At a party a journalist Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) meets scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum). Seth claims to be working on the greatest invention known to man. An invention that will change the world. Curious Veronica goes to Seth’s home/lab.
Seth has been working on a teleportation device. The telepods take an object and transport it from one pod to the next. The only problem is that Seth can’t transport living things. Yet.
Seth starts a relationship with Veronica. After awhile he thinks he has the problem solved. He decides to test it on himself. Unaware that there is a fly in the pod with him he teleports. When Seth emerges from the pod he has had his DNA merged with the fly’s.
At first Seth thinks he’s fine, better even. Then much to Veronica’s horror Seth begins to change. David Cronenberg had been making a name for himself with some very nasty body horror movies in the late 1970s/early 1980s with such films as Rabid and The Brood. In 1986 Cronenberg directed a remake of the 1958 sci-fi horror film The Fly.
The original had a scientist played by David Hedison have a similar mishap with his teleportation experiment. In the original though only David’s head and arm were transformed into a fly while the fly ended up with David’s head and arm. David tries to get his wife Patricia Owens to find the fly before it becomes to late. Vincent Price co-starred as David’s brother. Cronenberg took the original and amplified the body horror. Seth starts off fine and slowly starts losing body parts as he’s transformed into a giant fly/man creature. The effect is extremely gruesome and horrifying. Both films are excellent.
Here’s my original post.
