Left Field Cinema

WARNING: Contains spoilers throughout

Often hailed as one of the greatest science fiction horror films of all time, David Cronenberg’s The Fly is continually held in very high regard, yet is seems to be nothing more than a glorified remake of a classic film with added gore and less substance than the original, ironic due to the state of horror cinema at present.

Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine, Godzilla, Rollerball, The Fly, all of these films have two things in common. The first, they are classic science fiction films that pioneered the way films portray fantastical and social elements in science fiction. The second is that they were remade into poor films with increased violence and/or special effect, a lack of substance and even less quality of production.

In this case, Cronenberg has taken a reasonably subtle science fiction classic to an overblown body horror film. Instead of exploring the emotional aspect of becoming “The Fly”, Cronenberg chose to explore the physical breakdown as Seth Brundle’s body deteriorates into a disgusting state, not surprising coming from the man who brought us Videodrome, Scanners and The Brood. Because of this, The Fly sadly lacks any substance, the film basically mapping out Brundle’s transformation, turning not only into a fly, but into a horrible and selfish person. Not only do the characters in the film begin to hate and be disgusted by the “BrundleFly”, but so do the audience. He becomes a horrible character, and we just wait for his death until it finally comes.

With a small cast (only ten people are credited, Cronenberg being one of them), and only three major characters, the third getting very little screen time, you would expect the two main characters, Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) and Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), to develop. However, the only real character arc within the film is from people we don’t like, to people we like even less. Jeff Goldblum’s performance is, as always, annoying. He is a quirky scientific genius (think Independent Day or Jurassic Park) and he does his whole quirky, stuttering (think, all of his roles) with added saliva and spasms. And Geena Davis plays Geena Davis in her usual, unconvincing way, although to be fair she doesn’t have a lot to work with, and really leaves the film with no strong central performance.

Due to the nature of the film, the special effects are usually called it’s strong point, but at the cost of the film having no meaningful plotline, but instead a meaningless amount of grotesque violence. Penises are removes, hands are dissolved in stomach acid, mutant babies are born, and all are given more focus than an interesting character development. And the worst part is that they have dated awfully, making the film’s “strong point” actually quite weak and dated.

It really is a shame, if Cronenberg has stuck with the story instead of going over the top with special effects, it could have been quite a good film, however, as Seth Brundle deteriorates more and more, so does the audience’s interest.

Sam Boullier