The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)

50% man! 50% fly! 100% gross!

A mad scientist invents the scientific breakthrough of the century — a discovery that will absolutely change the world: teleportation.

But when testing the new technology upon himself, he gets more than he bargains for when a fly accidentally enters the telepod with him. As he is transmitted to the receiving telepod, the two of them are spliced together at the molecular level, transforming him into a grotesque human-fly monster.

There is a reason that The Fly is one of Cronenberg’s most well-known and successful films. As the undisputed king of body horror cinema, the material is perfectly matched to his themes and aesthetic, which frequently embraces technology-enabled bastardizing of the flesh.

The Fly certainly doesn’t disappoint on that front. There is wonderful makeup and prosthetic work on display here as Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle increasingly morphs into the terrifying and terrifyingly disgusting human-insect hybrid.

(Of particularly disgusting note: the first time BrundleFly surprises us by vomiting digestive acid on a donut ahead of consumption, as well as the scene where he starts pulling out his fingernails one by one…)

But part of what is so magical about The Fly is how it leans so heavily on recognizable and traditional horror tropes, such as the mad scientist luring a young woman back to his lab to witness the monstrosity he’s created, or the good guy reckoning with the evil beast that resides within.

Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and King Kong all share some DNA with The Fly, all of which aids in making this film much more accessible than some of Cronenberg’s other more arthouse-leaning efforts, not to mention emphasizing that this is Horror with a capital H.

See BrundleFly scamper upside down on the ceiling before your very eyes! Watch — if you dare — as he dissolves another man’s hand and foot by vomiting digestive fluid all over them!

Of course, that’s assuming that you can even stand to look at BrundleFly at all. As the film progresses, he evolves from a fugly twist on Michael Jackson in Thriller to a fully tumorous The Thing-beast.

Naturally, as with The Fly’s subgenre forbearers, moral questions of mankind’s scientific hubris are thrown around in much the same way as another, later film starring Goldblum in which the actor opines the enduring line “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.”

Yet for all the grandiose themes and special effects present in the film, it remains a deceptively small-scale affair. Much of the film takes place in Brundle’s home/lab, with just a handful of scenes taking place in other, relatively nondescript interior sets (a publisher’s office, an apartment, a bar, a doctor’s examination room).

In fact, beyond the brief opening scene which takes place at a packed party, virtually the entire film is tightly focused on the love triangle between Brundle, Ronnie (Geena Davis), and Stathis (John Getz).

All three of them are on top form here and their knockout performances further elevate this movie to make it far more than the sum of its parts.

Also great is the score by Howard Shore, which is deliciously Cronenbergian whilst also offering significant nods to the story’s gothic origins, not to mention hinting at the superhero opera of it all.

All in all, The Fly is a near-perfect film, one of my favorite Cronenbergs, and a brilliantly tight horror movie.