Notes on films

THE FLY (Cronenberg, 1986) - Even if the true “horror” part of this movie doesn’t start in earnest until an hour in, this movie is really an example of the kind of horror I can get behind: an exaggerated, grotesque representation of very real, concrete fears. In this case - Cronenberg being Cronenberg - the fears are related to the decay and rot of a human body, a concern completely absent in the original movie. All that, and it is truly a romance, too, at least until the experimental screw-up that, at first, just seems to have transformed Goldblum’s awkward and rather adorable nerd (who is, furthermore, tall and on the skinny side, aka. really my type) into an ass. No matter how many great make-up effects you use, you need the romance for the ending to be as poignant (and, yes, horrific) as it is.