The Fly
Tags: dark, suspenseful, gothic, sentimental, allegory, cult, violence, horror, tragedy, romantic, sci-fi

Plot synopsis:
Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is a brillliant and eccentric inventor. At a party thrown by his financier, Bartok Industries, for the press, Brundle meets Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), a reporter for Particle Magazine. He invites her to come back to his apartment, where he shows her his latest invention: teleporter pods, or "telepods," that disintegrate matter, transmit it across space, and then reintegrate it. She realizes this could be the invention of the century, and, over Seth's objections, goes to her boss and ex-lover, Stathis Borans (John Getz), to convince him to publish the story. Borans is uninterested, believing the whole thing to be a magic trick. Brundle comes to see her at work, and is relieved that Stathis didn't want to publish the story, because his telepods are not ready to be made public yet. Although they can transmit inanimate matter, it can't handle living things. He offers to let Veronica track his progress as he tries to work out the kinks, if she will wait to write the story until he is finished. She agrees.Veronica ends up spending much of her time at Seth's apartment while he works, and the two of them become more and more attracted to each other. He attempts to send a baboon through the telepods, but it is re-integrated inside out. Soon Veronica falls in love with Seth, and they make love. During the act, she makes an offhand remark about "the flesh" driving women crazy. This gives Seth the inspiration he needs: he will teach the computer to be "driven crazy" by flesh. Seth continues to work on the telepods while Veronica goes shopping for a gift for him. While shopping, she runs into Stathis again, who now believes that Seth's project is genuine and should be published.Back at Seth's apartment, Veronica watches as Seth puts a second baboon through the telepods, and this time the baboon comes through unharmed. As they prepare to celebrate, however, Veronica finds a package from Stathis. Inside is a design for a cover story on Seth. She runs back to his office to stop him from publishing prematurely, leaving Seth to celebrate alone. He gets drunk and becomes convinced that Veronica is resuming her relationship with Stathis. He decides to teleport himself, as a way to spite Veronica. However, a housefly inadvertently gets into the telepod with him. He teleports to the other pod, and emerges seemingly normal.Veronica comes back to him that night and they reconcile, but his journey through the telepods begins to show
some strange side effects. Thick, coarse hairs begin to grow on his back. He develops a intense craving for sugar, his body develops an almost instantly more athletic build, and his sexual stamina is seemingly endless. The sex alone begins to wear out Veronica. Seth suddenly believes that Veronica should go through the teleportation herself, perhaps in a bid to make her as virile as himself. She refuses and, in a sudden burst of uncharacteristic anger, Seth leaves in search of a woman who can keep up with him.At a seedy bar, he meets a woman named Tawny, and arm wrestles with another man to compete over who gets to take her home. Seth wins by breaking the other man's arm with his superhuman strength and because of a white secretion from his hands. After a night of sex and a demonstration of his invention, Tawny pours champagne on his skin, which severely irritates him. He then tries to get her to go through the telepods, but she refuses. Seth tells her not to be afraid, but at that moment Veronica arrives, saying, "Be afraid. Be very afraid."Tawny leaves, and Veronica confronts Seth about the changes she has seen in him. Not only is his back growing more hairs, but his face is breaking out in blisters. She then informs him that she had some of his back hairs analyzed, and that that are most likely insect hairs. Seth refuses to believe anything is wrong with him, and he kicks Veronica out of his apartment, his thought processes having become more scattered and irrational.In the bathroom later on, though, Seth does notice more severe changes to himself: his fingernails are falling off and his fingers drip more fluid. His face has more blisters and more of the thick hairs are growing there. He concludes, like Veronica, that something must have gone wrong when he went through the telepods. He checks the record of his teleportation, and his computer tells him that there was a "secondary element" in the pod with him, which he recognizes as a housefly. When he asks the computer what happened to the fly, it tells him that he and the fly have been spliced together into a single organism at a genetic and molecular level.A month goes by in which Seth and Veronica do not speak, but finally he contacts her and asks her to see him. When she arrives, she sees that he is frightened and heavily deteriorating. His face is lined with pockmarks, and he needs canes to walk. He has to wear gloves to keep from biting his fingernails off. He eats by vomiting corrosive enzymes onto his food and sucking up the dissolved remains. As they talk, his ear falls off. He refuses to take help from any professional doctors, not wanting to be a lab rat.Veronica goes to Stathis, hoping to find some way to help Seth. He warns her not to go back to him, fearing contagion, but then he asks to go ahead and visit him again to document what is happening, so Stathis can see and find a way to help. She returns to his apartment to find him crawling on the walls and ceiling, as he now realizes what is happening: he is turning into a human-fly hybrid he calls "Brundlefly," and wants Veronica to document his metamorphosis. She records a video where Brundle demonstrates his new eating habits and brings it to Stathis, who watches it in horror. Veronica then shocks Stathis further by telling him she is pregnant with Seth's child.Stathis encourages her to talk to Seth before aborting the baby. When she sees him again, he has deteriorated even further. He no longer wears clothes, his skin has become swollen and lumpy, and more of his body parts have fallen off and he barely resembles his old self. He keeps the sloughed-off parts in a cabinet, dubbing it "The Brundle Museum of Natural History". He warns Veronica not to return, because his fly instincts are taking over and he will not be able to keep himself from hurting her. She leaves without telling him she is pregnant, and demands Stathis take her to a doctor for an immediate abortion. Seth overhears them talking, however, and follows them to the doctor's office, where he kidnaps her and takes her back home, asking her to have the baby as it may be the only thing left of his humanity. Veronica is too frightened, thinking there is some kind of monster growing inside her.Stathis follows them to Seth's apartment, armed with a shotgun, but Seth jumps down from the skylight, catching Stathis by surprise. Seeing that Stathis means to shoot him, Seth defends himself by vomiting his digestive enzyme on Stathis' left hand and right foot, melting both appendages and sending Stathis into a state of semi-conscious shock. He is about to vomit on Stathis' face and make him a meal when Veronica, who Seth has kept on the roof, intervenes. Seth lets Stathis live, but asks for Veronica's help to make him human again. When she asks him to explain, he shows her the plan he has created: he wants to use the telepods as a gene-splicer yet again, using them to fuse himself with Veronica and their unborn child, in the hopes that her untainted humanity will be enough to stop the metamorphosis. Veronica resists, but Seth tries to force her into it, saying, "We'll be the ultimate family." As she struggles to free herself from Seth's grip, she accidentally rips off his jaw, which sparks the final stages of Seth's transformation. His limbs shed the remainder of their human skin, revealing the insect body underneath. The rest of his face sloughs off to reveal a fly's head.The now completely transformed Brundlefly throws Veronica into one pod, activates the computer and steps into the other. As the countdown to teleportation ticks away, the wounded Stathis comes to his senses. With some effort, he uses his shotgun to shoot the cables connecting Veronica's telepod to the computer, forcing it offline and ensuring Veronica's safety. Brundlefly smashes the door to its telepod and attempts to escape, but the teleportation sequence begins as it is halfway out of the telepod. In a flash, a section of the telepod is transported to the third pod with Brundlefly, causing a shower of sparks. Stathis manages to crawl to Veronica's pod and let her out. The computer, in the meantime, fuses Brundlefly with the section of the telepod that it took. The receiving pod door opens, and Brundlefly collapses onto the floor. As a result of the fusion, most of its body is now a mangled, twisted mass of flesh and machinery.Brundlefly crawls toward Veronica, who arms herself with Stathis' shotgun. Rather than try to harm her, however, Brundlefly uses a claw to point the shotgun barrel at its own head, silently asking Veronica to end its life. She is unable to at first, but seeing that the creature which used to be her lover is horribly deformed and in excruciating pain, she gains enough strength to pull the trigger, blowing apart Brundlefly's head. She sobs, as the film fades out and the credits roll.

Review: It greatly surpasses the original '58 version.The film focuses on the relationship between Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis at the top and once it takes its turn towards horror it really pays off.
The original movie, with Vincent Price, is "dullsville" compared to this re-make.Things can get really disgusting as Jeff Goldblum ('Seth Brundle") slowly turns into a huge fly.
Geena Davis gives a convincing performance in that roles as "Veronica Quiafe."The story is not just a dumb horror-creature movie, but an intelligent science fiction tale with both leading actors excellent.
At this point one of the girls in the room rather loudly asked of the tutor, jokingly but in something of a shaky voice, "Why are you doing this?" This question, I think, could well be the definitive mark of really effective horror, and it was certainly in the back of my mind nearly all of last night as I was watching David Cronenberg's "The Fly" for the first time.
Unfortunately, in the process of teleportation, his DNA is mixed up with that of a common housefly, and although not immediately transformed, as in the original, the two species soon begin to genetically merge and transform Brundle into a creature that has never existed before  and for damned good reasons.Cronenberg, of course, never shortchanges his audience with graphic gore, and even viewed with the critical eye of Generation Y, the film's mid-eighties effects are still quite sickening, none more so than Goldblum's slow physical transformation.
Davis and Goldblum are the heroes in this regard  their chemistry is palpable, and her affection for him struggling against her disgust at what he is becoming, coupled with his own struggle to keep the fly in check, create the kind of riveting discomfort usually only commanded by train-wrecks.I was, in fact, quite strongly reminded of Darren Aronofsky's 2000 film-adaptation of Hubert Selby's novel "Requiem for a Dream"  although the subject matter differs greatly, both films derive their horror elements most strongly from a place that is completely removed from Horror  and in both examples the source is basically Love.
My all time favorite creature horror film I have this movie in my video Blu-ray collection and I love 80's horror films to death.Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is a scientist working on a project which is a teleportation device that can teleport molecular structures until one day he experiments on himself with it accidentally lending a Fly into the machine with him being fused.
He seems normal after that but days later he is changing and even his sexy journalist girlfriend (Geena Davis) even starts to notice his weird changes he grows through each day like if he's decaying and that he will soon become a monster.Powerful and horrifying remake of the 1958 Vincient Price Science Fiction horror classic!
The performances are just flawless and the film also has emotional which makes this a great Sci-fi horror movie with pure though and disturbing images, this one isn't for weak stomaches but it is a brilliant movie that goes into our deepest fears and mind.
Score A+ 10/10 really recommend you to see this movie you want be disappointed you will be thrilled like I was.The Fly is a 1986 American science-fiction horror film directed and co-written by David Cronenberg.
It was nice reading the reviews for this film as so many people picked up the real elements of this movie and not just about the horror.This movie, as most great movies, is a subtle love story, where someone realises they are a burden and maybe even a danger to them, and so make the ultimate sacrifice.Cronenberg is probably my favourite director as he is able to take unusual film idea and turn it into something intense and believable.
David Cronenberg's version of "The Fly" has little in common with Kurt Neumann's 1958 film of the same title, one of the cheaply made 'creature-features' of the 1950s Instead, it reveals many of the director's obsessions Jeff Goldblum is Seth Brundle, a Mad Scientist who is working on 'teleporting', a means of transporting objects through space Geena Davis is Veronica Quaife, a magazine writer who becomes interested in his work, and in him They start an affair, but Seth believes Veronica is still seeing her former lover In a rage he tries to transport himself, and his genes become caught up with a fly that gets into the machine Slowly Seth takes on the features of an insect As in other Cronenberg's films, sexuality is seen as a dangerous force that leads to disaster Seth cannot get his amazing machine to transport living creatures until he has experienced the delights of sex with Veronica, but then almost immediately his jealousy leads more like a fly he develops a raging libido; the more physically repulsive he is, the more he wants sex Like many successful films of the 1980s, "The Fly" is a hybrid, fusing elements of both horror and science fiction Considering that the plot is from the latter genre, the elements of fear and disgust with the human body are traditional to horror Both genres, as this film will illustrate, benefited greatly from the increasing sophistication of contemporary special effects technique, and the make-up abilities The success of the film led to sequel in 1989, in which the son of Seth and Veronica begins to display familiar symptoms.
Things are further complicated when Seth and Veronica start to fall in love, after Veronica is forced to go and see her ex boyfriend, Seth, drunk and jealous, decides to go thru the Telepods, unbeknown to him a fly also went thru with him and the computer, confused to find two matters in the system, spliced the gene codes together, the result is the terrifying birth of Brundlefly.Remaking an old and much loved horror classic was something that director David Cronenberg tackled with relish, sensing the opportunity to update it with 80s set paranoia's, he managed to not only splice many meanings in his picture, but also to create one of the best horror films of the modern age.
What is a major plus in The Fly's favour is that there is no camp veneer to the story unfolding, Brundle's metamorphosis is slow and adroitly paced, we follow each step as Brundle's body and state of mind changes, and of course we have to witness Veronica clinging on to the love she has for Seth, even as he monstrously evolves into Brundlefly.Drink deep, or taste not the plasma springSome sequences are truly vile, I remember vividly people leaving the cinema during one particularly gross moment, the horror elements in the piece do not disappoint the genre faithful.
The best thing about the movie is that he didn't turn into a fly straight away after he left the machine; he was slowly throughout the whole film which really created the suspense & the tensive mood.It is a remake and a hi-tech update of the 1958 classic and is David Cronenberg's biggest hit to date, granting Jeff Goldblum his finest role as the teleported monster hybrid and granting an Oscar for its gruesomely icky special effects.
Geena Davis does well as the love interest (though I was never really a fan, she does a GREAT job here and is 100% believable in an underrated performance), but it's Goldblum's gradual metamorphosis into Brundlefly that makes THE FLY worth seeing.
In his remake, Cronenberg piles the eye popping, jaw-dropping, and stomach-churning effects on the top of each other as the body of the unfortunate, mad but brilliant scientist (Jeff Goldblum in the role of his life I've never seen him better) is hideously distorted and he is losing his humanity turning into the insect of the title.
While most of his films are marked by a cold, detached tone, Cronenberg finds a classical despair within the characters of Seth Brundle (Goldblum), a fidgety scientist who invents a teleportation device, and Veronica (Davis), a reporter for a scientific journal who follows his progress.
The chemistry he and Davis share is something truly rare in the horror genre, which gives "The Fly" its transcendent tone; Cronenberg offers a story with humanity, jelled with a metaphor of human decay, and brilliant special effects that assist in bringing this fantastic tale to life.
Movie Review: "The Fly" (1986)20th Century Fox and Director David Cronenberg present the ultimate Horror Film.
Based on a truly remarkable love story between inventor Seth Brundle, performed by down-to-every-beat actor Jeff Goldblum, and journalist Veronica Quaife in perfect-matching actress Geena Davis, create two reality-rooted believable characters in a terrifying scenario, recalling the brilliance of "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", where the creator becomes literally the monster he has created in a further stake-raising triangle romance, supporting portrayal by actor John Getz as the journalist's boss Stathis Borans accompanied with an emotional underlining score by Howard Shore and crystal-clear sound design, which nobody will leave cold due to a constant suspense-triggering image system.This 90 minutes motion picture brings filmmaking to excellency, where any department has been thought through from detail-eyed production design by Carol Spier over highly disciplined cinematography by Mark Irwin to creature and special make-up effects by Chris Walas and his associates, who under David Cronenberg's relentless empathetic direction produce one of the best works of their careers, in congenial simplistic screenstory of the protagonist, developing a procedure to teleport firstly objects as the following more desirable organic subject as self-teleportation between to points in space, given the leading cast opportunities to follow their characters' arc of life-work-leisure-fulfillment to an uncompromised, shocking conclusion, which seeks its equal in motion picture history.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainment LLC).
This film places its focuses on eccentric scientist Seth Brundle (played by Jeff Goldblum) who hopes to revolutionize technology of his new teleportation machine, which he uses to grab the attention of a cute journalist Vanessa (played by Geena Davis).
The whole transformation from Seth Brundle to Brundlefly is just exceptional, and I mean that both in terms of the special effects and make-up applied to Jeff Goldblum, but also in the way that the character started to behave and the skills he acquired from the transformation.Then there are some outstanding performances to be witnessed in the movie.
I also felt that the movie's strongest point didn't lie in the special effects or reworked story, but the simple psychology of seeing "Brundle" not turned into a fly instantously, but fusing with it on a genetic level, to watch him slowly turn into a creature the world has never seen.
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.
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..
The acting is in effect much better than anyone would expect (Jeff Goldblum's performance is truly remarkable, I personally started liking him after watching this one), plus director David Cronenberg managed to transform original film from 1958 by the same title from common sci-fi low-budgeted flick to well illustrated journey into human flesh (Kafka's influence is pretty evident).
From George Lagelaan's short story, David Cronenberg jettisonned all the characters,except the hero who is younger and a bachelor.Gone is the family,gone is the sheet on the monster's head,we had in the faithful Neumann version(1956).He only kept the "incident":the fly in the machine.Thanks to Jeff Goldblum's strange face,his remake is convincing ,focusing on the psychological aspect.The mutation is impressive,but does not sacrifice the emotion to special effects.
David Cronenberg's "The Fly" is the remake of 1958 Vincent Price semi-classic.It is actually better than the original.The film mixes love story with shocking horror.Geena Davis is amazing as the reporter Veronica Quaife,Jeff Goldblum's performance as the scientist Seth Brundle is also flawless.The make up effects are incredible and there are some great gross-outs throughout the film.Director Cronenberg has a small cameo in this film as the gynecologist who delivers a "baby".The film was followed by a pretty lame sequel "The Fly 2",which was directed by the man who won the best Make Up Oscar for this film,Chris Walas..
But this is all relative really, as The Fly remains a fantastic work and one of the very best horror or sci-fi films from the 80's.The story focuses for the most part on a research scientist called Seth Brundle and science magazine reporter.
This remake of the 1950's 'B' Movie horror classic concentrates on the character's and the science fiction storyline way more then the horror and it is a great film because of this.Jeff Goldblum stars as a brilliant scientist who is working on a machine that can teleport matter across space, and he invites a young female journalist (Geena Davis) to document the final stages as he tries to perfect it so it can transport living tissue.When he accidentally mixes his own DNA with that of a fly he begins to mutate into something far more vile and disgusting then your average house fly.8/10.
One of the most mainstream David Cronenberg films the Fly is considered a cult classic today and rightly so- featuring a stunning turn by Jeff Goldblum and ably supported by Geena Davis(who were married back then) the Fly is a remake of an earlier film but is a massive improvement.
One of the most mainstream David Cronenberg films the Fly is considered a cult classic today and rightly so- featuring a stunning turn by Jeff Goldblum and ably supported by Geena Davis(who were married back then) the Fly is a remake of an earlier film but is a massive improvement.
Jeff Goldblum as the crazy scientist who starts transforming into a fly is great here as is Geena Davies as the reporter turned lover.
Jeff Goldblum as the crazy scientist who starts transforming into a fly is great here as is Geena Davies as the reporter turned lover.
A great horror movie needs a great score and the Fly has a great score portraying the tone of the story perfectly.Jeff Goldblum gives one of the truly quintessential lead performances in his role of Seth Brundle- from his nerdy, awkward beginnings to his horrific demise in the final third.
All of those elements make The Fly one of the finest remakes of all-time that is David Cronenberg at his best.The Fly tells the story of an eccentric scientist Seth Brundle(Jeff Goldblum)who has made transportation pods that can transfer anyone and anything from one place to another.
While The Fly is a SCI-FI/Horror film it's other things too it's a character study,a love story(in it's own way)and a sad tragedy told in Cronenberg's style with claustrophobia and dread.
Fantastic Special Make-up Effects.In final word,if you love David Cronenberg,Jeff Goldblum,Horror or SCI-FI,I highly suggest you see The Fly,an excellent,terrifying and unforgettable Hrror classic that you will never forget.
The Fly (1986) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Reporter Veronica Quaife (Genna Davis) goes back to the lab of scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) who claims to be working on something that will change human kind.
But, as things start happening to his body, Seth discovers a fly was also in the teleporter when he tested it out which has resulted in him slowly turning into a human/fly hybrid.I'm not the biggest David Cronenberg fan but I do enjoy many of his films, none more so than this excellent remake of the 1950s classic The Fly. It's not as charming or colorful as the original due to the different eras in which they were made.