronenberg's version of The Fly, just like the original is a tragic tale, but this time the result of getting your genes mixed up with a fly's in a transporter accident presents at least at first as a terrible disease.
Young scientist Seth Brundle played by Jeff Goldblum is secretly working on transport technology in his apartment. He meets a inquisitive journalist played by Gena Davis at a press event. Brundle has a working transporter system but cant ger it to work on living things. Frustration and arrogance are a dangerous combination and unfortunately Brundle is full of both. Feeling really close to a breakthrough after successfully transporting an ape and after teaching his computer to be more creative when dealing with living flesh Brundle decides to transport himself. But he's not alone.....
The metamorphosis of Brundle into Brundle/Fly is amazing. The Oscar winning practical effects still hold up today, with perhaps only the last form of Brundle/Fly maybe not quite looking as good as it used to.
After watching this film many times over the years, I've started to see it in different ways. Yes its gross and body horror is always good fun, but it really hits you how damn sad the movie is. The fusion of Brundle and the fly presents like the symptoms of some kind of rare disease, with Davis playing the soon to be grieving spouse role very well. He very literally falls apart in front of her eyes and its actually is very sad to watch, in a way I just didn't see when I was younger as I was more obsessed with the gore. What I see now is a tragic love story of a couple falling in love, with one member tragically falling ill and making some real bad choices. Its actually beautiful. It just so happens one member of the couple can vomit acidic digestive fluid at will.
Movie Rating: 9/10
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