RETRO REVIEW! - 'The Fly' (1986)

'The Fly' (1986)

BEHIND-THE-SCENES

In the early 1980s, screenwriter Charles Pogue was given the short story “The Fly” by George Langelann. He also watched the original 1958 adaptation starring Vincent Price for the first time as Fox wanted to remake the movie. While he didn’t quite know if he was the right person for the job, Pogue found the story interesting enough to give it a shot and reached out ot producer Stuart Cornfeld in order to get the project going.

However, Fox hated Pogue’s script and decided to not fund the project. They did say to Cornfeld, though, that if he could find someone to finance the picture, they would support the production and distribute the movie. Cornfeld went to his friend Mel Brooks and asked if Brooksfilms would help with the funding.

While initially hestitant because he initially didn’t like the script, Brooks agreed to make the movie. Their initial choice to direct the film was director David Cronenberg, but he was initially unavailable to take on the project. They then turned their attention to a relatively new director, Robert Bierman, and the new director worked with Pogue on the script until tragedy struck.

Bierman’s daughter had been involved in a tragic accident in South Africa and was killed. Bierman returned home to deal with his family loss and when he told Brooks that he couldn’t commit to the project, Brooks put the production on hold for three months to give Bierman time to think about it. However, all passion for the project had understandably left Bierman and Brooks released him from his contract so that Bierman could remain with his family.

Director David Cronenberg was tasked with bringing 'The Fly' to life.

During this time, Cronenberg’s “Total Recall” project with Dino De Laurentiis had completely fallen through. This meant that they could go after him and when Cronenberg asked for $750,000 for the job, they counter offered with $1 million because they were that grateful to finally have the director onboard. 

Then, it was time to cast the two major leads in the movie. Jeff Goldblum was chosen because they thought he could pull off the goofy scientist side of Seth Brundle while still being charismatic enough for the love story. The executives at Fox were hesitant about his casting, but trusted Cronenberg and Cornfeld with the decision.

According to Geena Davis, Cronenberg was initially hesitant to cast her due to her being romantically involved with Goldblum at the time. However, after screen testing both Davis and several other actresses, it became clear that Davis was the absolute right choice to play the female hero of the movie and was hired.

Chris Walas and his company handled Seth's transformations throughout the movie.

The film’s visual-effects were handled by Chris Walas and his company and involved several stages in Seth’s transformation into a hideous fly-like creature. The final form of the transformation was affectionately dubbed the “Spacebug”. Also, several shots that didn’t work were exercised from the film such as a “monkey-cat” sequence where Seth tries to genetically splice together a cat and a baboon and a “happy” ending involving a horribly made “butterfly baby” that may have just been a dream of Davis’ character.

When the movie was set to come out, the tagline read, “Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.” This is a line said in the movie by Davis’ character and it was actually written by Mel Brooks. The tagline has gone down in history as one of the best taglines and the phrase itself has often been repeated in pop culture.

The movie was released on August 15, 1986, and it was one of the rare horror films that was adored by film critics at the time. It was even featured on critic Gene Siskel’s top ten list for best films releaed in ‘86, which was rare considering that Siskel often hated horror films. The movie was also financially successful with plenty of horror fans and critics claiming that it was superior to the original film and an instant horror classic.

MY REVIEW

The fact that the movie was so acclaimed at the time of its release is really no shock at all. The movie, for anyone who hasn’t seen it, has a simple premise. Goldblum’s Seth Brundle is a genius scientist who has almost made a breakthrough in teleportation technology. He has invited a journalist, Davis’ Veronica Quaife, to document his experiments so that she can eventually write the book about this amazing new technology and about the man who invented it.

The two quickly fall in love with one another and form a quick romance. One drunken night, Seth gets jealous when Veronica goes to meet with her old publisher and former lover Stathis Borans (John Getz). He decides to go ahead and use himself as a human test subject in his teleportation machine, but he doesn’t realize that a fly has been trapped in the machine with him.

He comes out apparently fine and better than ever on the other side, but as we know, this is a big ole creature feature and we soon discover that things are not so fine after all.

At the center of 'The Fly' is a tragic love story that adds to the weight of the film.

For Cronenberg fans, this is one of his best body horror films. There is plenty of blood, guts, gore, and goop to be found here and Walas definitely deserves credit for all the fantastic effects that he and his company put into the movie as they used every trick in the book to bring Seth’s transformations to life. Yet, there is one thing here that makes all the blood and guts worth it and allows the story to rise above its basic premise.

At the center of the story is a genuine and tragic love story between Seth and Veronica. That’s what this movie’s more horrific elements hide and it is the true soul of the movie. It also helps that both Goldblum and Davis had a genuine chemistry with one another and sold the love story completely.

As far as Seth’s transformation goes, Cronenberg stated that he treated the transformation like cancer and it really shows. Veronica has to watch in horror as the man she loves disintegrates before her due to this thing within him trying to destroy his humanity. Some people have also noted the comparison to the AIDS epidemic at the time, but for Cronenberg, it was apparently cancer that was foremost on his mind when thinking about Brundle’s transformation.

The movie received plenty of acclaim in ‘86, but the good news is that the movie is still worthy of that acclaim almost 38 years later. It is indeed a superior film to the original ‘58 version and it is one of Cronenberg’s best films with solid performances from both Goldblum and Davis. If you’re a fan of body horror, then this is one of the best examples of the subgenre and you should either see it for the first time or see it again!