Master techno-horror piece

Rating: 9/10 (24 September 2007)

If you're looking for a good mind blowing gory techno-horror, Cronenberg delivers with garnish and love. After the initial minute or two it takes to get over Jeff Goldblum's and Geena Davis' 80s style fashion and hair, "The Fly" becomes a masterpiece of horror cinema.
The story is actually very simple: Seth Brundle (Goldblum) invents a teleportation device, invites a reporter named Veronica (Davis) to share in the revelation, then, during a moment of weakness, tests the device on himself... accidentally fusing his genes with a wayward fly. Then he slowly falls apart while Veronica watches helplessly, also dealing with her own worries since she seems to be pregnant with Brundle's baby... and who knows how that'll turn out! Such a story is practically packaged in the "this is supposed to be campy" production material, but Cronenberg doesn't do it like that. He plays it straight, and with Davis' and Goldberg's humanity, truly gets into the nature of this unique technological fear. But let's not wax too poetic: the movie delivers on a purely visual and visceral level. From Davis giving birth to a maggot to the prosthetics work as Goldblum's skin falls off his face, The Fly is a direct argument against the notion that it's always better to allude, not show, in horror cinema.
This movie is absolutely delicious in a disgusting, rotten synthetic steak kind of way.
--PolarisDiB