The Fly follows the story of a scientist named Seth Brundle, played by America’s sweetheart, Jeff Goldblum, who creates a teleportation device that will make him renowned in the world of science. As he tests the device on himself, Brundle is unaware of a housefly getting inside with him, their molecules combining while teleporting. Slowly, over time, Brundle starts to experience change in his body as he slowly turns into a fly. Or a fly-human disgusting hybrid. That being said, I hope you don’t get too excited to see the fly, because you will be waiting for a while. And it isn’t until thirty minutes of this hour and thirty minute film that Brundle gets the cells of a fly. The buildup for this movie is a slow one, but in a good way. You get to know the characters, their reasons for being connected, and you even get to see some disgusting gore. Albeit, it’s monkey gore and that’s never as good, but it should keep you interested in what the hell will happen when a human goes in there. And the results, are amazing. Or horrifying. It really depends on how you look at it.
The special effects in this movie are… disgusting. But in a good way. As the film reaches its thirty minute mark with Brundle slowly turning into a fly creature, he starts growing hairs, his nails and teeth start to fall out, and his flesh starts to contort and change into a sickly pink mess. And then there’s a bunch of other sickening scenes, like a monkey being turned inside out or a woman giving birth to a bloody maggot. One scene in particular, showing Brundle beating a monkey-cat hybrid to death to put it out of its misery, was cut because audiences thought it made Brundle look like a sociopath, before it was put back into the DVD releases. Now I did not watch that version of the film, but for the sake of this article, I did watch the scene, and it’s pretty freaky, with all these effects being done by Chris Walas, who went on to direct The Fly 2, which was…. Not good. Well, you can’t be good at everything.
The climax of the film is where the film really turns into a horror film. Before, it was less of a horror film and more of a drama with a few creepy moments. Now, it’s turned into a full horror film, with Brundle trying his best to try and keep his humanity, when it’s clear that Brundle is not making it out of this movie either alive or with his mentality in tact. No matter how you look at it, Brundle isn’t getting out of this situation with a happy ending. And then the final scene, where Brundle becomes a real beast… It really makes the movie horrifying. This scene alone makes this film one of the most disturbing. It’s actually kind of disgusting and gets under my skin in a way, and I like that a lot. For such an amazing ending, I’d recommend checking it out just for the ending, but the film is interesting enough for you to watch it in its entirety. The ending effects is just a horrifyingly lovely bonus.
It’s clear as day to see that this film remains as one of Cronenberg’s best, and a film that anyone should check out if they are huge into body horror, science fiction, Cronenberg films, or just horror in general. This actually does interest me enough into checking out the original Fly just to see how it compares. On its own, however, 1984’s The Fly is truly a disturbing masterpiece that anyone should check out. Do not miss out on this film. It truly is a classic.
