The Fly

The Fly, Directed by David Cronenberg ("Scanners"), is in my opinion, one of the scariest and best horror movies ever.

In this remake of the 1958 classic of the same name, Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a young scientist on the verge of creating "TelePods," a machine that teleports a person from one TelePod to another.

He is also falling in love with Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis), a reporter helping him with, what they think is, the "story of the year." But the only problem is, the TelePods won't transport matter, and when they do, what happens isn't a pretty sight. After Seth irons all the bugs out of the Pods, he uses the first human test subject: himself. But a common housefly had entered the Pod with him, and the machine spliced their DNA together.

As Seth's strength starts to increase along with his anger, the fly genes inside of him start to awaken and Seth begins an evolution from human to a horrific man/insect creature he calls "BrundleFly." He may still find a cure, but what lengths will he go to cure himself before he turns into BrundleFly completely?

"The Fly" is a messy triumph for Jeff Goldblum, who proves amazingly capable of evoking sympathy for his plight long after the latex and prosthetics makeup have rendered him unrecognizable. Goldblum's trademark twitching and general flakiness are also a perfect fit for the role, especially as the inner fly progressively takes ahold of him. Geena Davis is equally good as the tragic love interest, although the pace of their romance is far too quick to be taken seriously.

In the end, The Fly is an alternately scary and moving exploration of human frailty in the face of debilitating illnesses. Cronenberg's message is delivered in an unapolgetically disgusting package, but it's worth unwrapping provided you have a strong stomach.

Fans of the original film will likely be appalled, but Cronenberg does toss them the infamous "Help me!" line... a bit of dialogue that carries far more emotional weight this time around.