La Mouche

It's been over 20 years since this movie was made, but the special effects are still amazing and the story is an entertaining - and disgusting - as ever! I watch it about every 5-7 years. It's utterly fascinating, but it is so uncomfortable to watch at times I always wonder, as I am viewing it, why I put myself through this each time! The original movie, with Vincent Price, is "dullsville" compared to this re-make.

Things can get really disgusting as Jeff Goldblum ('Seth Brundle") slowly turns into a huge fly. The transformation is very gross in certain spots, and certainly gut-wrenching to witness. You can just feel his girlfriend's anguish and horror as she witnesses Goldblums' incredible physical and mental change. Geena Davis gives a convincing performance in that roles as "Veronica Quiafe."

The story is not just a dumb horror-creature movie, but an intelligent science fiction tale with both leading actors excellent. I don't Davis ever looked prettier, too. John Getz also is good as her magazine boss, "Stathis Borans." Those three characters dominate the film. I can't even remember anyone else in here.

The ending is stunning, almost leaving the first time viewer in shock. In fact, by the nd, this movie will have you emotionally worn out.

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.

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.

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...

Why is it this film that will always be his REAL 'breakout', and not any of the others before or since? The truth is, beneath all the biological yucks and makeup (there is plenty of both) lies a strong emotional core. Goldblum is enthusiastically likable as scientist Seth Brundle, and Geena Davis is just how Geena Davis seems to be in real life... sweet. It is how the events change both characters EMOTIONALLY, not physically, that inspires the true horror.

The blending of both the above elements makes this remake appeal simultaneously to the 'gross out' crowd, and those in the mood for a more cerebral horror experience. A concept of B-movie stature, electrified by the skills of A-list talent.