Keeping with the 80's theme of remaking older horror films, how would the master of body horror handle the story of a guy turning into an insect?
Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) is a scientist, although he seems a bit cagey as to what his actual field of study is. Meeting journalist Ronnie Quaife (Geena Davis) at a scientific convention, he manages to impress her by claiming he has a device that will change humanity itself.
Bold words but he can back it up, he swears. Taking her back to the warehouse he uses as a lab/home, Seth shows her his miracle: teleportation. Two giant pods, he swears, capable to breaking down molecules and transporting them across space.
He blows up a baboon though, making Ronnie question his claims. Seth does improve the machine, but Ronnie also starts talking to her editor Stathis Borans (John Getz), a fact Seth finds out. This raises several problems, as not only is Stathis Ronnie's editor and thus capable of printing what she's written about Seth's work but he's also her former boyfriend.
Paranoid about the relationship, Seth decides human testing must be the next step and since he doesn't have anyone else he trusts, why not himself? Of course, he really should have checked the pod before getting inside, as it seems a common housefly buzzed into the pod as Seth teleported...
Seth seems fine though, but with his increased sex drive and strength he also has a weird craving for sugar and then his body parts start falling off. Can Seth figured out what happened to him? What can Ronnie do?
Wonderful; on the special effects alone the film is a masterpiece but the story is equally good. With only three actual characters, everybody does a magnificent job. Goldblum, before he lapsed into parody, is perfectly cast as Brundle. He is gawky, charming, and terrifying in equal measure.
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