10 Greatest Use Of Practical SFX In Horror Movies

David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly (1986) is considered one of the finest of the horror/sci-fi genre, featuring mind-bending practical effects. Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) shows journalist Veronica (Geena Davis) two teleportation pods that he has invented. He demonstrates with one of her stockings, but cannot yet transport living matter, which we see as he experiments with a baboon in the first gruesome shot of the film.

One night Seth believes he’s cracked it and teleports himself. However, a fly has also entered the pod and the machine merges the DNA of the two living beings together. Afterwards, Brundle becomes stronger and defies gravity, performing crazy acrobatics in his apartment. He becomes hyper when he talks, insatiable when he makes love, but his skin starts to become pocked on his face and weird spiky hairs start growing from his body. As the movie progresses, Seth’s face becomes more decrepit. His teeth and nails fall off, and it is this slowburn transformation that is so impressive from an effects point of view.

Eventually, Brundle becomes a hideous creature and his human form all but dissipates into a horrific version of the Elephant Man, with tumours all over his body. In the final sequence, Seth vomits a cream gunk over the hand of a character that means to kill him, which acts like acid burning the flesh down to a bloody stump. And in the creature’s final transformation, his body melts away, revealing a giant insectoid creature, once again showing Cronenberg’s prowess as the master of body horror.