‘I’ll hurt you if you stay.’ The Fly scene-by-scene: Act Two

This chapter describes the scenes of Act Two of David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). In Act Two, Seth Brundle makes the transition from amiable and reclusive scientist to predatory and misogynistic Brundlefly — a seamless character transition that creeps up on the audience through Cronenberg's screenplay and direction, and Jeff Goldblum's subtle yet defined performance. As the Brundlefly persona comes to the fore, the audience still sympathises with the overtly animalistic, egregious person he has become. They know this is not the real Seth; it is the corruption of Seth at a cellular level. Cronenberg's patented brand of body horror is coming into its own right here with Seth finally admitting to himself that something is wrong. He questions whether he is dying, and if this is what dying is like, which directly references Cronenberg's own explanation of the film: that it is an allegory for our mortality as human beings and the natural processes that lead to old age and death. It is by way of the computer that he discovers his DNA has fused with a fly — the vital ‘reveal’ — in a cinematic moment common to many great science-fiction films where pivotal information of emotional resonance is not communicated between human beings but between human and machine.

‘The flesh. It should make the computer, uh, crazy’: Remaking The Fly

This chapter details the process of remaking The Fly. Strip out all the special effects from The Fly and you've got a singularly focused and somewhat forthright drama, heavily driven by dialogue with just the occasional set and location change. But add in these special effects and the film production becomes a whole different beast — a titanic effort in both problem-solving and firsts in filmmaking or, at the very least, filmmaking tactics very rarely attempted. However, to reduce The Fly to the narrow label of ‘a special effects movie’ could not be more inaccurate. Unlike the ‘special effects movies’ of a new millennium, The Fly relied less on post-production and more on effects produced in-camera and/or on-set, the exception being optical animation. In a case of life imitating art, David Cronenberg fully embraced the symbiotic themes within The Fly film and then extended them into his practical filmmaking approach. He confesses to being the physically fittest he has ever been during The Fly's shoot due to the daily workouts in the filming breaks, mirroring what Jeff Goldblum was doing and completing this fusion-of-sorts with his lead actor.

‘Help me be human’: Cronenberg Becomes The Fly

This chapter discusses the relationship between Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg and his film, The Fly (1986). Even though, as a remake, The Fly had travelled a long way before falling into the creative hands of Cronenberg, it embodies him at an almost molecular level. Just as Frankenstein's Monster bears the name of its creator, and people are often confused between the two, The Fly is chromosomally ‘Cronenbergian’. It is a strident example of Cronenber's signature mode of ‘body horror’ or ‘visceral horror’ and the perfect crescendo to the first act in his filmmaking career, which had reached its natural conclusion at that particular point in time: 1986. The Fly additionally highlights Cronenberg's uncanny ability to create something uniquely personal to his own self — in the vein of an auteur — while borne from the mind of another storyteller with no immediate connection to himself.

‘Am I becoming a one hundred-and-eighty-five pound fly?’: The Gestation of The Fly

This chapter evaluates British writer George Langelaan's short fiction titled ‘The Fly’ (1957), and its film adaptation by Kurt Neumann in 1958. David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) can only truly be appreciated within the context of what preceded it. He was not remaking an unknown film; rather, he was taking on one that came with preconceptions and expectations. In considering Cronenberg's The Fly, one can clearly see that remaking the original 1958 film was not on Cronenberg's agenda. While Cronenberg's film should not be compared to any other because it has ‘its own personality, voice and experience’, to consider The Fly's history gives meaning to the simple genius of the central concept: the story of a scientist accidentally turning himself into a fly.

Introduction

This introductory chapter provides an overview of David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986). The Fly is a film that may appear uncomplicated in its execution but possesses such innate complexity — including the DNA of its many horror, sci-fi, and romance film forebears — that it reveals something more with every screening. It is a film that so intimately reflects the personality and hypotheses of its filmmaker; it begs to be considered within the wider scope of his philosophies, interests, and the trajectory of his career leading up to it. To know The Fly is to gain an exceptional insight into David Cronenberg, who is one of the great existentialists of our generation, in film or otherwise. Nevertheless, given filmmaking is a collective art form, the stories of others involved in the production of The Fly are as important as the input of Cronenberg himself.