Cronenberg's Most Infamous Horror Has a $39 Million Sequel Nobody Remembers
It was always going to be hard to top The Fly.
Summary
- The Fly II was released 35 years ago.
- The movie couldn't live up to its predecessor, which is still considered a horror masterpiece.
- However, the film has gained some recognition in the years since its release.
An anniversary is coming up, but it's not one that many people will register. It's the 35th anniversary of The Fly II, the underappreciated sequel to David Cronenberg's The Fly.
Although the sequel was panned when it came out, the movie has gained some fans over the years. It's hard to live up to a masterpiece, but The Fly II is better than a lot of people might expect.
What Was The First One About?
Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum ) is a brilliant scientist working on the problem of teleportation. He meets a reporter, Veronica 'Ronnie' Quaife (Geena Davis) at an event, and introduces her to his work. The two fall in love as Seth continues to tinker with his teleportation device. He eventually tries to teleport himself, not realizing that a fly was trapped in the device with him.
Though at first Seth seems normal, he soon starts to develop amazing abilities, such as superhero-level strength. However, Seth eventually starts to mentally and physically deteriorate into a monster.
Sequel-itis
The Fly ends with the tragic death of Brundle, whose final state is one of madness, violence, and grotesque deformation. That pretty much wrapped the story up, but of course under the rules of Hollywood every successful movie must have its sequel. Unfortunately, Cronenberg had no interest in making The Fly II, and Geena Davis had no interest in reprising her role as Ronnie.
Instead, the sequel was directed by Chris Walas, a special effects whiz who had won an Academy Award for his work on The Fly. It's perhaps inevitable that Walas was unable to live up to Cronenberg's legacy, and the movie flopped with critics and audiences.
The Fly II
The sequel picks up a few months after the first movie left off, with Ronnie (played by Saffron Henderson for about two minutes) giving birth to Seth Brundle's child. Instead of a normal human, she gives birth to a pupal sac before dying from shock and delivery complications.
Once the sac is cracked open, what looks like a normal human child is found within. The child is named Martin and taken in by the company that founded his father's research. Martin is kept from the world and studied extensively. He is soon revealed to be a very unusual child, with accelerated growth and a genius-level IQ. By the time Martin is five years old he looks like a grown adult.
Soon Martin, like his father before him, is starting to morph into an insect. Unlike his father, Martin manages to keep his sanity and humanity intact – though he uses his abilities to protect himself and punish the scientists intent on studying him.
A Different Message
In recent years, views have softened on The Fly II. It would have been almost impossible for Walas to top his predecessor's achievement, but his experience in special effects made for an effective body horror (especially if you don't mind some serious gross-out moments in the last half hour).
After seeing the first movie, many commentators saw Seth Brundle's efforts to cling to his humanity as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis sweeping America at the time. Cronenberg himself has said that the movie serves as a metaphor for the debilitating, dehumanizing effects of serious illness and death.
If thought about that way, The Fly II might actually be seen as an uplifting response to the original – in spite of the suffering and illness of Martin, he proves that it's possible to maintain his humanity and win out against a debilitating condition. Certainly it has grown in popularity over the years, and perhaps this anniversary will rekindle interest in the underappreciated sequel.