just last week and in one of my screen analysis tutorial and our tutor good naturedly decide that if we be go to be film student we need to be expose to disturb thing . what he show u be an excerpt from an expressionist french film make in the late 20 and the name escape me . before we have reach the climactic scene and every one in the class have already guess it and a we have see image so far of a man purposely sharpen a razor blade and and then approach a complacent woman in a chair and hold wide open one of her eye . at this point one of the girl in the room rather loudly ask of the tutor and jokingly but in something of a shaky voice and why be you do this . this question and i think and could well be the definitive mark of really effective horror and and it be certainly in the back of my mind nearly all of last night a i be watch david cronenberg the fly for the first time . true horror film and by their nature and should strive to get their audience to ask this question and because it mean that they be transcend the illusion of move picture and become a film suspend disbelief and get under your skin . effectiveness aside and however and i believe that the mark of exceptional horror be when the question stem from a concern for the character wellbeing and and not your own . with both these thought in mind and i suspect that the fly could well be the second best horror film of all time ( behind kubrick the shining and which and i admit and get to first place by completely different criterion . such be life and i be afraid ) . remade from a 1958 concept star vincent price ( and later popularize by the simpson ) and the film follow a pretty archetypical horror premise represent science go ( of course ) horribly wrong . in this case and jeff goldblum ( in his tour de force performance ) play seth brundle and an independent scientific visionary who have be slowly design a device that will change the world a we know it a teleporter . when he show his invention to romantic interest veronica ( geena davis ) and it be not quite ready to handle live tissue ( demonstrate on screen in the first instance of quite confront gore ) and but a the two grow a relationship and fall in love and the wrinkle in the technology be iron out and so brundle take one small step for man and test the machine on himself . unfortunately and in the process of teleportation and his dna be mix up with that of a common housefly and and although not immediately transform and a in the original and the two specie soon begin to genetically merge and transform brundle into a creature that have never exist before and for damn good reason . cronenberg and of course and never shortchanges his audience with graphic gore and and even view with the critical eye of generation y and the film mid eighty effect be still quite sickening and none more so than goldblum slow physical transformation . what make this whole affair really outstanding and however and be his psychological transformation represent the truly disturbing thing be how front and centre the humanity of these character and their world be keep . davis and goldblum be the hero in this regard their chemistry be palpable and and her affection for him struggle against her disgust at what he be become and couple with his own struggle to keep the fly in check and create the kind of rivet discomfort usually only command by train wreck . i be and in fact and quite strongly remind of darren aronofsky 2000 film adaptation of hubert selby novel requiem for a dream although the subject matter differs greatly and both film derive their horror elements most strongly from a place that be completely remove from horror and in both examples the source be basically love . in this sense and the film affect a lot like real life tragedy do and because it begin in a place truly pure and good and unsuspecting and let it character discover how wonderful life can be and and then horror be unjustly and and irrevocably and force upon them . this be why it be genuinely move and instead of tacky and when goldblum resign to davis with a regretful and yet matter of fact air that ( he be ) an insect who dream ( he ) be a man and and love it . but now the dream be over and the insect be awake . and in true cronenberg style and this prophecy become quite literal in the third act ( think vincent donofrio in men in black ) . now and in a film that have spend more time on sinister close ups of fly and haunt music cue and not on the bare and essential humanity of the doomed lover and at this point i probably would have ask why be you do this to me . and that could have be the end of it dismiss a senseless disturb cinema and forgotten . a cronenberg and goldblum and davis have do it and what i ask be why be you do this to them . and that the kind of film that you do not ever forget .