History YMMV / TheFly

!!''Return of the Fly'' and ''Curse of the Fly'':
* CompleteMonster: Alan Hines aka Ronald Holmes is an industrial spy and the BigBad of ''Return of the Fly''. He betrays Phillipe to steal the teleporter's plans for himself and murders a British agent who tries to stop him. Then he discovers the teleporter can mix and match living things. His MoralEventHorizon is when he knocks out Phillipe in a fight, he places the unconscious Phillipe in the teleporter and adds a fly, ''knowing'' Phillipe will come out a monster. This backfires on Ronald when the mutated Phillipe tracks him down and kills him.

* AdaptationDisplacement: There was a short story written first.
* AwardSnub: While the film's subject matter would have been far too unusual for the Academy to take, many, including GeneSiskel of the ''Chicago Tribue'', decried the Oscars for omitting Jeff Goldblum from the Best Actor line-up.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Where there is Cronenberg, there is usually HowardShore, and where there is Shore, there is this trope.
* DesignatedVillain: In the 1986 version, this is subverted by Stathis Borans. While he plays the role of the antagonist at the beginning, the mutated Seth soon takes this position while [[spoiler: Stathis protects his lover from the deranged mutant that wants to fuse with her.]]
* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: [[http://1000misspenthours.com/reviews/reviewse-g/fly1986.htm 1000 Misspent Hours]] makes a pretty solid case for Cronenberg's film being an allegory for HIV infection in the 1980s.
* FridgeLogic: [[spoiler:When Seth enters the final stage of his Brundlefly mutation at the end of the film after Veronica rips his jaw off, which triggers the transformation, his dead and diseased outer flesh finally falls off revealing the ugly hideous monster that's been growing underneath. Part of this transformation features Seth's original human eyes fall out along with the rest of the flesh that originally covered his head, revealing his new insect head complete with a new set of black insect eyes. If Seth had a new set of bug eyes growing behind his original eyes, then how could his human eyes have still been functioning before they fell out]]?
* MemeticMutation: "Be afraid. Be very afraid."
* {{Narm}}:
** The infamous "HEEEELP MEEEE! HEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEE!" scene from the original. (They had to keep reshooting the scene because the actors couldn't stop cracking up.) Appears as a ShoutOut in the remake, when Seth - under completely different circumstances - whimpers "Help me. Please, please help me," and the Narm is gone.
** Similarly subverted in the 1965 sequel ''Curse Of The Fly''.
* {{Squick}}: The Seth Brundle 'Natural History Museum'.
* UglyCute: Depending on your point of view, Seth in his final fly form.
* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: In the 1986 movie, the various appearances of the Brundlefly is this, in all its sickening glory.
* TheWoobie:
** Seth, poor Seth. Especially in his second stage of mutation - Veronica is compelled to embrace him even with corrosive vomit covering his clothes. Ronnie's psyche doesn't fare so well either with her boyfriend slowly mutating.
** Stathis becomes one near the end of the first movie after he gets his ''hand and foot melted off'' by Brundlefly. In the sequel he's even worse off.

* UnfortunateImplications: The lovemaking scene between Martin and Beth gets a tad disturbing when you consider that Martin, while physically and mentally an adult, is only six years old, meaning Beth is technically having sex with a minor.

* CompleteMonster:
** [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate Dr. Anton Bartok]] from ''The Fly II'' is a [[CorruptCorporateExecutive corrupt technology business magnate]] who will do absolutely anything for money and power. Veronica, Seth Brundle's lover from the previous film, has been implanted with Seth's mutated offspring. Bartok lies to her and Stathis about the incredible danger, and she dies during the birth. He keeps the seemingly normal infant, now named Martin, as a test subject until his mutations will reappear. He presents himself as a fatherly figure to Martin while manipulating him for his own ends. He uses a lab dog that Martin grew attached to for the telepod experiments, and when the experiment fails, he keeps the mutated creature alive in agony for years for further study. When Martin grows up at an accelerated rate he gives Martin a private home for himself and allows him to make some human contacts, but installs secret surveillance to continue observing him. He wants to use Martin's unique physiology to control the morpology of all life on Earth and make his company truly hegemonic.
** Alan Hines aka Ronald Holmes is an industrial spy and the BigBad of ''Return of the Fly''. He betrays Phillipe to steal the teleporter's plans for himself and murders a British agent who tries to stop him. Then he discovers the teleporter can mix and match living things. His MoralEventHorizon is when he knocks out Phillipe in a fight, he places the unconscious Phillipe in the teleporter and adds a fly, ''knowing'' Phillipe will come out a monster. This backfires on Ronald when the mutated Phillipe tracks him down and kills him.

** See also Christopher Young for the sequel.

* FridgeHorror: After the ending of ''II.'' Okay, [[spoiler: Martin's cured, he and Beth now have the chance to be together, and Bartok [[LaserGuidedKarma got what he deserved]] (or [[AlasPoorVillain not]], depending on your view). ''But Martin succeeded at making the telepods work''--and Bartok Industries still owns them. They can do with them whatever they please. There's really nothing to stop B.I. from using them to "control the form and function of all life on Earth," as Bartok said. Why? Because B.I. is now the most powerful corporation on Earth, or ''one'' of the most powerful, at any rate.]]

* {{Narm}}: The infamous "HEEEELP MEEEE! HEEEEEEEEELP MEEEEEEEEE!" scene from the original. (They had to keep reshooting the scene because the actors couldn't stop cracking up.) Appears as a ShoutOut in the remake, when Seth - under completely different circumstances - whimpers "Help me. Please, please help me," and the Narm is gone.

* TheWoobie: Seth, poor Seth. Especially in his second stage of mutation - Veronica is compelled to embrace him even with corrosive vomit covering his clothes. Ronnie's psyche doesn't fare so well either with her boyfriend slowly mutating.