La mosca

During the 1980s, horror was rising, with Friday the 13th started the decade with a bang, with sequels, parodies, and ripoffs in its path. Halloween would have a sequel and many more, and Freddy Krueger started a long running franchise by Wes Craven. What the critics really loved was the remakes of horror movies lured to younger audiences who never saw the originals. John Carpenter's The Thing, while it underperformed at the box office, became a favorite on home video and a cult classic. In 1986, director David Cronenberg, who made heads explode in Scanners and made video horror with Videodrome and changed political horror in the film version of The Dead Zone, would take great risks remaking a 1950s b movie classic, The Fly, by casting Jeff Goldblum as the main character and Geena Davis as his love. Coming out the same year as Aliens and produced by Mel Brooks, The Fly became Cron's highest grossing movie ever and spawned a sequel which didn't do well but became a cult classic in its own right and there are talks of another remake, this time with CGI and a bigger budget. Catch it while its on tv and you'll like the practical effects of the movie as well as the memorable music by Howard Shore. Be afraid, be very afraid...

Scientist Seth Brundle has created a matter transporter to create a sort of teleporting system. During tests he finds it turns his monkeys inside out and kills them, until he gets it to work. He immediately tests it on himself and everything appears to work well. However he soon finds himself going through a series of changes, much to the concern of his girlfriend Ronnie, that see him becoming fitter and stronger. However it isn't long the changes become more concerning and it is clear that he is changing beyond his control and beyond recognition.

Cronenberg is famous for his body horror and here is no exception. The remake of The Fly loses a lot of his usual social comment etc but still leaves him open to do a great horror that has some intelligent touches. The story is very much a horror – but Cronenberg has got rid of the concept of swapping a fly head for a human head and replaced it with the horror coming from within. This allows him to feel more comfortable with his subject matter rather than it being silly. The transformation gets more intense towards the end as his whole body begins to become a fly but the early parts allow tension to be built up.

When the gore comes it is typical Cronenberg. It isn't gore for comedy's sake it is quite shocking and very gory. The real gore is kept for 2 or 3 key moments and is all the more shocking for the restrained nature of it's use up till then. The end itself shows that it isn't just an out and out horror and that it does have a heart and a head to match it's strong stomach.

Goldblum is good. Unfortunately he has come to be type cast as the excitable, Jewish scientist with a distinct speaking manner (try Jurassic Park 1 & 2, Cats and Dogs etc). However here it doesn't annoy too much. Davis is also very good and was going into a good run of hits (unlike now!) at the time. She plays the horror of her situation very well.

Overall The Fly is a very good remake. It is a horror film that is actually chilling as well as gory – Cronenberg's fascination with body horror and the nature of ourselves is toned down but is still enough in evidence to add something.

Truly great – but very nasty – update of the classic 1958 sci-fi film with both Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis in the roles of their lives. Technically, this is a remake, but with a genius like David Cronenberg in the director's chair, it's obvious that this isn't anything like the uninspired and irritating remakes that are being released nowadays ("The Amityville Horror", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"…). Cronenberg's interpretation of this ultimate terror-tale differs greatly from the original. In fact, the only resemblance is the basic premise of a fusion between an obsessive scientist and an ordinary housefly. Goldblum is terrifically cast as the brilliant, but slightly confused mastermind Seth Brudle, whose lifework are "telepods"; funny looking machines capable of transmitting matter through space. Journalist Davis, with whom he has a romantic adventure, closely observes the progress of his work but when he teapot's himself through space, the catastrophe happens. Mentally as well as physically, Brudle undergoes a horrible transformation into a fly and it cannot be stopped. "The Fly" is a very devastating film. Powerful enough, but not exactly pleasant to look at. Like only the greatest directors can pull this off, Cronenberg overwhelms the audience with a sublime mixture drama, misery and repulsiveness. You feel as helpless as the characters themselves and you painfully wait for the unhappy ending to come! The screenplay is filled with genuine metaphors and the romance between Goldblum and Davis is beautifully illustrated. The special effects, mainly created by Chris Walas (who went on directing the 1989-sequel) are definitely still staggering and they don't look the least bit dated by today's standards.

David Cronenberg's "The Fly" has always been one of my favorite sci-fi horror movies ever since watching it as a young teenager. Why? Well, there are multiple reasons for this.

Let's start out with the story. It has a very interesting and disturbing story that deals with different topics without losing focus on the core of the movie. It is a story that deals with scientific issues of teleportation, but it does so in a very believable manner. But it is also the story of an aloof scientist who invents something unique and his downfall into despair and hunger for knowledge and power.

"The Fly" also has good effects, taking into consideration that it is from 1986. Granted that compared with today's technology and possibilities, then it is outdated. But I do believe that the special effects team working on "The Fly" managed to create something that actually still holds its ground even today. The whole transformation from Seth Brundle to Brundlefly is just exceptional, and I mean that both in terms of the special effects and make-up applied to Jeff Goldblum, but also in the way that the character started to behave and the skills he acquired from the transformation.

Then there are some outstanding performances to be witnessed in the movie. First and foremost, it is of course Jeff Goldblum who steals the screen with his enigmatic performance as Seth Brundle. I believe this was also the very first movie I saw him in. His mannerisms, behavior and that twitchy side to him is just right on the nail for this particular role.

There is just something timeless about the story presented in "The Fly" and it is a movie that you can watch over and over. I don't know how many times exactly I have watched it by now, but it is around ten or so.

"The Fly" is definitely a well-worthy addition the to horror genre, and it is an outstanding movie that you should already be familiar with. If you by some strange reason haven't seen "The Fly" already, I can strongly recommend that you take the time to do so.

Most science fiction films are big on ideas and special effects, but weak on coherence and character development; most horror films are just the same, except without the ideas. But David Cronenberg's 'The Fly' takes one simple idea, develops it properly, and eschews (its genuinely terrifying) special effects until its truly horrific climax. And by paying some attention to the personalities of its protagonists, it actually makes you care about them (Jeff Goldblum is excellent in the lead role), and adds a level of serious reflection on the very nature of human mortality to the raw shock. The mix amounts to a gruesomely good film.