Box office
The film earned $40,456,565 domestically and $20,172,594 internationally, totaling $60,629,159 at the worldwide box office.[4]
Critical response
According to Metacritic, The Fly received "universal acclaim", based on a weighted average of 81 out of 100 from 12 critic reviews.[26] On Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 74 reviews are positive for the film, with an average rating of 8.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "David Cronenberg combines his trademark affinity for gore and horror with strongly developed characters, making The Fly a surprisingly affecting tragedy."[27] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale.[28]
After its release, The Fly was described as a remake that surpasses the original and exceeds the potential of the original story.[29] Chicago Tribune called it a rare personal work of art that is also a commercial success.[30] Los Angeles Times hailed the film as a stunning piece of filmmaking that allowed the audience to identify with the monstrous creation.[31] Time wrote that The Fly is a shocking horror film and also the most touching romance film of the year.[32] Conversely, Caryn James of The New York Times criticized the film for what she considered distractingly excessive gore, lack of emotional depth and tonal inconsistency. She felt that the film tries to be too many things at once and ultimately falls short, despite Goldblum's performance and the ambitious vision of Cronenberg.[33]
Cronenberg was surprised when The Fly was seen by some critics as a cultural metaphor specifically for AIDS, since he originally intended the film to be a more general analogy for disease itself, terminal conditions like cancer and, more specifically, the aging process:
If you, or your lover, has AIDS, you watch that film and of course you'll see AIDS in it, but you don't have to have that experience to respond emotionally to the movie and I think that's really its power. This is not to say that AIDS didn't have an incredible impact on everyone and, of course, after a certain point, people were seeing AIDS stories everywhere, so I don't take any offense that people see that in my movie. For me though, there was something about The Fly story that was much more universal: aging and death—something all of us have to deal with.[23][34][35][36]
Film critic Gene Siskel named The Fly as the tenth-best film of 1986.[37] In 1989, Premiere and American Film magazines both conducted independent polls of American film critics, directors and other such groups to determine the best films of the 1980s, and The Fly appeared on both lists.
In 2005, Time magazine film critics Richard Corliss and Richard Schickel included The Fly in their list of the All-TIME 100 Greatest Movies.[38] Time later named it one of the 25 best horror films.[39] The film was ranked #33 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.[40] Similarly, the Chicago Film Critics Association named The Fly the 32nd scariest film ever made.[41] In 2021, The Daily Star ranked The Fly at the top of its list of greatest short story adaptations, praising the film for "exhibit[ing] how greater a short story can evolve, and very much become its own detached, barely recognisable thing."[42]
Accolades
Jeff Goldblum received the Saturn Award for Best Actor for his role in the film.The Fly was nominated for the awards in the chart below. Many genre fans and film critics at the time thought that Jeff Goldblum's performance would receive a Best Actor Oscar nomination,[43] but this did not happen. Gene Siskel subsequently stated that Goldblum most likely "got stiffed" out of a nomination because the older Academy voters generally do not honor horror films.[44]
| Award | Category | Subject | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Award | Best Makeup | Chris Walas & Stephan Dupuis | Won |
| BAFTA Award | Best Makeup and Hair | Nominated | |
| Hugo Award | Best Dramatic Presentation | Nominated | |
| Saturn Award | Best Actor | Jeff Goldblum | Won |
| Best Actress | Geena Davis | Nominated | |
| Best Makeup | Chris Walas | Won | |
| Best Horror Film | Won | ||
| Best Director | David Cronenberg | Nominated |
Legacy
The quote "Be afraid. Be very afraid." was also used as the film's marketing tagline, and this became so ingrained in popular culture (as it—and variants—have appeared in numerous films and TV series) that many people who are familiar with the phrase are unaware that it originated in The Fly.[23]
On October 10, 2020, the film was referenced in a Saturday Night Live sketch regarding the 2020 vice presidential debate. Jim Carrey provided an impression of Jeff Goldblum.[45]
Heavy metal band Ice Nine Kills released "F.L.Y" as part of their 2021 album The Silver Scream 2: Welcome to Horrorwood. The song is inspired by the 1986 film.
