The Fly

If you thought Spider-Man was cool and somehow you thought a fly would be funnier and you’d be called Fly-man, well you’ve got your answer here. Directed by the great David Cronenberg, who also appears in the film as the Gynecologist. Cronenberg also appeared in Clive Barker’s Nightbreed as Dr. Decker.

A story about a scientist, (played by Jeff Goldblum) who’s quietly working on a teleportation device with no one ever knowing it existed. A journalist comes who catches his attention, he decided to show her the device. One thing lead to another, the scientist ends up teleporting himself, unknowingly a fly went inside with him, ultimately splicing them together down to the last molecule.

Characters

Cast was great, Jeff Goldblum is how he really sounds, the way you remember his voice, its the same thing, as well as when he was in Jurassic Park. He doesn’t change and is unapologetically himself in all his films.
Gene Davis was great as well. Her projection of horror and terror, specially when she heard she was pregnant with his child, she felt sick at the thought of it, phenomenal.

Creature design

The slow degradation of Goldblum’s appearance was displayed gradually, and it was better than a one time transformation. Started with him feeling stronger than ever before, much like Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man, trying on a few gymnastic moves etc., Then came the physical changes, a few thick hairs on his back, then spots on his face, all the way to his nails falling off. Fingertips secreting some sort of liquid. Eventually his whole body started shifting, bulges started appearing, to the point that he doesn’t wear clothes anymore. All of his teeth fell out already. Now, how he eats is he pukes acidic corrosive fluids on his food, then he slurps it back up, disgusting but cool.

Towards the end, his limbs fell off, replaced by legs of a fly, he never got wings though. His head ripped in half and out came the head of a fly, but not with bug eyes, sort of eyes on a stick. I would’ve wanted to see what would happen if he spliced himself with another human being, would his form revert back? But I guess there’s too many questions and probabilities arising from that so the directors didn’t include that scenario.

The ending was sad, he was just a victim of his own invention. The way he looked up at Gene Davis, grabbed hold the tip of the shotgun and placed it on his head, pleading to end his suffering. It was well done.

Conclusion

The Fly was a very well thought out creature feature with a concept of a simple accident. The idea was original and genius. Splicing a human DNA with that of a fly? Nice. Cast selection was on point as well. The Fly is a highly recommended 1980s creature feature film.