Anyone who has seen the original 1950s version of The Fly will have a good idea of just how wonderfully tacky and entertaining American B-movies of the era were. It's hard to believe that they scared the pants off audiences at the time, not least because by today's standards the special effects are so bad they're good. The same can't be said for David Cronenberg's 1986 remake, which, like John Carpenter's remake of The Thing From Another World, took gross-out gore in whole new directions. The premise for The Fly sees our mad scientist, Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) trying to perfect a teleportation device. After accidentally teleporting himself along with a common housefly, Brundle slowly starts to deteriorate, as his body begins to fall apart - literally - while rationality and compassion slip away from his mind. Goldblum delivers a solid performance which both plays on his familiar acting style as much as it subverts it, and there's a surprisingly tender undercurrent to his plight which adds a layer of complexity. David Cronenberg was the ideal choice of director for The Fly, obsessed as he often is with cataloging man's morbid fascination with excessive body horror. Another classic 80s horror movie, The Fly also boasts some of the most disturbing and memorable practical special effects in film history, a reminder that pre-CG was still a time for impressive, visceral visual design.
