Viewed in
2010
Formats
HD TV
Premise
Jeff Goldblum stars in the David Cronenberg remake, as a scientist who accidentally genetically splices his body with a fly.
Liked
Visual effects, overall scariness.
Thoughts
Gross and spooky.
A lot of this was due to the excellent special effects and makeup. Watching Goldblum's character mutate and molt, body part by body part, was quite convincing, and made me glad I was not eating anything at the time. The camera trick of him climbing his wall was pretty neat. I am uncertain if it was puppets or animatronics, but they helped create some really fantastically grotesque creatures. Cronenberg's visual accomplishments in pre-CGI days was certainly laudable.
As for Goldblum, what can I say, except that it was a role he was born to play. I loved how his eyes zigzagged all the time at the beginning. In terms of writing, it was above average. I liked how it took its time on the character's transformation, so the horror was not the creature itself, but the uncertainty of what Goldblum's character was becoming. Also, the story and consequences were quite thoughtful.
Having said that, the story-telling was far from perfect. The biggest flaw was that the characters were actually quite dumb, and mainly did illogical things to serve the plot. And as much as I loved Goldblum here, they could have done more to have him behave more like a fly during his transformation.
This was an effective horror film, especially in its ability to create memorable moments of graphic violence and Goldblum's performance.
What I would change
Not sure.
Personal
I mistakenly thought this was the version with the famous "help me!" line. Oh well, my bad for not doing my research.
