‘Help me be human’: Cronenberg Becomes The Fly

Abstract

This chapter discusses the relationship between Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg and his film, The Fly (1986). Even though, as a remake, The Fly had travelled a long way before falling into the creative hands of Cronenberg, it embodies him at an almost molecular level. Just as Frankenstein's Monster bears the name of its creator, and people are often confused between the two, The Fly is chromosomally ‘Cronenbergian’. It is a strident example of Cronenber's signature mode of ‘body horror’ or ‘visceral horror’ and the perfect crescendo to the first act in his filmmaking career, which had reached its natural conclusion at that particular point in time: 1986. The Fly additionally highlights Cronenberg's uncanny ability to create something uniquely personal to his own self — in the vein of an auteur — while borne from the mind of another storyteller with no immediate connection to himself.