It began with the premise of a Cheeseburger and ended up as the “Romeo and Juliet” of horror.

David Cronenberg’s bold remake of THE FLY, shows the cinematic community how a remake is done, and done well. It also took the initial love story immersed in the original 1958 film and took it a step further by throwing us on an emotional roller coaster where we all really rooted for these two, even toward the bitter end in the hopes that Brundle could be saved from his insect brain logic.

Cronenberg’s THE FLY is considered pretty unanimously as one of the greatest monster movies and body horror flicks of the 20th century; but this movie is so much more than that, and often I see the love story that literally sits at the heart of the plot, gets overlooked by the grotesque nature of the movie. Without a doubt, it’s one of the saddest, and most painful love tales one can watch unfold on-screen. Seth and Veronica’s whirlwind romance looks and feels so authentic, as the pair have incredibly believable chemistry that sucks you right into this strange world of telepods, insects, and tragedy. And leaves you in a hot mess of tears and puke- because you and I both know this movie can easily produce projectile vomit for the queasy.

One of the key points that really feels like a stab in the heart of viewers, is a half-mutated Brundlefly’s speech to Veronica on “insect politics”. Veronica is desperate to help Seth, however, Brundle knows that he is beyond her help and orders her to stay away as he feels the insect inside of him has at this point, completely taken over.

“You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects don’t have politics. They’re very brutal. No compassion, no compromise. I’m an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over… and the insect is awake. I’m saying… I’ll hurt you if you stay.” 

GUT-WRENCHING.

The biggest kick in the dick is at the very end, however. Brundle, insane with an idea to fuse him, and a now pregnant Veronica together in the telepods seem like the answer to his problem. With the help of a concerned, although douche ex-lover and co-worker of Ronnie’s, she manages to escape leaving Brundle’s DNA to be accidentally fused with the pod itself. Now we have a mutated human-fly-telepod. Good grief. Seth, reaching deep inside to his human counterpart shakily grabs a shotgun a distressed Veronica has in her hand and points it at his head, urging his love to end the madness. A hysterical Geena Davis complies and blows Goldblum’s brains out, giving us one of the most miserable endings to any horror film.

It’s a tear-jerker every time, and not something that normally happens at the end of a horror film, as most end on an emphatic cliffhanger that all is not well, producing that exciting adrenaline rush. Here, we’re left with our hearts broken for both Seth and Veronica-wishing for a better outcome, but all is gone and lost permanently.

That is, until THE FLY II came about, which also does a superb job of making us cry our eyeballs out. You know exactly what scene I’m talking about.

At the time of this article, there are no announced plans for a 40th anniversary physical media release, but I’m sure once we get closer to the date, there will be one. For now, you’ll just have to stick with an older release or stream on Amazon Prime Video.