[9]

David Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly is still the most fowl and disgusting film I have ever seen. It just about makes me barf every time I see it, and I love that. Jeff Goldblum plays an inventor who creates teleportation pods. After he uses himself as a test subject, strange things start happening to old Jeffy. Course hairs grow out of a wound on his back. He gets really strong — strong enough to break the bones of a man he arm wrestles (one of the first shocking scenes). But then his teeth and fingernails start falling out. And then he gets a really nasty skin condition. He goes back into his computer’s memory bank and discovers that when he teleported, he was not the only organic thing inside the pod. A common house fly was with him. And in it’s infinite wisdom, the computer decided to fuse the two together.

You can compare this film to Kafka til the cows come home. I doubt a direct adaptation of Metamorphosis could be any more disturbing, especially when Goldblum starts regurgitating on his food and sucking it up. And especially when that food is a man’s leg. And especially when that man is still alive. Did I mention the scene where Geena Davis gives birth to a giant, squirming maggot? Kids, if you love horror, put down that Michael Bay bullshit and dig into this sublime piece of masterful nastiness. With a beautifully bombastic score by Howard Shore and Oscar-winning makeup by Chris Walas.

Academy Award: Best Makeup (Chris Walas, Stephan Dupuis)