Accomplished music video hacks, foreign movie directors with one success under their belt, and Michael Bay—please take note: THIS is how to do a horror remake!

Rating: 9/10 (29 June 2009)

The Fog, Friday the 13th, Halloween, The Omen: just a few of the classic horror titles that have recently suffered the indignity of an extremely inferior remake by greedy studios keen to make an easy buck. With box office receipts the only consideration, the makers of these lazy cash-cows make no attempt at improving upon the originals, aware that indiscriminate teens will flock to see their films, regardless of quality.
Back in the 80s, however, things were a little different: easy money came in the form of sequels, which were churned out in rapid succession, but remakes were rare and a surprising amount of care went into their production. Chuck Russell's 1988 version of The Blob was a hugely entertaining romp from a director who clearly loved the genre; John Carpenter's The Thing oozed with atmosphere and pushed make-up FX to a new level; but it was David Cronenberg's re-imagining of The Fly which really proved that a skilled director blessed with a unique vision could turn a remake into a masterpiece.
Cronenberg keeps the basic plot from the Vincent Price classic—a scientist experimenting with teleportation becomes horribly disfigured after his body is accidentally merged with that of a housefly—but discards the silly notion of a man sporting a massive fly head and arm. Instead, the director once again indulges his obsession with 'the flesh', and has his protagonist suffer a much more gradual fate: in the days following his seemingly successful experiment, genius Seth Brundle (a wonderfully eccentric Jeff Goldblum) gradually transforms into a monstrous creature as his body struggles to fuse his own DNA with that of the fly.
In addition to losing his looks, bits of his body, his ability to digest, and eventually his mind, Brundle also has to cope with the possibility of losing girlfriend Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), who is pregnant with his child. When madness finally takes control of Seth, and his transformation into 'Brundlefly' is almost complete, the scientist abducts Veronica as she attempts to abort her pregnancy, takes her home to his lab, and pushes her into one of his teleportation pods, his intention being to merge himself with Veronica and their unborn child, thus creating the ultimate family.
A superb central performance from Goldblum, whose quirky, individualistic acting style is perfect for such an unusual role, is perfectly complemented by the equally unique Davis, and solid support is given from John Getz as Veronica's loathsome ex-boyfriend Stathis Borans. The film also benefits immensely from stunning creature and gore effects courtesy of make-up artist Chris Walas (who created the memorable creatures from Gremlins); these ensure that The Fly is as nauseating as it is heart-breakingly tragic. Amongst the revolting sights on offer are a very painful looking broken arm inflicted by Seth during a show of strength in a bar, a quivering inside-out baboon (one of Seth's earlier mistakes), and the Brundlefly vomiting corrosive liquid onto Stathis' hand and foot.
If I was going to nitpick, I might argue that baboons seem like an unnecessarily dangerous test animal for Brundle to work with (but then again, maybe they had a special on baboons at the pet store) and the scientist's uncanny ability to program a computer to recognise the poetry of flesh (as he puts it) comes a little too easy, but these are minor niggles and do very little to spoil the film as a whole.
With Hollywood currently showing no sign of slowing down the remake production line, perhaps those responsible should take a look at The Fly to remind themselves how the job should be done properly.