The Fly (1986)
Body horror is a lost art.
Presentation:
Cronenberg gives us one of the purest original body horrors in cinema. The tone is quite typical of 80s thrillers and reminds me a bit of The Thing. Hard lighting, average cinematography, what really matters is the gore. For 1980, some of the practical effects looked even better than The Thing. It looks fine in 2025 and I can’t image how rancid this was to watch in theaters. Jeff Goldblum is such a wacky actor and it’s pretty weird to see him so ripped here. The characters, acting and script aren’t particularly strong but the body horror and popcorn thrills are what you bought your tickets for.
Conclusion:
Normally I’m not a super big fan of body horror as it mostly serves to disgust you with shock and awe. Despite being a mostly mindless horror film, I actually enjoyed this because it doesn’t pretend to have some thematic depth and I frankly wanted to see how it ends. In some ways I feel this is even more grotesque than modern body horrors like The Substance. Just like Carrie, it does what it advertises, just don’t expect some Oscar winning script.
Recommendations
Phil Tippett’s nightmare fuel.