The Fly (31/100)

"You're afraid to dive into the plasma pool, aren't you? You're afraid to be destroyed and recreated, aren't you? I'll bet you think that you woke me up about the flesh, don't you? But you only know society's straight line about the flesh. You can't penetrate beyond society's sick, gray, fear of the flesh. Drink deep, or taste not, the plasma spring! Y'see what I'm saying? And I'm not just talking about sex and penetration. I'm talking about penetration beyond the veil of the flesh! A deep penetrating dive into the plasma pool!"

What is it? It's a Kafkaesque horror movie about a brilliant scientist who had spent six years trying to build a fully-functioning teleporter. At first this teleporter is only capable of teleporting inanimate objects, but he eventually figures out how to transport animal life and as a final proof of concept he decides to try it out on himself. There's a small problem with this. A fly flies into the telepod right before he closes the door and the scientist and fly end up getting their genes fused during the teleportation process, and, well, things start going downhill from there.

Like this except not nearly as comical.

How this ever got on the Times top 100 list is a bit unclear to me, and placing is next to movies like Schindler's List and Casablanca seems a bit ridiculous, but it's still a pretty good movie. I think the critics who chose the list were looking for a movie to represent Cronenburg in general. I haven't seen any other Cronenburg movie, but if The Fly is any indication I'm sure he's a pretty good director.

Notice: The Fly is the most visually repulsive movie I've seen since Eraserhead. The special effects are disgusting (pretty good too) and I almost gagged in a few scenes. I should mention here that I'm not a squeamish person. I've been essentially desensitized to all your standard gory horror gruesomeness, so I think it takes a special kinda of movie to get this type of reaction out of me. This is NOT a movie for anyone with a weak stomach.

I assure you however, that The Fly is not just one big gorefest. The nasty bits don't even start until the last third of the movie. You get to witness the scientists slow transformation into a hideous monster. The two main actors are great and they really help immerse you into the story. Overall, just a great horror movie and one any fan of horror movies should probably watch at some point.

P.S. Sorry for the hiatus, I've just kinda taken a break from movies lately.