The Red Circle

By Tom Nix

The human body is a horror house. So much wet tissue grinding up against bone, so much fluid propelled at great speeds through soggy, pulsing, living tunnels. There is no one that knows this better than David Cronenberg. A large bulk of his early work, from Shivers through Videodrome has been almost exclusively about what happens when our bodies turn on us. And it’s a riveting, revolting response. While there are plenty of great and gruesome scenes in the rest of those movies, nothing quite delivers the horror like his remake (re-imagining?) of The Fly. Seth Brundle is a brilliant scientist, looking to give humanity that next leap forward in tech that could save millions of dollars and impact millions of lives. He does not stick around long enough to see the results. You see, Seth forgot to check his telepods for sextopeds. A common fly winds up next to Seth’s naked body and what comes out is the stuff of nightmares.

Sci-Fi possibilities aside, the sight of a man losing his jaw is hard to swallow. The fact that he keeps his penis in a jar is even worse. That he vomits up everything he eats… yeah, that’s not as bad as the penis. This movie ranks on the list of “Best Ever” because we get to understand a brilliant man, feel for him, and for those of us that are Geena Davis, sleep with him. And then he up and falls apart on us. Literally. As a bonus for all the women who can’t identify with the loss of an external sex organ, how’s about birthing a child sized maggot? Delivered by Cronenberg himself. What an equal opportunity offender.

The Fly is the first example on this list of a remake done right. There are many more to come.

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