The Fly (1986) - Film Review

This version of “The Fly” starts at a gathering. Where a scientist by the name of Seth Brundle meets a journalist Veronica Quaife and invites her to his home and shows her his creation. The teleportation device (telepods ). He asks her for something to teleport and she seductively takes off her stocking which he uses to show her the telepod. Later in the film they have a misunderstanding and Seth gets drunk and goes through the telepod. All is well by the next day between the two of them. But for some unknown reason Seth has enhanced strength and his sex drive has inhumanly increased. This goes on with little questioning till Veronica finds hard hair on Seth’s back. She takes them to a lab to be examined. Seth’s physical appearance becomes more and more distorted as time goes on and Seth begins to act more in human. His ears and various other body parts start to drop off and Seth’s appearance becomes more and more fly like. The results for the hair test come back and are found to be that of an insect. Seth goes through the processes of his teleportation and it shows a fly was in the pod with him. Creating a fused version he calls “Brundle Fly”. Seth’s solution for this was to combine himself with another human to dilute the fly. 

Veronica finds out she is pregnant with Seth’s baby. She then has a nightmare of having the baby and it turns out to be a giant maggot. She then freaks out and wants to get rid of the baby and have an abortion Seth finds out and is hurt. He drags her back to his home to fuse with her. Veronica’s ex boyfriend and work partner tries to save her and Seth regurgitates acidic substance on his leg. Veronica Stops Seth from eating his leg. A big struggle goes on for Veronica to get out of the pod and eventually Seth fuses with the pod accidently. In pain and admitting defeat Seth points the gun Veronica has to his head and with difficulty and hesitance she shoots him.

This film can be interpreted with hidden meanings such as, promiscuity is wrong and Seth was punished by god. Or that it has references to AID’s. Promiscuity leads to AID’s which leads to deterioration which leads to death.

I feel that Jeff Goldblum played his role well. I like how at first he was kind, sweet and a little nerdy and as the fly in him grows stronger his speech becomes very fast. He becomes impatient. His strength increases and he becomes aggressive till he becomes crazed.

All in all i feel this has made a big improvement from the older version and has influenced me greatly with the detailed mix of insect and human. I have learnt that not only physical appearance should be shown in my work but also the personality traits my hybrid would take on too.