A true "horror" film

Rating: 6/10 (20 August 2007)

A true horror film is one that instills in you just that...horror. When I was younger, I used to have a scam at the local video store that allowed me to hire "R" rated movies...the Fly was amongst these. Far from a half-man, half-fly monster running around slitting the throats of teenage party animals, this film truly horrified me, because despite it being a horror film, and thus, pure fantasy, it seemed so terrifyingly REAL to me. I imagine if you were to genetically "splice" a human/fly atrocity, this is a pretty accurate guess of how things would work out.
Cronenberg is weird. Talented, undeniably, but incredibly strange. I mean, who the heck casts himself as a gyno delivering a maggot baby?? He's either genuinely demented or has an exceptionally bizarre sense of humour...
There is an inherent creepiness to this film, a sallow kind of musty odour. It's like being in somebody's basement...it's dark, full of shadows...the air is stale, it kind of smells strange, there's weird dripping noises, bugs, damp air.
Atmospheric...for sure...well acted, absolutely...Jeff Goldblum as Seth Brundle, aka "Brundlefly" is scarily convincing as the scientist who, from the outset, is a little strange, but who progressively goes right off the deep end after he has the unfortunate drunken run-in with a teleporter containing a fly. Good old computers...what does it do? Splices the genes together! Probably using Microsoft Teleporter version 1...should have bought a Mac... Geena Davis is also very good, ditto her editor/ex-boyfriend.
This is one of those films that is very hard to fault, technically or thematically, though if you are not a genre fan you will probably be repulsed by it or simply not interested. The special FX are realistic, and the film certainly doesn't pull punches in visually depicting the way "Brundlefly" eats and lives as his body and psyche are warped into something hideous.
However as an entry in the horror genre, this film succeeds admirably. It is easy to care about Seth and Geena Davis' characters as they are presented as real, identifiable people with emotions, fears and flaws. Goldblum's anguish and fear is tangible as he struggles to come to terms with the horrifying changes taking place before his eyes, and Geena Davis is also very convincing as she too faces the horrible reality before her.
Sex and death are said to be close relatives...so it is with this film, it is at once a touching love story (no, really...) and a truly horrifying horror film...but more than that it is a well-written, well-made, dramatic and exciting movie. Once a year is about all I can take though...it's very good, but it's not one I'd watch over and over.