83. The Fly (1986) – David Cronenberg
A brilliant but eccentric scientist begins to transform into a giant man/fly hybrid after one of his experiments goes horribly wrong.
The Fly was just one of many great horror films that Cronenberg made in the 1980′s that dealt with “body horror”. By the time The Fly was released in 1986, he had grown as a film maker and this movie shows a more mature director than his previous “gore fests”.
The Fly see’s Jeff Goldblum as an eccentric scientist who has invented a machine which can transport objects from one place to the other. After testing on animals such as Bamboons, he decides to test the device out on himself which doesn’t exactly go to plan and in typical Croneberg style his body gets transformed.
Goldblum is fantastic in this movie, if he didn’t work the whole movie wouldn’t work, simple as that. Same goes for Geena Davis, her reactions to Goldblum’s hideous transformation give the film it’s emotional depth.
The Fly should have been a bad film, everything pointed towards it being a dumb idea to remake the 1958 original. But Cronenberg is to good for that and this simple film about love and the horror of change is way better than it should be.
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1 Comments
YES YES YES!!!!!!
This is one of the most amazing horror love stories of all time. Very adult, very thought-provoking. The end of the film bothers me so much on an emotional level that I have a hard time re-watching this movie.
Goldblum = awesome, but Geena Davis reveals tremendous depths as the love interest.
I wish they made adult genre films like this today. How sad!