"The Fly" at 25

Back to fictional Horrors then, eh?

Most of director David Cronenberg's films have dealt with horrors of the flesh. Whether it's parasitic worms; the physical manifestations of hatred; gynecological torture; living video; talking insect typewriters or bio-electric implants, he seems fascinated by the horror of corrupted flesh.

And in almost no other film is that so clearly demonstrated than his 1986 remake of the 50's Sci-Fi classic, The Fly. In the original 1958 movie, David Hedison plays a scientist intent on creating a teleportation device. On his first trip through, a common housefly is trapped in the machine with him, turning him into a fly-headed monster. Cronenberg takes that premise and elevates into something else, entirely. And today marks the 25th Anniversary of its release.

 

For those of you who've never seen it (and shame on you, if not), Jeff Goldblum plays Seth Brundle, a scientist whose severe travel sickness drives him invent a teleportation device and Geena Davis is Veronica Quaife, a reporter for a science magazine who thinks Brundle's crazy, until he demonstrates the machine for her. What starts as a professional relationship soon turns romantic and after a night of lovemaking, Seth realizes he needs to teach his machine about flesh. After successfully transporting a baboon, Seth decides to take the trip himself. As in the original, a fly is trapped in the telepod with him. But instead of creating a man with a fly's head and arm, the machine combines their DNA and creates something very different. Suddenly stronger and more aggressive (and craving sugar), Seth begins to mutate. As his "disease" progresses, his mind devolves and his relationship with Veronica deteriorates. In the film's most heartbreaking scene, Veronica visits Seth one last time, where his ramblings and appearance are too much and she flees. 

Soon, Veronica discovers she is pregnant with Seth's baby and decides to have an abortion. But Seth kidnaps her before she can and as the last vestiges of his humanity slip away, he attempts to combine the DNA of Ronnie, their baby and himself in order to effect a cure. Ronnie's douche bag boss (John Getz) comes in at the last minute to save her, and the resulting Brundlefly/Telepod monstrosity begs her to kill him in one of the most intensely emotional endings of any Science Fiction film ever made.

Goldberg and Davis both give astonishing performances in The Fly, adding to the tragedy unfolding as the movie progresses (and it helps that Goldberg was at the height of his physical prowess). The fact that they were both overlooked come awards season is criminal and evidence of the various Academies general indifference to Horror and Sci-Fi. Howard Shore's score is the perfect compliment to the tragic horror and the supporting cast (which includes a cameo by Cronenberg as an OBGYN in a dream sequence) is terrific. The Oscar and Saturn award winning effects by Chris Walas are intense and gross and wonderful. 

The movie has struck such a chord in popular culture, that Shore wrote an opera along with playwright David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly - which Cronenberg also adapted into a film). It premiered in Paris in July 2008 and was subsequently performed by the Los Angeles Opera in September of the same year.

Even with today's CGI and 3D technologies, I dare you to find a more effective, disturbing and heart-wrenching Sci-Fi/Horror movie. 25 years later and the movie still holds up, evoking both emotional responses to its tragic romance and visceral responses to its gross-out special effects.

Cronenberg has recently talked about remaking the movie again, using modern SFX technology, though I doubt he'd be able to recreate the emotional intensity of his 1986 masterpiece.

More, anon.

Prospero

Shocktober Director of the Day: David Cronenberg

Canadian director David Cronenberg has always been fascinated by horrors of the flesh and has never been shy about expressing that fascination. He made several shorts, features and Canadian television movies before his first widely distributed film, They Came from Within in 1975.

The story of mad scientist (is there any other kind) experimenting on his neighbors in a high-rise apartment complex, They Came from Within concerns a genetically engineered parasite that drives its host to a sexual (and murderous) frenzy. Using British scream queen Barbara Steele and a host of unknowns, Cronenberg's cheapie was derided as vile exploitation (which it certainly was) when it was originally released. But it had a certain style about it and the young director's potential was certainly on display:

In 1977, he made the similarly themed Rage (known in the U.S. as Rabid) starring former porn star Marilyn Chambers as a young woman whose experimental plastic surgery results in a phallic organ in her throat which drains the blood of her victims, turning them into blood-thirsty zombies, resulting in a Montreal epidemic:

For his next film, 1979's The Brood, Cronenberg managed to get two rather well-known British actors, Oliver Reed and Samantha Eggar. Reed was known for several high-profile roles in films like Oliver!; Tommy; and Women in Love (where he shares a sweaty, naked wrestling match with Alan Bates*) and Eggar was he genteel Emma Fairfax in Dr. Doolittle. So it was a bit of a coup for Cronenberg when they agreed to appear as a deranged psychiatrist and his patient who somehow manages to manifest her feelings of hatred into physical creatures who kill those she feels have wronged her. 

The final image of Eggar licking the blood off her latest "child" may well be one of the disturbing in modern horror.

But it wouldn't be until 1981's Scanners that Cronenberg's films really began to garner notice among genre fans. Starring former super model Jennifer O'Neill, Patrick McGoohan ("The Prisoner") and genre powerhouse Michael Ironside, Scanners is a story about psychic espionage and is the first movie I can think of where this happens:

Yikes!

Next came 1983's Videodrome, the first Cronenberg film Uncle P saw in a theatre. James Woods and Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry star in this tale of a television producer looking for the next big thing. When he stumbles upon a pirate S&M TV show called 'Vidoedrome,' he thinks he's found it. Of course, in typical Cronenberg fashion, nothing is really what it seems and Videodrome is little more than a front for a bizarre cult. Playing on a common Sci-Fi theme (the marriage of flesh and electronics), Videodrome is the first of several times Cronenberg explores this topic. And of course, disturbing images abound:

Next came Cronenberg's 1983 adaptation of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, one of the few movies that is actually better than than King's source material, but which still left me feeling uninvolved despite some excellent performances from Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Brooke Adams and Colleen Dewhurst.

Three years later, Cronenberg made the movie that would cement his status as a Horror/Sci-Fi master forever. His remake of the 50's B-movie The Fly was a sensation and not just for it's envelope-pushing special effects. Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis (in tragically ignored Oscar-worthy performances) play scientist Seth Brundle and science reporter Veronica Quiafe. When Seth reveals the teleportation device he's been working on to Veronica, the two of them become embroiled in a tragic romance worthy of Shakespeare. Of course, we all know that a fly is trapped along with Seth when he makes his first solo test, resulting in a mutation that would inspire nightmares (not to mention an opera) for millions of horror fans. The scene where Veronica visits Seth for the last time before he is completely dehumanized, can still make me choke up. Addressing cancer, AIDS and a slew of human foibles, The Fly touched audiences in a way Cronenberg never had before.

Cronenberg followed  The Fly with Dead Ringers, his 1988 adaptation of Bari Wood's novel "Twins," about two brilliant, but drug-addicted twin gynecologists (Jeremy Irons) who develop the worst kind of God complex:

1991 saw what may well be one of Cronenberg's most disturbing films of all time, an adaptation of William S. Burrough's supposedly unfilmable novel Naked Lunch, about an exterminator who becomes addicted to his own poisons and his journey into madness.

In 1993, Cronenberg side-stepped away from horror and adapted David Henry Hwang's play M. Butterfly, about a French diplomat who is tricked into an affair with a male Chinese opera star who is actually a spy. While not exactly a Horror movie, M. Butterfly still explores the connections between sin, flesh, deception and desire. Then came the repulsive Crash, about a group of fetishists who find sexual arousal in car accidents. Crash was the first movie I saw in a stadium theater, with most of my fellow cast mates of "Love! Valour! Compassion!" and we were all both appalled and confused by what we were seeing.  major misstep for the usually brilliant director.

1999 saw return to Cronenberg's obsession with the marriage of electronics and flesh with the virtual reality-themed eXinstenz, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law, Ian Holm and Willem Dafoe in a story about a video game programmer on the run from those who would use her technology for nefarious means:

2002's Spider stars Ralph Fiennes as a mental patient who escapes into his childhood to avoid the horrors of reality. It is probably Cronenberg's least successful and least well-known film to date. Since then, Cronenberg has moved on to more mainstream films, such as 2005's A History of Violence and 2007's Eastern Promises, both of which explore the psychology of crime. His upcoming film, A Dangerous Method is about the relationship between the fathers of modern psychology, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Personally, I look forward to the day when Cronenberg returns to exploring both psychological and physical horror.

More, anon.

Prospero

*Link probably NSFW

Long Live the New Flesh!

Talk about a mad genius. Canadian director David Cronenberg has switched gears lately, but his earliest (and often most interesting) films are his horror movies.

Cronenberg has always been obsessed with human transformation, whether it be physical or psychological (and in many cases, both) though his earlier films seem to concentrate more on the former.

Take his first feature, 1977's Rabid, starring former porn star Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door).
Ms. Chambers plays Rose, a young woman who, after a motorcycle accident, undergoes an experimental plastic surgery procedure which turns her into a blood sucking monster. But Rose is no ordinary vampire, by any means. No, Rose has grown a new organ - in her armpit! - a strangely phallic syringe-like thing which she uses to pierce flesh and drink blood, turning her victims into insane, blood-lusting monsters. Soon, all of Toronto is under Marshall Law as hordes of rabid maniacs attack everyone in sight:

In 1979's The Brood, Samantha Eggar is Nola, a deeply disturbed woman whose psychoses manifest themselves as murderous little children that literally grow like tumors on her body. The little monsters then go out and kill those whom Nola thinks have wronged her:

Cronenberg followed that tasty little treat with one of his most infamous films, 1981's Scanners. Thanks to a drug given to mothers with difficult pregnancies, 237 children are born with exceptional psychic abilities. The Scanners can read minds and even kill with with telepathy.
When the evil Revok (Michael Ironside) is discovered, it's up to "good" Scanner Kim (former model Jennifer O'Neill) to stop him. Scanners is probably best known for this lovely little scene:

Then in 1983, Cronenberg made Videodrome, a very disturbing piece starring a young (and still relatively attractive) James Woods as Max Renn, a cable television producer looking for "the next big thing." When a pirate satellite TV programmer shows him clips from an underground S&M channel known as Videodrome, Renn is ecstatic. But while exploring the channel and its excesses with sex therapist Nikki Brand (Blondie's Deborah Harry in her film debut), Renn soon discovers that Videodrom is much more than just torture porn. It's Video made Flesh (??!!) and he is soon putting VHS tapes into the slot that has developed in his abdomen and growing weapons on his hands:

Cronenberg's next film was his first adaptation of someone else's work - Stephen King's The Dead Zone. Christopher Walken stars as Johnny Smith, a man who awakens from a coma to discover he has developed psychic abilities. Johnny only needs to touch someone to know their future, and when he shakes hands with a Presidential candidate (Martin Sheen), he sees that candidate pushing the "Red Button," and must do everything in his power to stop him from winning, even if it means assassination:

As a huge King fan (I've read everything he's ever published), I honestly think Cronenberg made the only film that's actually better than the source material.

Of course, the film that put Cronenberg on the map, as it were, is his 1986 update of the 50's classic The Fly. A combination of perfect casting (Geena Davis always makes me cry when she says "I don't know what you're trying to say..." ) and then state-of-the-art special effects, The Fly is disturbing, disgusting and heart-wrenching all at the same time. Jeff Goldblum is Seth Brundle, a scientist who suffers from motion sickness and who invents a teleportation device in an effort to avoid traveling via conventional means. When a common housefly accidentally finds its way into the machine with Seth, a genetic catastrophe ensues. Davis is Veronica Quaife, a reporter from a scince mag who falls for the oddly charming Brundle, much to her later despair. The Fly is one of the few horror movies that makes me cry every time I watch it. It also inspired a rather succesful opera and is rumored to be remade again, by Cronenberg himself. As much love as I've given this movie before, it deserves all it can get. Both Davis and Goldblum are amazing and Howard Shore's sweeping score is the perfect accompaniment to this story of physical, emotional and psychological deterioration:

Two years later, Cronenberg adapted Bari Woods' novel "Twins" into Dead Ringers, a twisted tale of twin gynecologists (Jeremy Irons), one of whom creates gynecological tools meant for no human woman:

Then there was his 1991 adaptation of the supposedly unfilmable William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch. More an examination of insanity than anything else, Cronenberg's film was derided by many, reviled by some and embraced as 'genius' by a few. It is a very disturbing look at the effects of drug addiction and hedonism, told as only Cronenberg could tell it. Starring Peter Weller (Robocop) and Judy Davis, Naked Lunch remains one of the most disturbing films ever made:

Cronenberg followed Naked Lunch with an adaptation of Henry David Hwang's stage hit, M. Butterfly and the atrocious Crash (not to be confused with the other atrocious movie of the same name which undeservedly won the Oscar for Best Picture), a disgusting little treatise about people who are sexually aroused by car-crashes.

His last picture about flesh, eXistenZ explores virtual reality's effects on human tissue. Starring Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jude Law and the always amazing Sarah Polley, eXistenZ is about a video game played in a virtual world by people who are literally 'jacked in' the game's own reality. A companion piece to Videodrome, eXistenZ is about how virtual worlds might impact upon reality, should technology (another common theme in the Cronenberg Universe) advance to the bio-techno stage. Heady stuff, indeed.

Of course most recently, Cronenberg has taken to to exploring the Human Condition without the benefits (or detriments) of modern technology. Spider: A History of Violence and Eastern Promises are all films that delve into the darker sides of humanity, without being out and out Horror movies. But there is something about those earlier films that touch upon the dark side we don't really like to think about. If you are not familiar with his work (or with only one or two of his films) I urge to watch his earlier stuff. You'll certainly get an education on how twisted we can be.

More terrors, anon.
Prospero