Director: Chris Walas
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson, John Getz
Have I Seen It Before: Oddly enough, no. As much as I admire The Fly (1986), the reputation on this one has managed to keep me away all these years. If Shout Factory hadn’t decided to package every Fly movie together, I might never have come around to it. I do remember being oddly transfixed by the poster in some movie rental store somewhere—like you do when you’re a kid.
Did I Like It: I think no review of this movie would be complete, or even begin to address the fundamental, unavoidable problem, without first discussing Kelsey Grammer.
Yes, you read that right.
For the first few times, whenever Grammer directed an episode of Frasier, there was a very specific plot construction that told you he was directing before the credits even started to roll. Frasier’s going on vacation/going to a concert/visiting Freddy in Boston/searching for the lost Ark of the Covenant*. It allowed him to actually direct and not have to worry about much of a performance.
Why bring this up in the mostly forgotten sequel to Cronenberg’s remake? Well, Walas did excellent creature work in the first film, and while I think it would be probably hoping for too much for this sequel to be at the same level as the first, but one would be perfectly within their rights to expect a B-movie with some interesting effects work, but what we got instead was a B movie with incredibly sloppy creature work, I’m not sure what we were doing here in the first place.
If Chris Walas hadn’t put so much pressure on himself to both direct—virgin territory for him—and do the effects work, one of those aspects might have been able to stand on their own.
*I’m pretty sure I’m remembering that one right. Frakes would also do that the first few times he directed on TNG, but bringing up Frakes in this review wasn’t going to be nearly as fun.