The Fly (1986)

Low-budget remake of the famous 1958 film, this time directed by David Cronenberg, with a lot more eww factor.

And Cronenberg sure knows how to do this well. The first half-an-hour, despite knowing how inevitable the main protagonist's fate is, sticks strictly to grounding the story in the real world. Seth Brundle's research on matter-transportation, whilst a standard science-fiction concept, is presented within such mundane scenes of everyday life, that it's very easy to take that small step into believing in it.

Likewise, when his equally-ridiculous transformation into a human-fly hybrid begins, it's a gradual series of further small steps, each one taking us just a little further on from the last one we acquiesced to believe.

The only development that really jarred with me was the syntax with which Brundle interrogates his computer, which rather reminded me of Funky Squad.

The cast is tiny, the effects minimal, (there's only one monster who's not really in it that much) and it's played with depth all the way through. Even Jeff Goldblum's usual muddled delivery is just the sort of impurity that makes something on film appear imperfect enough to be real.

Great remake.