The Fly (1986)

The FlyThe 1986 remake of The Fly by David Cronenberg is a prime example of 80's horror movie making at its very best. Films like this and John Carpenters The Thing (another remake) are types of movies that just aren't made anymore. Sure there's plenty of the horror genre that make it on to the big screen but today we live in a world of CGI. Nothing onscreen seems to have the texture or the tactility that makes the audience believe that they could reach out and touch what is onscreen.The Fly tells the story of Seth Brundle played superbly by Jeff Goldblum. A brilliant scientist who's on the brink of one of humankind's greatest accomplishments. He has figured out how to teleport matter from one space to another. This would change the worlds concept of travel forever. By using two phone booth like devices known as telepods he is able to shift an object from one pod to the other. Brundle is struggling with the teleportation of living matter. A gory scene involving a baboon demonstrates this. With the aid of Journalist Veronica played by Geena Davis who documents Brundles progress they eventually make a break through. What follows isn't just a chilling yet repulsive horror thriller but a movie that is deeply character driven.An inspired choice was to cast Goldblum in the lead role. His superb range allows him to create and develop certain traits as his anatomy and humanity begins to change.A man desperate for his creation to be a success Goldblum's character impatiently decides to go through the teleportation process only to unknowingly have a common house fly go along with him for the trip. Their DNA is spliced together on a equal molecular level which goes on to create something new entirely."Be afraid! Be very afraid!"This brings me to points raised earlier. What follows is the journey of man who goes from being human to something unknown to Science and nature. Not man, not Fly! A monster that will hurt you if you stay! This is achieved not through computer generated imagery but through practical effects. Prosthetics and animatronics. The ooze is real. The props are real. There's no CGI blood here thank you very much! This is a film that sticks to your skin making it crawl as you witness Brundles transformation. Both Goldblum and Davis are brilliant together. Their onscreen chemistry making you care for them. This makes Brundles demise all the more painful.I first watched The Fly when I was a young kid. I remember being terrified by it and by all rights I should not have watched it at such a young age. Revisiting this movie as a forty two year old, I was prepared to be disappointed. Absolutely not! This movie stands the test of time because it is a great film. Just as Jaws isn't marred by its forty year old special effects. That film is much more than just a rubber shark. The Fly is much the same. It is brilliant because of Goldblum and Davis's performances, Cronenberg's direction and Howard Shores haunting score. Not to mention those gooey, gory repulsive practical effects.The Fly is a movie you should watch, a movie from an era when the horror genre had real heart and soul.

Movie Review: "The Fly" (1986)20th Century Fox and Director David Cronenberg present the ultimate Horror Film. Based on a truly remarkable love story between inventor Seth Brundle, performed by down-to-every-beat actor Jeff Goldblum, and journalist Veronica Quaife in perfect-matching actress Geena Davis, create two reality-rooted believable characters in a terrifying scenario, recalling the brilliance of "Mary Shelley's Frankenstein", where the creator becomes literally the monster he has created in a further stake-raising triangle romance, supporting portrayal by actor John Getz as the journalist's boss Stathis Borans accompanied with an emotional underlining score by Howard Shore and crystal-clear sound design, which nobody will leave cold due to a constant suspense-triggering image system.This 90 minutes motion picture brings filmmaking to excellency, where any department has been thought through from detail-eyed production design by Carol Spier over highly disciplined cinematography by Mark Irwin to creature and special make-up effects by Chris Walas and his associates, who under David Cronenberg's relentless empathetic direction produce one of the best works of their careers, in congenial simplistic screenstory of the protagonist, developing a procedure to teleport firstly objects as the following more desirable organic subject as self-teleportation between to points in space, given the leading cast opportunities to follow their characters' arc of life-work-leisure-fulfillment to an uncompromised, shocking conclusion, which seeks its equal in motion picture history.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainment LLC)

Be afraid. This is the epitome of "body horror". No need for CGI, this film is full of some of the best practical effects and costumes you'll see and they still hold up to this day. One of David Cronenberg's finest achievements. Just wow...be very afraid. A rare instance where the re-make is vastly superior to the original.

To me, The Fly is the crowning jewel of 80s Sci-Fi horror. The animatronics, the special effects make-up, the acting, the story... It all makes for a great movie. From start to finish, this movie is a masterpiece.What I loved about the movie right off the bat was that it did not mess around. The movie starts in the middle of a conversation between the 2 main characters, and Brundle is explaining exactly what the movie is about. From then on the story just flows brilliantly, with no dilly-dallying. There's no mystery, there's no ambiguity, its just a story about an inventor and his machine.The artistry that went into the make-up, and the Brundle-Fly possibly make this movie stand out as the most realistic looking 80s horror. The Fly didn't need to be shadowed, or ambiguously shot, to hide any flaws.Jeff Goldblum's acting is creepy, and suits the character so well. You really got a feeling of discomfort for Gina Davis's character.One scene that really caught me by surprise was the baboon and the fly. It really baffles me how they were able to film a fly and a baboon together in the same shot, and seem as though they could direct them both with ease.