A handful of movies come to mind when you think of the best of the best of sci-fi, especially those with a hint of monster mash: The Blob, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Them!, and Alien. But another, made by one of the greatest and freakiest sci-fi minds of all time, David Cronenberg, is making its way to Tubi to stream for free tomorrow—and you really won’t want to miss it. In typical Cronenberg fashion, it’s stuffed to the gills with gore and his trademark eerie sort of horror, while still maintaining an edge of dark humor that’s pushed into tragedy by the phenomenal acting. It’s disgusting, it’s moving, and the horror happens so slowly that you don’t realize you’re staring it in the face until the very end.
Still holding on to a fantastic 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, The Fly stars Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis. The film centers around a scientist named Seth Brundle, who believes that he has completed a device that will allow him to teleport. Deciding to test this theory, he uses himself as the subject. However, a housefly slips into the machine during the process, causing a cellular fusion of man and bug. Initially, Brundle appears to have undergone a successful teleportation, but slowly the fly’s cells begin to take over his body, forcing a disgusting mutation that begins turning him from a man into a grotesque insect, all as his girlfriend watches the horrifying transformation helplessly.
Critics and audiences alike still rave about the film, which debuted all the way back in 1986. Its incredibly practical effects, coupled with Cronenberg’s flawless direction and powerhouse performances by both Goldblum and Davis left very little room for critique. A fantastic allegory for chronic or terminal illness, the slow unfolding of the changes to Seth’s body and psyche, as well as the inability to do anything about his circumstances, is as powerful today as it was 40 years ago. Sean Axmaker of Stream on Demand calls the film, “a mind-warping drama grounded in the palpably physical, visceral horror of the helplessness in the face of a body’s degenerative transformation, part evolution and part designer disease.” Eve Tushnet of Patheos agrees, saying, “This movie is convincing, it’s emotionally raw (and it’s a horror film about people in a situation, rather than a horror film where the situation is really a metaphor for grief or whatever), and it’s so much harder to watch than I expected.”
Casual viewers also find the movie as impactful as it is viscerally horrifying, with one viewer saying, “Expected a horror film but this is more of a tragic, horrific love story based around science, the practical effects were exceptionally gruesome for a nearly 40-year-old film, give me this over CGI anyday much more effective. The story was just sad, a charismatic, smart scientist played by the brilliant Jeff Goldblum reduced to a horrific monster by the end, and his downfall is horrible to witness.”
All in all, The Fly is a classic for a reason, and definitely one of Cronenberg’s greatest additions to both the horror and sci-fi genres. It’s gruesome, it’s gory, and it’s a love letter—one you should absolutely add to your watch list if you haven’t already.
What’s your favorite moment from The Fly? Let us know in the comments before you head over to the ComicBook forum to see what other fans are saying.
