Fear of the Flesh: The Making of 'The Fly' (2005 Video) User Reviews

Excellent, thorough documentary except for the missing director

[rintrah-1 · 7/10 · 28 June 2006]

This 2+ hour documentary produced for the 2-disc edition of The Fly is the kind of comprehensive in-depth documentary that fans of any film hope for. The obvious and quite glaring problem is that David Cronenberg does not appear in it at all except for archival behind-the-scenes footage. I'm sure there was some reason for why he is not featured such as scheduling conflicts but unless he refused to appear (like David Fincher in the Alien 3 documentary, or David Lynch who just doesn't like to talk about most of his films) I cannot imagine why the producers of the documentary and the DVD would not find a way to include Cronenberg somehow. Whether it would mean waiting to make the documentary or waiting to release the DVD so that Cronenberg could have been interviewed for his segments after the rest of the participants. That said this is otherwise a great look into, and back, by the cast and other participants all the way from the idea to remake The Fly to screenings following its completion. This would receive a vote of 9-10 from me if Cronenberg had been involved.

I'm full. Props to the chef for both quality and quantity

[TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews · 8/10 · 26 November 2010]

This is the longer of the two documentaries on the Cinema Reserve 2-Disc DVD of The Fly(of 1986, not 1958). It runs either 136 minutes or 162 minutes, depending on if you choose the regular or extended version. This consists of interviews(including with at least one person who wound up not working on this, as well as cast and crew), clips of the film(and deleted scenes), the original and other movies, behind-the-scenes footage and stills(and the last two mentioned are the only places we see David Cronenberg; I understand that he both had scheduling conflicts, shooting A History of Violence, and had little interest in appearing as he had said everything he had to say about this picture in the excellent commentary track he recorded). They go over how this remake came to be and the entire production experience(all three stages, and you can jump straight to one from the menu) on it(and yes, it spoils the ending of it(and of the old one)). With the many good explanations, verbal or in text, you're always certain what you're watching. We hear about the design(of the telepods, for example) from the immensely talented Carol Spier, the puppets and most of the other FX(I'm not kidding, there's little left untouched), literally working with a wild animal(the babooon), the vocalizing(in contrast to the fly-head-on-man's-body in the Vincent Price one; this goes for the metamorphosis in this as well) and the rotating set for the climbing. You can tell that they clearly had fun making it. There's some of the mandatory lovefest going on, but they do give reasons for why it was so fantastic to work with the brilliant Canadian, such as that he's an actor's director. This is all edited well, with classical music used well. There is violent, gory, bloody and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of the flick itself. 8/10

Why Cronenberg wasn't featured in the documentary

[midnight_central · 10/10 · 29 August 2008]

I seem to remember reading an interview with David Prior, the producer of FEAR OF THE FLESH, some years ago. Apparently there were scheduling conflicts with Cronenberg, as he was busy filming A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. Prior also stated that Cronenberg wasn't too enthused about appearing in the documentary, as he had already said everything he wanted to about THE FLY on the film's commentary track.

I still think that this is a fantastic documentary, as it covers virtually everything about the film you could want to know. It contains even more excised footage than was included in the film's "deleted scenes" section. I also really enjoyed the moments devoted to the original screenwriter, Charles Edward Pogue.