SCORETOBER BEGINS!! The FLY 1986

Day 1 The Fly

So here we are. The start of it all. Again…

Each year, for the past few years. I’ve decided to review a horror film a day. The first year was going through recent films. The second year was films I’d never seen before. The third was the rare instance where sequels measured up to the originals. The fourth was by far my favorite, that one was forgotten video store classics. THAT was fun.

Now here we are, again.

NO I did not run out of ideas!

Honestly I’m surprised I keep getting ideas for this, even when I regret writing for a full month after the first week. Well maybe that also happened when I willingly submitted myself to a month of shark films that ended up with only 8 of them being worth while to revisit and even forged friendships.

But no I do. I like doing themed reviews, it’s a fun approach to what you pick to watch. Especially in a genre that is full of every imaginable level of quality. But this year I was stuck on which would be the best, or most fun to do.

So I left it to the public to decide which we would do. And the public spoke loud and proud.

We were so close to a full month of Vinegar Syndrome I nearly cried. You tried! Bless your hearts all of you who voted for that. But alas. We are here with one I was back and forth about.

Best Horror Soundtracks.

As always I wanted to make it somewhat unique, because frankly any google search will show you that anyone releasing a “Best of” list, is going to either copy and paste from another list, or it’s so full of an obvious bias that its not so much a Best of, as it is a Meh of.

So the spin on this one? Best Horror Soundtracks I grew up with. That should cover my ass.

Also, all 31 of these films, no joke(and not bragging either) were ones I also owned the soundtracks and scores of. It just kinda worked out that way and made me laugh after I wrote up a list of films with music that I loved and remember well, then went to look up the music for only to find I had nearly all of them on vinyl, and the rest on CD and digital. Some of them I even own multiple versions of. So yeah. I kinda have some strong opinions on the music, and I’m not talking out of my ass when I will go into why I enjoy the music, how I feel it impacts the films, and go off on some history as well.

Seriously if you throw down nearly $200 for a single film score in its full expanded and best presentation. You should really rant about the damn film. So we shall!

I sometimes find myself giving a bit of a warning before these begin, so why not do so here. There is a lot of great music for horror films out there. Especially scifi horror. Even going back to the original Dracula and Frankenstein films. There will be some films you’d expect to find here. Some classics absolutely. However. There are some classics that were omitted on purpose. Not because everyone claims they are the best of the best of the best. But because again. I grew up with these, and they hold a better grip on my ear than the originals may or others would. So don’t expect a google copied list, or a reddit recommends shit tier thing. Just expect a full month of what I consider to be great, memorable, film defining scores. You have been warned.

With that, let’s begin with a strong start on a film made in Canada to look like New York. Directed by the bod horror king himself, and produced by Mel Brooks.

The Fly 1986

Directed by David Cronenberg

Music by Howard Shore.

The Film

If you aren’t familiar with this classic. Oh boy. Get familiar and fast. Honestly do. The making of this film is a fun deep dive itself, and knowing Mel Brooks was behind it makes It all the better. This was my first Cronenberg film and one of those my dad had me watch the original film first before we watched this one.

Yes it is also one I saw way too early in my life likely and helped cement my love of scary gory fun. I’m proud of that.

And it is fun. It’s scary, gory. Tragic, and deals with a hell of a lot for a horror film.

So let’s begin with, The Fly.

This film isn’t waiting around for things to happen. It wants to dive right on in, and oh am I glad it does. We open with super socially awkward scientist Seth Brundle, being interviewed by a science journalist Veronica Quaife, Played by back then real life couple Jeff mother fucking Goldblum and the amazing Geena Davis. Normally that’s a red flag for some movies today, the moment you have stars working together who are dating off set, you either end up with something rarely golden, or you end up with Gigli. No one. No. One. Wants a Gigli.

These two actors were in their prime and perfectly matched both on set and off, so we’re pretty safe. Seth isn’t exactly the most social smooth talking butterfly, and Veronica initially finds him somewhat interesting, but also like most the scientist she’s interviewed, awkward and trying to get you in bed. Freakin scientist I swear.

But she did find him interesting and his promise to her that he’s working on something that will change the world as we know it. Only he doesn’t want to tell her while surrounded by his peers as they would likely steal his idea. Science nerds are a very cutthroat group, Jocks were right to put them in place and stop their violence early.

He promises her it’ll be worth her time to come back with him to his lab and see what it is he’s working on versus wasting her time interviewing the other scientist working for Bartok Science Industries. So she agrees to go with him, only to find he doesn’t have a car as he gets sick traveling in them so she has to drive them. Once they arrive to his ‘lab’ which ends up beating a large studio apartment. We are greeted to the sight of two soon to be forever memorable props. Seth Brundle’s project. The Telepods.

His vision to change the world, is joyfully innocent. Traveling makes him sick. He hates dealing with crowds, social anxiety. People in general and traffic. So he dedicated himself to coming up with a way to achieve teleportation. Which would be amazing if we had now as anyone who’s ever had family visit and heard them say ‘Let’s go to Seattle tomorrow’, sure Seattle used to be a place that was okay to visit. But getting there is…oof.

Lets say you do want to visit Seattle. If you say “I’d like to be there early, like 10”, that requires you to wake up and catch an 8am ferry ride to Seattle. The ride is an hour and a half, if you miss it, you have to wait two hours for the next one. You’ll spend an hour roaming the streets of San Fran Seattle. Pick up your shirts and taffy, then spend another hour and a half riding back, and 45 minutes on the road back home. So when someone says ‘lets go to Seattle’, they mean ‘lets spend an entire day dealing with a nightmare for a solid hour of exploring.’

So yes I am team Brundle with lets begin Teleporting people.

Honestly the introduction of the telepods and his project is kind of fun to watch. He’s using his brilliance to flirt with her while showing off, and she is willing to entertain it. She’s still not buying into his world changing talk, but he Is interesting and she finds him cute. He ask for something personal of hers, an article of clothing or jewelry. She smirks and hands him one of her stockings telling him she doesn’t wear jewelry. Once the stocking is placed in a pod and he initiates the sequence though. Her mind is blown. She can’t accept what she’s seen just happen as the stocking is teleported in front of her from the pod she’s facing to the next one 15ft away.

He's genuinely pleased seeing the look of disbelief on her face as she tries to understand and put together what she just witnessed, and he geeks out explaining it both to her and the audience. She begins to quickly realize he, unlike the countless other scientist she’d interviewed at meet and greets actually was brilliant and working on something truly world changing. She immediately wants to begin furthering their interview, which wasn’t an interview for Seth but simply showing off his prototype and project to impress a woman he found attractive and wanted to impress with his work. So when she pulls out her tape recorder and switches out the tape for a blank, he immediately worries and ask that she not tell anyone about this.

Why?

Well he’s still working on it, it’s nowhere near finished and he is afraid of jumping the gun telling the world about it just yet. So he cuts things short between them and she leaves for her home.

Which leads us to the next morning and her meeting with her boss, who also happens to be an ex of hers. Who also happens to be both a sleazeball, and have an absolutely beautiful beard. The beards name is Stathis Borans, played by the wonderful John Getz. Of course her boss/ex is not buying Veronica’s story, but less so because of his professionalism, and more so because it’s a man who invited his ex to their apartment and he is still not over her so therefor is immediately jealous. Which I mean, I can’t blame him. Geena Davis would be a difficult ex to forget and you would be wise never, ever to mention to anyone you date after that you were with her as that bar would be….well you’ll have a happier relationship not bringing it up. Or any ex for that matter.

Day one and I’m giving relationship advice. It’s that time for sure and welcome back.

So she’s trying to look past her boss’s unwillingness to listen and explain to him just how great a story this could be, and what it could do for her own career as well.

Thankfully she doesn’t need to convince her boss as their meeting is interrupted by Seth as he made a point to visit her and ask that she document his work from here on out.

Which yay for us as this means we get to see not only the horrors of his machines failures as they work to perfect his telepods. But also we are greeted to watching them work together as a team, which evolves into a relationship. Which truly is a blessing to see on screen as these two really played well as a couple. Especially watching the gradual shift in dynamic.

This is Hollywood, we don’t get that at all. They go from one scene as a working team to diving into bed.

But. BUT. Thankfully it is done in a believable way. You aren’t told how long it’s been that they’ve worked together, but you get a sense for it.

However, WHO CARES!! Let’s get into the first failure because oh man alive do we ever need it! This is Science Fiction Horror, so we need that reminder otherwise the audience gets to comfortable with a budding romance story. So we begin our experiment with subject Bubbles the Baboon.

Bubbles the Baboon, the first Baboon to be teleported.

Bubbles is not going to like this historic event. In fact he will deeply regret his curiosity and ever trusting Seth.

No his name isn’t bubbles, I have no idea what it’s name is actually. I just felt Bubbles the Baboon sounded fun.

Anyway.

Bubbles is happy, enjoying life. Sitting in his cool teleportation pod, curious about the swirling lights and beams around him. Until he is teleported and deconstructed on a molecular level and pieced back together in the next pod.

With great success!

Success being that he was reconstructed bit by bit perfectly inside out. He’s able to throw a hand at the glass in pain before he dies and then Bubbles. The first Baboon to ever be teleported, dies a horrible screaming bloody death.

It’s not supposed to be a fun scene. But it kinda is when you know the backstory with it. Apparently during filming for the scene it was rather gross and one of the only really bloody scenes. But it was somewhat disturbing to people seeing. So when they finished the scene, Mel Brooks clapped his hands and said “Okay! Who wants pizza?” Hearing that in my head watching the scene over again just. Yeah. It’s great.

So Seth is naturally upset by this failure and the fact he is now down one Baboon. His project is a failure!

So he and Veronica have nerdy sweaty sex.

Which inspires Seth, as honestly sex should inspire us all.

As Veronica is sweet talking Seth in bed and attempting another round of teleport the dong. She says something that sparks his mind off of her lady parts and onto the project. So he really badly cuts in half a perfectly good steak and decides to replicate half. Cooking both and serving it to Veronica with little choice on her end.

We discover that steak taste like steak, or what our mind believes steak taste like according to the matrix, and that teleported steak taste synthetic. Because the machine hasn’t been told what steak is, It doesn’t know what to do with flesh and therefor it can only really recreate what it believes is the subject. If only they had steak before teleporting Bubbles the baboon.

So now with his nuts drained, his mind recalibrated for science, and another baboon loaded up in the inside out machine. He’s ready to try again.

Does it work? Or do we get Bubbles 2.0 the inside out baboon.

We get champagne it looks like. SO YES IT’S A SUCCESS!

I don’t know what the cost of baboons are, but I am sure Seth is grateful now for not having to ask for more of them. Also the baboon is happy being alive and not inside out. As are all of us.

So now armed with his success, and champagne for celebration, our couple is going to have a romantic dinner of Chinese delivery. Which when you get older honestly that’s like instant win territory in dating. Trust me.

But all is not well unfortunately. Veronica finds among Seth’s male s package from her boss with a potential cover for their magazine with Seth and his teleportation device as the cover story. She knows he’s being a dick and trying to poke at her for both having a new boyfriend and his trying to claim her story as his own. Possibly. Which means their romantic dinner must sadly be cut short as she decides it best to nip this problem in the bud and go visit her boss that evening.

Which is the point our story reaches where things begin to turn.

Seth loves Veronica. However, he is also very jealous and has self esteem issues. She doesn’t tell him she’d going to talk to her ex/boss and tell him to get bent. Which she really should have as it may have helped influence a potentially different path for them. But she instead leaves simply telling Seth that she has to scrape some residue of her past off her heel. Seth concludes she means going to see her ex. But he lets his jealousy do the thinking, putting many worst case scenarios in his head. Which his brilliant mind would be able to slash down as just that, scenarios. If not for the fact he’s injecting down into his stomach alcohol in large quantities.

I mean honestly, when you are pouring yourself one glass after another and telling your problems to a baboon, your life is at a certain point you might want to rethink some things. Or at the most put down the bottle.

Instead Seth does worse. Far far worse.

Logical Seth told Veronica that even though the baboon was transported successfully, the next step for them is sending out lab work and paper work, having it tested and seeing what the results say. Confirming is the baboon is actually fine and actually still 100% baboon.

Drunk Seth tells the Baboon he is sorry for killing his brother, and decides the baboon looks fine. He looks like a baboon therefore IS a baboon and thus meaning he can immediately move onto human trials and places himself in the telepod for the first human trials.

Unfortunately as he enters into the bed, a fly decides they too wish to be part of history and jumps into the telepod with Seth.

This is our ‘uh oh spaghettio’s ‘ moment.

Seth successfully makes it through the telepod. Feeling and thinking he is fine. His baboon friend even embraces him and gives Seth the hug he needed before teleporting himself and forever changing his life.

Naturally the next morning when Veronika comes over and checks on him, she is not too thrilled with the fact he put himself in the machine. Seth being a good guy tells her why he did so. That he was drunk, he worried about her and yes was jealous. He wasn’t thinking clearly, but he did it, and he even filmed it for her so she’d have it documented for her story.

She feels bad but understands, and clears the air for him. Letting him know there is nothing to worry about and her ex is just a walking back of dicks. Which helps Seth. But the damage is already done as he is going to begin going through some changes now.

This honestly is where the film excels for me.

As a viewer you know what you are here for and what’s coming. The moment you saw him step into the telepod and saw the fly on the inside window. You knew it would be bad. So it becomes a waiting game.

Thankfully Cronenberg went the slow and painful route. Which is meant to be horrific and tragic. Which it genuinely is. While also giving a touch of seemingly good changes. Seth is finding himself to be more energetic. Stronger. He feels like his mind and body are moving a mile a second. It’s honestly both cool and creepy how it begins subtly at first. With Veronica waking up to find him doing near gymnast level stretches and flips. From something as simple as lifting his body weight off the floor with his arms and balancing himself. To freakishly being able to flip on a pipe and run his feet across his ceiling. All while seeming to have infinite energy.

The shift both in tone of the film, and Seth’s behavior is really great and well done. Seeing him go from awkward genius moving from one task to the next. Now to fully energized genius amazed at this new world around him.

But while he’s being awoken to new sensations and surroundings. His partner Veronica is beginning to slowly worry. Joking at the fact he’s already wired and hyper, but orders himself an espresso which he begins immediately spooning heaping amounts of sugar into and drinking it with no problem what so ever.

On top of this, a problem most men wish they had until they had it, and some women wish would happen, until it does. Veronika soon finds not only has the telepod changed his attitude and energy. But he’s now hyper sexual. She has to throw in the towel and beg him to stop making love as they’ve gone at it for hours and he still wants to keep going. He won’t say it upsets him that she wants to stop. But it does. Meanwhile she’s becoming worried not only because of these changes bur also the discovering of incredibly thick course hairs that suddenly appear on his back.

Which end up not concerning him what so ever so worry her. As she begins trying to collect and sample these hairs, his mind is racing toward a solution to her inability to keep up with him. Yep. He wants her to go into the pod. His genuine belief based on his experience is that when he came out he felt like a king. His true self. He felt healthier, better, more alive and all these things that worry her, excite him. So obviously if she goes through the machine, she will feel as good as he does and match him in energy.

It's treated genuinely like a junky’s story.

Which is the turn the film takes that is still debated on which the director intended.

Yes Seth is acting like an addict. He’s addicted to this new energy and life. He FEELS alive. Like the world is moving slower and he’s just become aware to the truth of reality. He craves that sensation and is frustrated that no one else but him feels this. So when Veronika tells him she won’t go through the machine he reacts violently. He believes she’s scared of changing and living free. He can’t see or recognize the terror she has and feels now. So he tosses her aside and begins getting dressed, informing her if she won’t do it he’ll find someone who will. Leading him to grab a pocket full of chocolate and heads to a bar.

Where he meets Tawny. A barfly (no pun intended) Looking for a good time. He decides to challenge her boyfriend of the moment to an arm wrestling competition which. Goes horribly as you could predict in Seth’s favor. Leaving the poor guy with a truly gross and well done broken wrist.

Which mildly worries Tawny but she doesn’t care as Seth drags her off as his prize back to his apartment. Where my young eyes as a kid was greeted to what was at that time the sexiest thing I’d ever seen, and potentially stuck with me as still being a thing I enjoy.

Seth is getting ready to enter the telepod and show her how it works. As he’s doing so we are only shown Tawny, lounging in a chair  wearing a denim jacket and panties. Which with the subtle move of a thigh she shows off a whole world of goodies seldom meant for the eyes of many. But we are grateful.

She watches him teleport and upon his emerging from the pod, he immediately moves to take her and they begin immediately making love. Soon after though, there is no cuddle time. The look on Seth’s face is dark and you can see everything he’s done, right down to the sex was simply his way of trying to show her what waits for her once she becomes a test subject and puts herself through the telepod. She’s much more interested in breakfast though and possibly more sexing. Sadly neither is meant to be as he begins dragging her to the telepod, leading us to the moment the film gives us its tag line. She’s screaming at him she doesn’t want to go through the machine that she’d terrified, Seth yells at her that there’s nothing to be afraid of.

Both of them stop in their tracks as Veronika stands in front of the two and tells them ‘No. Be afraid. Be very afraid.’. Tawny takes off with her clothing opting to dress in the hallway as Seth seems slightly grumbled at the fact his girlfriend has caught him with his mostly naked test subject and thwarted his plans to have her go through the machine with him.

But as hurt as Veronika is. She is focused solely on her concerns for Seth. While she was gone after he had left, she had those hairs of his from his back tested in a lab. She’s trying to explain to him that he should be worried as well. That the hairs once tested came back as non human, possibly insect. Which he immediately finds to be insane and impossible. He feels she’s just jealous. Not only of Tawny but his success and the fact he doesn’t need looking after any more. So he throws her out of his apartment telling her to never come back.

This is where the debate begins. Because now Seth, left on his own. Is beginning to indeed change and not for the better. He’s gone from feeling amazing and having strength beyond normal capacity to now forming sores on his skin and boil like growths. He’s looking sickly and unkept. He nervously bites at his fingernails only to find, well. They’re sliding off of his fingers. The course black hairs are started to pop up and grow all over himself. His body is becoming weak. He needs to use braces to move around now. His hands are kept out of sight in gardening gloves, and he now finally begins to worry and try to process what is happening to him.

His transformation was taken by the director as sort of what happens when one developes fatal cancer. How some of us have to go through life watching someone you know and saw as being strong become fragile and begin to slowly break down. It’s something my family had to go through with my grandfather and is still genuinely hard to think of still. He was a very tall imposing figure, very strong and incredibly confident, and the last years of his life he became very thin, very sick and. It was genuinely something that changes you seeing.

But given the time the film was released. A lot of people likened his transformation in the film to their take on AIDS. Which you can certainly make the argument for and see. Honestly either one is genuinely possible to take away from the film, Especially taking in the links the film made with the character going down a self destructive road as a junky now finding himself breaking down and feeling. Well literally in his case becoming something less than human. Something alien.

A good deal of time has passed now in the film and Seth finally reaches out to Veronika asking her to see him, to help him.

Which. After what we’ve just talked about and its seriousness, Plays off as both gross, and almost funny in a way.

As she sees him, and we see him. He’s far far worse. He is scared, angry and desperate. He barely can get around. His face is bulging with boils and marks. He’s only eating sugary junk food. Which he decides to do in front of her. Which if you ever want to enjoy a donut again in your life, don’t ever watch this. Please.

BUT! Since you’re here! He picks up a donut in a gloved hand and immediately vomits up a thick white fluid. If you didn’t know. Flys dissolve their food using a liquid froth from their mouths which dissolves the food and makes it edible to them. Sooo yes. His white vomit serves the same purpose. But seeing how she was grossed out by it he apologizes and decides to spare her seeing how he eats. He begins trying to think how he can communicate his feelings to her. Itching nervously at his ear.

Which then promptly falls off his head and to the floor. He realizes this and simply says “oh..oh dear”, he tells her he’s afraid and moves to hug her, which she does.

She’s beyond terrified and worried for him. She has little choice but to go to her bag of dicks with a beautiful beard boss. Asking him for help. All he thinks is that Seth has contracted some odd outbreak virus and wants her to leave him naturally and never go back as she could get infected and die herself. Feeding again into scare of AIDS and not knowing at the time much about it.

She convinces him to go with her to see him. But he won’t go inside, he’ll drive her instead. Seth is a bit friendlier this time though, and has told Veronika his new plans. And discovery.

He believes he is becoming a human fly, and very soon he will not be able to control himself. That he’ll lose his last grip of humanity and become a living terror. In one of the best lines from the film, and something delivered rather creepily. “I’m saying, I’m an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over…and the insect is awake.”,

He’s progressed from barely getting around. To now climbing on the ceiling. He’s losing his teeth and other various limbs. He’s decided to film himself and have her help. To document the last bits of his life and the changes he’s gone through. In an attempt to warn others in teleportation and document as best a scientist can what its like, what he experiences. Its incredibly heart breaking and also terrifying.

He gives her a final goodbye, a warning. He knows what he has become and what will happen next. He wants her to leave because the more insect like he becomes. The more he realizes he could end up killing her without a second thought.

But things are about to get even more complicated. Once the beard see’s what Seth has become he now gets her worrying and realizes the severity of the situation. On top of this though, Veronika has learned something frightening. She’s pregnant.

She wanted to tell Seth but she couldn’t. Especially with his warning to leave for her own safety. So now she relies completely on her dickbag ex. Immediately telling him she wants an abortion. She can’t stand the possibility this baby could end up being a fly creature, something horrific.

This is another debate the film brings on. Seth seeing her outside his apartment talking to her ex about wanting an abortion. He follows the two on their way to a clinic and takes her from the building. Where he tearfully tries to ask her why she would kill him, their child. She tries to explain to him and part of him understands. But another part also understands that from a science point. This child has his DNA. If he can enter into the telepod with the baby(and mother) then it’s possible that he could fuse with the DNA and become human again.

At the cost of both Veronika and his unborn child.

So begins the final act of the film.

Seth takes Veronika to the lab, and Stathis the bearded warrior grabs a shotgun and heads to the apartment.

Which begins the grosses battle of all battles.

Stathis is stalking the apartment with his shotgun ready to blast away the monstrosity that is Goldblum. However Seth has the upper hand of being a ceiling dwelling fly. So he drops down onto Stathis and knocks away the shotgun with ease. Immediately vomiting onto Stathis’s hand and. Yep. Dissolving it for our enjoyment.

The face Seth makes is comically underrated. It’s a mix of “Oooh that looks like it hurts” and even scarier “I don’t know about you, but I’m getting hungry”

But it doesn’t end there. Oh no. Stathis falls to the floor near the point of fainting, until Seth looms over him and moves down to his ankles where he all too happily dissolves the mans right ankle. Seperating his foot from his body. With a scream and roll of his eyes Stathis is down and out. But before Seth can dissolve his face with coomer vomit. Veronika pleads with him to not do it.

So seth is back on task now. He promises to spare him, if she will help him instead, which she is not about to agree too. She tries pleading with Seth only to find he is finally beyond reason. He tries dragging her off and.

I warned this was the grossest battle right?

Well she claws at him and manages to. Well. Rip his jaw off. Completely. But this is only the start of something horrible. The rest of his weak and bubbled flesh begins to tare and fall away. Revealing at last. Brundlefly in all its gory glory.

Brundlefly tosses her into the telepod and begins the sequence. Putting himself in the other pod. The beard of gods is coming too and manages to raise his shotgun in time to destroy the connecting cables between the telepods. Freeing Veronika. Seth seeing this looses it and tries exiting the pod only to end up teleporting regardless. This time. Fusing himself Brundlefly with the pod.

If you thought a human fly was gross. Try a humanfly with Geiger infused metal and tubes throughout its body.

In the last act of Brundlefly now Brundlepodfly. He crawls over weakly to Veronika. Who has taken up beardo’s shotgun to defend herself. Only to find Seth using his one remaining fly arm to grab the barrel, and aim it at his head. He wants her to kill him. But she can’t bring herself to do it.

He pleads again with her by pulling it once more to his head and she finally obliges. Pulling the trigger and exploding his insect head.

THE END!

Seriously the movie just ends right then and there. No aftermath. No hugs or calming it’ll be okat scene. Just a straight up, this girl has lost her damn sanity watching an ex dickead get his hand and ankle melted. The love of her life and father of her baby transform into a huge fly, and now she had to let go of the world around her in the beautiful fields of sanity. Destroying him. Enjoy life kids.

That being said.

It’s a great movie. One of Cronenbergs better earlier films, and much like Carpenter’s The Thing, a great retelling of a classic horror film. The acting and cast are great in this. All well chosen. Canada looks as Canada as ever for being new York, the effects are top notch and the story really carried a lot of emotional weight with it. Its one of those rare cases where you felt bad for the leads in the film and really wish things had gone better in the end. It’s very tragic and heartbreaking while being horrific and terrifying at the same time.

Goldblum really sells the character well and his transformation from gentle spoken socially awkward Seth, to god king amongst mortals and finally fly. Knowing the two were dating at the time, and had to create a new relationship in the film, but then also having these two have to film a discussion on abortion when they themselves were at a point considering a family. In the words of Marty McFly, it’s some pretty heavy stuff doc.

But it really all makes for a truly great film and genuinely terrifying experience. I like when a horror film is made by a competent director who cares. It really does elevate a film and this certainly was.

It also still holds up for being a film from 1982. The effects still look great, Even the fly transformation at the end still holds up pretty well. I almost wince at the thought of how this would look with CGI.  There’s just a subtly to it all and human feeling that really lends itself to the work in this.

Which makes it still one of my favorite films.

So the lesson here I guess is, if you are dating a scientist working on world changing technology and you see him with a half naked bar floozy. Maybe get mad about that and walk out or else you’ll end up traumatized and kidnapped by a fly wanting to fuse itself with you and your unborn baby.

Now, for the music.

The Music

The moment the film begins, you immediately are hit with the films score. It genuinely is best described as an old monster film score with a modern touch. It’s grand and frightening, but gentle then soothing. Pulling back into a tone of dread. Like a classic film score from the days of old it gives you in the first few notes the entire story. It really is, when you listen to the music alone, very much done in the style of those old Universal horror films. You get the Brundlefly theme, you get the love theme and Veronikas. You get the gentleness of Seth’s innocent curiosity.

It's really very pleasant and its something that when I listened to really struck me growing up. It felt like watching something old, which at the time was brand new still, but somehow kept with the films tone and modern feel. I’m not saying that’s how I read it as a kid. Just saying NOW that’s how I get it, and as a kid it was a theme that stuck with me, Which is a good sign of any great piece of music. When it sticks with you, when you can recall it at the mention of the name. It just draws you in.

Howard Shore scored a good deal of Cronenberg’s films. They always had a very dream like feel to them and you can catch some of the scale he used in The Fly in the music he did later for The Silence of The Lambs. In fact there are a lot of similar tones in both scores and both film scores are hugely complimentary to the films themselves.

Film scores really do play an important part to the films they accompany. In some cases they can even make or break a film, and as proven with films like Halloween and Star Wars. The music can elevate those films.

The original Star Wars A New Hope trailer didn’t have its iconic music, there wasn’t any yet for the film. They used a very generic single note background theme which if you ever dig up the original trailer and find. Knowing now what Star Wars is and blew up to be. It’s really something. It honestly created a total surprise experience and a lot is owed to the music in that film giving it the heart it has.

The Fly won’t be held up and regarded as a film score masterpiece, for sure. But it is something that has always stuck with me, and when I bought the score and listened to it. I just ended up falling further in love with it.

With the classic film theme it carried and reminded me of the old black and white films I’d watch with my dad. It was just something surprising to find in a modern movie, it almost feels like it should or COULD have been cheesy, like the old monster movies were. But it keeps its elegance and really has something beautiful inside there to listen to and discover.

Listening through it now too I just really enjoy getting swept up in it. But that’s also how I get with a lot of music Howard Shore does. Especially his score on the Lord of the Rings films, and as I mentioned Silence of the Lambs. Just a huge body of beautiful work and absolutely someone worth exploring the music of even further.

In conclusion. If you hadn’t seen the fly, you owe it to yourself to watch it and enjoy some gross out fun. Enjoy the music with it and join the fold of those who love or hate and debate the movie. Then treat yourself even further by watching the sequel. Which out does a LOT of the first one in both good and bad areas. But also carries a good musical score.

If you’ve already seen the fly, watch it again, or just listen to the music to get an ear for what I’m talking about with the films score. It’s a good starting point for this month and worthy of its spot on this list. Am I saying it’s the bottom of these 31 picks? Hell no. We won’t get into that debate until the final 8 films. Which believe me, is going to be something.

For now. Don’t teleport yourself without checking for flies. Don’t sleep with bar skanks while you are dating Geena Davis, and most importantly

Never.

Ever.

Tell your new partner, your ex was Geena Davis.

Trust me. It’s not pretty.