365+ movies in 365 Days: Day 173 - The Fly (1986)

In 1986 David Cronenberg took on the task of remaking the 1958 sci-fi thriller The Fly. The original was a suspense mystery with some horror elements added; a man with the head and arm of a fly; and had one of the great endings of all sci-fi films with the small man-fly cries of "help me!" "help me".

Croneberg left the basic premise of man being combined with a common housefly through the use of a teleportation device, but re-imagined the rest of the film into a gore filled drama about the nature of disease and aging.

Jeff Goldblum, in his best performance, plays scientist Seth Brundle. He has invented a teleportation device and one night in a drunken fervor he tests it on himself, unaware a fly has entered the pod. The result, instead of a mutant creature is a genetically re-engineered human who has the his DNA combined with the fly. At first, unaware of what has happened he thinks his device is responsible for purifying his body and giving him new found physical vigor, but as the fly DNA begins to make itself known he realizes something has gone terribly wrong.

Geena Davis co-stars as Veronica Quaife, a reporter for a science magazine who falls in love with Seth and much watch horrified as he begins to mutate. The chemistry between Davis and Goldblum is excellent since the filming captured their off screen romance. Geena Davis also gets to say the great movie tag line "Be afraid!" "Be very afraid!". John Getz also stars as Stathis Borans, Veronica's boss and former lover.

The special effects, make-up and puppetry work were state of the art for 1986 and still hold up today. The film has a tight running time of 95 minutes in which we watch the fly creature develop until it is more insect than human.

The remake of The Fly is an excellent example of re-imagining a classic film while staying true to the basic source material.

At the Movie house rating ***1/2 stars Original vs. Remake - Love the ending of the original but the remake offers more thrills.

*note - the original The Fly had two sequels and the remake had one. Cronenberg has announced he may remake the film again using CGI for the effects. The Fly was also adapted into an opera by film composer Howard Shore