David Cronenberg’s The Fly is an all-time horror classic and might just be the finest body horror film ever made. Even three decades after it was released, its gross practical special effects still astonish, as does Jeff Goldbum’s twitchily committed performance as the unfortunate Seth Brundle. Despite its firm place in the cinematic canon, however, few recall its sequel, The Fly II.
Released in 1989, the film follows the orphaned Martin Brundle, Seth’s son, as he discovers that he’s got his own special kind of buzz about him. Directed by Chris Walas, the makeup and animatronics director on the original, the film features only one returning cast member (Geena Davis is replaced by Saffron Henderson) and the general consensus is that it’s an entirely unnecessary footnote to the original. It’s not all bad though, as it’s got a totally sweet gore moment where a guy’s head gets crushed by an elevator and also includes a really nasty end for the main bad guy.
Now, it’s been revealed that a young Sam Raimi, hot off making Evil Dead 2, was originally signed up to direct the sequel. The news comes courtesy of podcast Post Mortem with Mick Garris, where the filmmaker said the following:
“When I was writing Fly 2, originally Sam Raimi was going to direct it, on the strength of Evil Dead 2. It would’ve been a VERY different movie. Then [Sam] and his brother wrote a different treatment that went way out to cloud wacky land, and that would’ve been amazing. And it didn’t work out.”
There’s a bunch of movies I wish I could peek into a parallel universe and see, like Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune or Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon. I guess I’ll have to add Sam Raimi’s The Fly II to the list now, too. Would a “cloud wacky land” version of the film have worked, though? Sound off in the usual place with your thoughts!
