An Exercise in Sublime Lovecraftian Terror

Rating: 10/10 (2 November 2008)

I first saw this movie years after it came out, on cable when I was in my teens, and it scared the s**t out of me then. When I watched it this Halloween, it scared the you know what out of me, again. The words "Brundle and Fly fused at the molecular-genetic level" are terrifying in and of themselves. The idea that everything that is human about a man could be casually and completely erased by the inability of machine to distinguish between to it what is mere lumps of flesh is unspeakable and terrifying in a Lovecraft sense that transcends the usual horror movie's ability to invoke fear. It means that, unlike in the original, there is nothing that the scientist can do. He's doomed. Also, the usual creepy Cronenberg bodily horror stays with you long after the film is over. If this movie doesn't scare you, nay, induce mortal terror into the very marrow of your bones, you must be dead.