Even though horror movies always share the same goal of scaring their audiences as often and as potently as possible, the best ones have devised original gimmicks to accomplish that goal. Filmmaking legend David Cronenberg figured out his standout gimmick in the horror genre with body horror.
Cronenberg mastered the art of transforming the body as grotesquely as possible to freak out his audiences, and every time, he hit it out of the park. There's a reason why the Rick and Morty episode, "Rick Potion No. 9" called humanity turning into deformed blobs "Cronenbergs."
Cronenberg's horror stemmed from how disgusting it could be, which is how he created hits like Shivers and Scanners. However, many consider The Fly the Magnum Opus of his body horror films, and it goes beyond his calling card as a horror filmmaking maestro.
The Fly centers around eccentric scientist Seth Brundle, played by Jeff Goldblum, who meets science journalist Ronnie Quaife, played by Geena Davis, at a press event. Once the two get acquainted, Goldblum tells her he's on the verge of inventing something revolutionary: teleportation.
While skeptical, Quaife later sees that Brundle is completely serious as he invites her to his apartment. There, she sees that he conducts his experiments using two "telepods" he's programmed to teleport matter from one to the other. While he hasn't perfected his invention just yet, he's getting close. He also allows Quaife to document his efforts to complete it for an exclusive story.
Once the two spend more time together, not only does he inch closer and closer to becoming the world's next great inventor, but they begin to fall for each other. The very night he's completed his invention, and with the story ready to go, a misunderstanding between Brundle and Quaife leads to the former making a decision that turns the wheels for the disaster that would unfold.
And yeah, the entire disaster revolves around something as seemingly innocent as your common housefly. As it turns out, by inventing the telepods, Seth inadvertently also invented a gene splicer.
(For obvious reasons, we're not delving into the whole story.)
Why The Fly is widely considered to be Cronenberg's best work
What happens afterward makes The Fly work so well as a horror. It's not even the body horror that unfolds or how it's executed that makes the movie so memorable. Rather, it's how tragic it all is to see, especially knowing that it only gets worse over time. The element of tragedy makes the story so compelling to watch in real time. In essence, you don't want to see this happen to Seth Brundle.
The audience feels for Brundle, knowing that despite his oddities personality-wise, his endearing qualities make him easy to root for. Better yet, he had everything going for him until he made one ill-advised decision that proved to be his entire undoing.
His undoing is not just his metamorphosis on the outside but also on the inside. For that same reason, the audience also feels sorry for Quaife, who has found a deeper connection with Brundle. What happens to him also hurts her, and knowing their situation was completely avoidable makes it depressing.
Getting back to the horror itself, the images that the audience sees as the film approaches its end are unforgettable in the worst way. Like with Cronenberg's other films, seeing what happens is revolting. It's like a trainwreck where you can't help but watch such a chain reaction despite how awful it is.
What makes the story all the more impressive is that the incoming body horror is not executed with CGI or special effects because those weren't in play yet in Hollywood. Every single effect in the movie is practical, using makeup and prosthetics. It's all executed perfectly because it captures the notion that, if this happened to someone in real life, it would unfold in that exact way.
When it's all over, the film makes the point that scientists' main priority when conducting experiments is that their laboratories aren't contaminated in any way. Because if they're not, something as minuscule as a fly can ruin everything.
Any movie can horrify as much as possible, but having the horror fuel such a devastating climax is why The Fly is absolutely worth a watch on Hulu around Halloween time.
Follow HuluWatcher for more discussions about great movies