10 Embarrassingly Poor Horror Movie Monsters

David Cronenberg’s The Fly is one of his most powerful and memorable gorefests. Showcasing an extraordinary range of bloodcurdling practical effects, the 1986 remake of The Fly is a nightmarish vision of a scientist’s revolting physical degeneration after an experiment goes badly wrong and he is accidentally genetically fused with an insect.

At first the fusion affects Seth Brundle (a career highlight performance by Jeff Goldblum) positively, as his strength and sex drive are vastly increased. But it's not long until his body and mind start to deteriorate in gruesome, lurid detail.

The movie that it reimagines, however, though it has the same basic idea, tells the story very differently. For most of the film, the doomed scientist hides from his family, building the anticipation of what his horrendous transformation might look like. Cronenberg's genius is to display, in extravagant detail, a sickening metamorphosis that the original film only hints at.

It's another movie that builds tension effectively only to have the monster come out goofy. The scene in which the fly is eventually revealed is so clumsily literal that it comes across as simply comical. It's... it's... it's a bloke wearing a helmet that’s supposed to be a fly’s head.

Worse, the film's final scene features the unfortunate fly that the scientist swapped heads with. Hopping about on the plants outside his laboratory, there's a bluebottle with a man's head, squeaking "help me!"

Great idea, terrible execution.