Review of The Fly II (1989) by Lenny R — 12 Aug 2008

If you watch this purely for camp, you'll laugh for your ass off. Just don't go in expecting anything approaching the brilliance of Cronenberg's original remake. At least he had an understanding of balance in his movie - the crazy gross-out special effects were very well balanced by the solid and engrossing character drama and thrilling psychological exploration - there is no balance here; emotional images are thrown at the audience at random with grotesque monster and blood imagery, and the result is a distinct disconnect from the characters.

The plot is basically a retread of the first, and the script is incredibly cheesy. The special effects are also competent, but there's far too many of them, and the terrifying transformation that Cronenberg was able to make so poignant in the first one is completely missing here - instead we get nothing more than pure B-monster cheese - the final "mutation" that the main character goes through is laughable and hilarious, and looks more like a six-legged cousin of Godzilla and the vampire-hunters in Blade II than anything even remotely resembling a fly.

It's not in any way scary, despite Chris Walas, the director's, sincere attempt to make it so. It's essentially a completely disposable sequel.