Body horror is one of the most visually engrossing vehicles to invoke a sense of fear in its audience. Creating disgusting imagery through the deconstruction and manipulation of our earthly vessels, body horror can come in different forms. It’s often so effective because our bodies are such a familiar territory to us, so when things start to go horribly wrong, we naturally react with a sense of concern. Throughout the years, the subgenre of body horror has wholly evolved, just as audience tastes change with time. This has often made movie magic more realistic and believable, and it adds an air of possibility within the frames of the real world, thanks to advances in film technology.
One of the earliest examples of body horror is The Fly, the original installment of this famed franchise released in 1958. The Fly marked a departure from horror norms, emphasizing the insidious way that the grotesque can infiltrate the everyday. Shocking moviegoers, the film was followed by a series of sequels and retellings. The ill-fated setup of a tiny insect and a human being juxtaposed together within an experimental scientific device results in not just a scary sci-fi flick, but also an unspeakable tragedy that questions the depth and value of human nature. Let’s look back at every movie in The Fly franchise, ranked.
5 Curse of the Fly (1965)
20th Century Fox
The only film in a Fly subseries to make it past a sequel, Curse of the Fly continues capturing the fallout of the doozy decision made by scientist André Delambre. Martin Delambre, another descendent of the doomed family, falls hard for Patricia Stanley. The couple harbors some skeletons in the closet, though – she’s an escaped psychiatric patient, and he’s filled with fly DNA, causing unnaturally quick aging that he has to keep at bay. After they marry, they return to Martin’s family home, where Patricia quickly learns of the dark history of the Delambres’ involvement in scientific studies that pushed the limits of humanity. This movie explores the influence of the experiments on more people than just the Delambre family, including Patricia, the police, and unlucky lab workers – a refreshing take on the franchise’s mostly enclosed atmosphere.
4 Return of the Fly (1959)
Following the original movie that sickened audience members, Return of the Fly picks up a while after the events of The Fly. Philippe Delambre lives in the shadow of the tragedy that befell his family after his dad’s experiment went too far. Desperate to further André’s work, he keeps the horrific cycle going by delving into the old laboratory and meddles with the transporter again. Working with an unsavory assistant on the run from the law and ignoring the cautions from his uncle, Philippe’s true DNA soon betrays him as he begins to fully transform into the monstrosity he’s always been deep down. This entry in the Fly franchise is a real nail-biter, as we watch characters go against their best interests and against nature itself.
3 The Fly II (1989)
The sequel to the 1986 remake of the original, The Fly II is a continuation of epic proportions. Zooming in on the monstrous offspring of Seth Brundle and Veronica Quaife, Martin lives a sheltered life, constantly the subject of study. He’s raised by his father’s employer in a laboratory after his mother’s death, and is rapidly aging thanks to the fly DNA he has inherited. Of course, just like dear old dad, his true nature comes to light in one of the grossest horror gems of the ’80s. Guillermo del Toro was offered the opportunity to direct The Fly II, but found the pitch meeting to be the worst of his career. This sequel definitely delivers on the gross factor, as Eric Stoltz offering a nauseating performance and shining example of special effects excellence at the end of the ’80s.
2 The Fly (1986)
One of David Cronenberg’s most masterful works, the 1986 adaptation of The Fly is an exploration of the macabre thrust upon one man and his girlfriend (Veronica), both helpless to watch his degradation after his experiment goes awry. Seth Brundle approaches science with a bold mind that proves to be too curious for his own good. Oozing out of his new orifices and puckering with pain, Jeff Goldblum is a disgusting sight to behold, that gets gorier as his condition worsens. As the story unfolds, Brundle’s fate gets grosser and grows darker while his nuanced human nature slips away in favor of primitive fly characteristics. This interpretation of the classic story stands as one of the most classic examples of body horror from the ’80s. A New York Times review calls it “a film that tries to be too many things at once - funny but not campy, sad and scary, a horror story and a human tragedy.”
1 The Fly (1958)
This list wouldn’t be complete without the original that started it all – the 1958 version of The Fly. André Delambre is a scientist on the brink of brilliance, experimenting with his transporter device until a housefly gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The film opens with his wife Hélène being accused of murder after his body is found, and then it circles back to exactly what happened within this sickening sequence of events. An eerie ending scene sees a transmogrified André delivering the famous line, “Help me!” in a pitched-up voice as he peers up at the world, wrapped up in a spiderweb as his hungry captor approaches. A retrospective review from Our Culture Magazine stated, “The film’s comments on the possibilities of science are simultaneously optimistic and cautionary and that helps the film maintain its poignancy almost sixty years on.”
