Powerfully, Brilliantly Made Modern-Day Mad Scientist Horror Drama

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2008)

Seth Brundle is a brilliant physicist who has developed matter transportation devices and shares his invention with journalist Veronice Quaife. But when he teleports himself, a fly accidentally gets into the machine with him. At first he seems normal, but gradually the insect's genetic material starts to dominate his and he begins to transform ...
Along with John Carpenter's The Thing, this is the best of the many fine remakes of old sci-fi/horror favourites (see also Attack Of The 50 Ft. Woman, The Blob, Cat People, Invaders From Mars, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, Not Of This Earth, War Of The Worlds). It's perfect material for Cronenberg; disease, sexuality and transformation all crushed into a beautifully minimal story (there are really only three characters and one location), passionately played and full of gut-crunching horror. It's this stripped-down approach that gives the crazy story its legitimacy and provides the drama with all its power. Goldblum and Davis are utterly believable as Seth and Ronnie and the charm of their romance in the first half (the actors were also falling in love in real life) becomes all the more tragic for the gruesome finale. Seth's downfall from sweet, easy-going genius to self-absorbed, egotistical monster is perfectly judged, and then his gradual decomposition is riveting both visually and emotionally as the insect part of his mind takes over. The scene where he wistfully remarks, "But now the dream is over and the insect is awake.", is both Hunchback Of Notre Dame grand drama and weird post-modern philosophy. This is horror as it should be; scary but also profound, with no answers and no resolution, only death and revulsion. At the same time it's also strangely enjoyable, mostly because it's so beautifully shot by Mark Irwin and Chris Walas' makeup effects are gleefully twisted. Best of all though is Howard Shore's chilling, booming bass string score - my favourite of his many for Cronenberg - which thwacks up the fear and the tension at all the right moments (the reveal of the fly on the computer monitor, the "I'll hurt you if you stay" moment, the carnage-strewn conclusion). Shore has composed a wild variety of scores for Cronenberg (synthesisers for Scanners, free-form jazz for The Naked Lunch, atonal guitar for Crash) but this is a classic example of how for an all-out, scenery-chewing, punch-the-audience-in-the-guts horror movie, you can never go wrong with a really big, really loud symphony orchestra. When it comes to Cronenberg's work, I'm afraid I subscribe to the old "the early films were better" theory which hamstrings so many filmmakers. The Fly was the turning-point in his career I think; it was his one big commercial success and since then he's become a bit too culturally appreciated. I really like the dirty horror films he made prior to it, and I sometimes feel its success liberated him in a way I don't like. All of this is by the by however. If you're a horror aficionado, don't miss this; it's a great take-no-prisoners mad-scientist movie, complete with romance, intrigue, thrills, pathos and killer vomit. Cult movie fans note that it is indeed the great mad director himself playing the bespectacled gynaecologist in the obligatory maggot baby sequence.