The Fly I & II
Volcano - CPC8-5021

Despite appearing to be another monster movie, David Cronenberg's reworking of The Fly is more of a tragic romance than a shock fest. True, the final few reels become increasingly gory and prone to excess, but the emphasis remains on Jeff Goldblum's Seth Brundle who, after a teleportation accident, is genetically combined with a fly, sealing his fate. As ever, Cronenberg turned to his long time collaborator Howard Shore for the music and while their earlier collaborations were rather lower budget and musically rather hard work, The Fly takes on almost operatic proportions. From the portentous brass motif that opens the Main Title, it's clear that The Fly isn't going to be subtle, but bold scoring invariably makes for fine stand alone listening and so it proves here.

After the intensity of the opening tracks, there are some surprisingly tender moments - the romance between Brundle and Geena Davis' journalist is an integral element - and the unpromising sounding Particle Magazine is one of the highlights. Pleasingly for a horror score, the music is light on gimmicks or electronics, but Shore does make use of an echoplex (or similar) in The Armwrestle, amongst others, as short orchestral motifs sound as if played into a particularly large cave. As a sparingly used device, it's certainly effective. Another notable feature is a rocking motif in upper strings that puts to mind Jerry Goldsmith's score to Alien, but the similarity is only glancing.

Before Lord of the Rings, Shore was certainly best known for his more experimental writing, but The Fly amply demonstrates that he's always had the ability to write in a striking symphonic idiom, given the chance. The various descriptions of the score as operatic seem entirely apt, especially when one considers that an actual opera based on the film, using Shore's music as the basis in the works. It takes surprisingly little imagination to make the leap, at least musically, even if one does wonder how the extensive visual effects might be achieved on stage. Despite the brevity of many of the tracks, the score has a pleasing dramatic momentum; there are moments of crushing horror, but the more intimate passages are strong enough to hold their own. The London Philharmonic Orchestra perform with typical vigour in splendid sonics.

Varese Sarabande have thoughtfully re-released The Fly and Christopher Young's fine score to The Fly II as a double album, with identical content to the original release.