The Fly (1986)

I saw the 1958 original a few years ago. It struck me as decent but more tragic than scary. At the same time, it bordered on unintentionally comical with a few ludicrous premises. Well, David Cronenberg is no stranger to ludicrous premises, but I can count on him not to be funny. He might have been just the director for the remake.

Seth (Jeff Goldblum) gains the interest of science reporter Veronica (Geena Davis) by showing her his invention of a teleportation device. He wants her to hold off on reporting it until he gets it to handle a living thing properly. With her assistance, he succeeds. But when he gets drunkenly rash enough to teleport himself, he doesn't notice the housefly in the "telepod" with him....

Things do not play out as in the '58 version. Instead of a man with a fly's head and foreleg and a fly with a man's head and arm, a single entity emerges. At first, Seth seems no different. Then he exhibits a few changes in ability and behavior: His arms are strong, he's manically energetic, and he has an extreme sweet tooth. Gradually, he grows to look unpresentable to civilization, and his decreasingly human mind makes him increasingly dangerous to be around.

Seth is quite a character right from the first act. He's been very much a loner, living a humble eXistenZ—sorry, existence—that may explain why nobody else knows about the telepod project before Veronica. This does not prevent him from mustering enough geeky charisma to make their subsequent sexual relationship credible. (I suspect that this movie may have led to Goldblum's casting in Jurassic Park.) After discovering the start of his transformation, he exhibits both more severe and more complex emotions as he keeps changing his mind on whether it's good or bad overall. Sure, he's losing parts of himself, sometimes in a literal physical sense, and might have a shortened lifespan, but brawn isn't the only plus he's gained. And when he swings toward the positive view, he shows no tolerance for disagreement.

The third major character, not counting the ordinary fly, is Stathis (John Getz), Veronica's editor and ex-boyfriend. Yeah, that's a rotten combo, especially when only he wants them to get back together. He's stalkerish enough that I almost don't feel sorry for him in the end. But he does lend her support when it really counts. You can guess how Seth feels about Stathis.

Another important character of sorts is one we don't see outside of Veronica's nightmare: her unborn baby. It's not clear whether she conceived before or after the incident, but she's assuming the latter. This is one fictitious case in which a pro-lifer might possibly agree with her inclination to abort ASAP. The movie ends before that can happen, so we're left to wonder. (OK, there was a sequel, but from what I read, we'd best ignore it.)

Dreadful? That's a pretty good choice to describe the events herein. Cronenberg outdoes Videodrome on the body horror front. I cringed repeatedly and reminded myself that it was all makeup and puppetry. (The other aspect that screams "'80s" is the computer terminal.)

Fortunately, I more or less expected as much. TF delivers in a way that justifies the remaking of a semi-classic. It's simply not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.