Director: David Cronenberg
Starring: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis
Year: 1986
The Fly; one of the greatest remakes in the history of cinema or the greatest remake in the history of cinema? Either way, a masterwork. And that’s with Cronenberg, who isn’t my favorite director, Davis, who isn’t anyone’s favorite actress, and the year 1986 hanging over its head like a cloud. This isn’t just success, this is success in the face of unbearable odds, a movie that should never have worked, couldn’t possibly work again, and yet is certified sci-fi gold. The Fly is one the best best, most chilling, most disgusting, most terrific science fiction horror films ever crafted out of the thin air, and thank god it was.
Seth Brundle is an inventor who has just almost accidentally created the most important piece of machinery in the history of man; the teleportation pod. He didn’t build it, exactly, he doesn’t know the science behind every section, but he’s constructed it out of theory and hard work until it works, it works! Well, it almost works; it can’t teleport living matter, it gets confused, but Seth can figure that out in time, especially with the passionate Ronnie by his side, a reporter who has fallen madly in love. But when Brundle sends himself though as a final test, there’s a problem; a common housefly gets into the pod with him, and the two living creatures are spliced, one with the other, creating something new that isn’t exactly human and won’t exactly live forever.
Much more gross than I remembered, much more bonkers than I could have dreamed, The Fly is a spectacle like none other, and a sci-fi masterpiece to be honored forever. It’s the perfect blend of disgusting and awesome, of sexy and frightening, of impossible and good-god-why?! No one else could have played Seth than Jeff, he was perfect in every scene, and he literally made the movie into the classic it is today. Even Geena was good by his side, nicely over-the-top and wide-eyed, a great companion. The action starts rolling and it never stops, you want to look away but you can’t, and what we are left with is something so sick and so special that it will never, ever be matched.
My rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★