The Fly II

Chris Walas, the effects whiz who turned Jeff Goldblum into the gooey, grotesque Brundle-Fly in David Cronenberg's The Fly, makes his directorial debut in this equally icky sequel. Eric Stoltz is Brundle's genetically diseased offspring, a boy genius brought up in an experimental laboratory by a nefarious foster father eager to see what his inevitable metamorphosis will bring. No surprise here: like father, like son. Daphne Zuniga is his sweet young girlfriend, and John Getz reprises his role from the first film as a bitter alcoholic with a very bad fake beard. This cut- rate "Son of the Fly" knockoff pales next to Cronenberg's classic, degenerating into a gory revenge flick. Walas strains under a limited budget, and many of the more elaborate creatures (a monstrously mutated dog, the skeletal fly monster leaping about the warehouse-like lab) are rather shabby. The makeup is suitably gooey, slathered in ooze and pus, and the mayhem-filled finale is a nasty but impressive over-the-top frenzy of blood and gore climaxing in the nastiest piece of poetic justice since Freaks. The opening birth scene (with a look-alike subbing for mom Geena Davis) is an homage to Larry Cohen's It's Alive. Never-before-seen alternate ending Deleted scene The Fly Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood's Scariest Insect: in-depth documentary covering the entire Fly movie series Transformations: Looking back at The Fly II: all-new behind-the-scenes documentary Storyboard-to-film comparisons with optional commentary by Chris Walas Film production journal Christopher Young (composer) featurette Original 1989 featurette Still photo galleries Theatrical trailers

Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, Lee Richardson, John Getz, Frank C. Turner Year:1989