The Perfect Creature Feature
Aug 26, 2009 | No Comments
Seth Brundle, a quirky scientist who has been working on his own for far too long, his antisocial skills intrigue Veronica Quaife a local journalist covering the science expo. Seth lures her back to his apartment under the guise that he has created something that will change the future of modern transportation as we as humans know it. Telepods, two pods that can teleport you anywhere you want to go in mere seconds. There is a problem however, when Seth attempts to transport himself the Telepods quickly turn from teleporters to gene splicers when a fly is caught in the mix. Now Seth aka Brundlefly is slowly changing, could he become one of the most powerful men on the planet? Or will his gene splicing go terribly awry?
Directed by David Cronenberg, he masterfully throws the viewer into the midst of an ending conversation between our two characters. There is nothing special about them, they are neither overly attractive (as is so common in film today) and not even they know why they are attracted to each other. That is why this movie works so well right from the beginning. The viewer is introduced to two ordinary people, both of which are just trying to do the best that they can at their job. Seth, so that he never has to feel motion sickness (a very common ailment) and Veronica so that she might get that big break as a journalist that she’s been looking for. Both are given their chance.
Seth’s design isn’t perfect, he can’t transport living flesh. He understands that this is all his fault, and through the film the audience feels how he torments himself over his life’s work, and as Seth learns so do they. The audience connects with characters, finding parts of themselves manifesting through his failures. When Seth figures out the problem, we are happy, there is hope for this relationship, and they both might be getting the recognition that they deserve.
After his first attempt to transport himself, a fly gets into the Telepod with him, suddenly splicing his genes and fusing fly and man together to create Brundlefly. The process is slow and at first unnoticeable. Little things that Seth does indicate the viewer that something is wrong. Incredible calisthenics, his sudden craving for sugary foods, a simple twitch of his head are all that are needed. As the monster in Seth slowly starts to reveal itself, his live starts to unravel as well.
The man that was exhaled and respected in the first half of the film is now feared, hated, loathed for his actions. The audience is disgusted by his appearance and his actions, he is no longer human in their eyes. They as themselves, “how can Veronica still love him?” “Why would she hug him? He looks disgusting!” Once these thoughts escape the viewers mouths they automatically stop, and are disgusted with themselves for judging a man that was once a hero. It is the monster inside them slowly coming out.
We grow more and more disgusted with Seth as his transformation takes place, but much like a car crash on the highway, we slow down, hoping to see more. When Veronica reveals that she is pregnant with his child we are disgusted, but images of what this deformed child would look like pop into our head. What would she do if she gave birth? Send it to a freak show? How could she love something like that? We ask ourselves, and slowly we see that we are no different than Seth in the end. We are all monsters inside, we think that we are geniuses, we think that we are smart, witty, attractive, but it’s whats underneath that slowly exposes itself which is the true us. Just like Seth realizes. He says to Veronica over lunch that it took him to this point in his experiment to find out who he truly is.
Through incredibly character development, astounding and disgusting special effects, and the ability to make us question our beliefs and in turn be disgusted by who we are as people, this is the perfect monster movie.
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