Canadian director David Cronenberg was for a time in the 1980s considered a modern master of horror films, known by some as the “baron of blood.” His visually engaging and original films like “The Brood” (1979), “Scanners” (1981), “The Dead Zone” (1986) and “Dead Ringers” (1988) frequently featured A-list actors. They achieved frightening new levels of unique makeup and body transformation visual effects.

When he decided to remake the 1958 science fiction horror film “The Fly,” many wondered why he’d attempt a rehash of the somewhat campy Vincent Price film that already spawned two sequels by the mid-1960s. But Cronenberg performed his magic ever so effectively.

So, in recognition of the upcoming Halloween, let’s take a look at Cronenberg’s uniquely creative and rather gruesome 1986 remake of “The Fly,” a film that won an Oscar for outstanding makeup effects. “The Fly” became Cronenberg’s most successful film, grossing over $60 million internationally at the box office, after an initial budget of just over $9 million.

Screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue and Cronenberg adapted and updated George Langelaan’s original 1957 short story. This tragic tale concerns an obsessed eccentric scientist, Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), who experiments with a teleporting machine. Things go wrong for him when a random housefly enters the transport chamber and Seth is slowly turned into a giant hybrid human fly. Despite his grotesque new form, his journalist girlfriend, Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) stays faithful to him, caring and hoping to understand his obsession.

You can tell there is a special chemistry between Goldblum’s and Davis’s characters from the film’s opening scene. In fact, within a year, the couple was married and enjoyed a short Hollywood marriage.

In this first scene at a small reception, Veronica simply asks Dr. Brundle what he is researching.

“What am I doing? I’m working on something that’ll change the world and human life as we know it,” Brundle enthusiastically replies.

They strike up a more personal conversation, and Seth invites Veronica to his warehouse laboratory. Initially, he doesn’t realize she’s a journalist seeking a story, then demands that she not reveal anything he’s shown her about his teleporting experiments and the oval-shaped telepods.

Cronenberg spends much of the first part of his film nicely developing the human story and the romance between the scientist and the journalist. Veronica’s editor and ex-boyfriend, Stathis Borans (played by John Getz), is still in love with her, but Veronica is clearly over him. The tension that builds among these three characters is handled most effectively. Then the more grotesque sets in.

The nature of Brundle’s experiments quickly escalates from first teleporting a pair of Veronica’s nylon stockings to a small pet baboon (which ends terribly) to eventually Seth’s own seemingly successful transformation from one pod to the other. But like the fly that distracted everyone’s attention at the vice-presidential debates earlier this month, things get messed up for Brundle by a random fly.

Initially, Seth claims he’s been purified by his transforming experience. He suddenly has oddly new agile, athletic abilities, but Veronica notices a strange bit of course hair growing in a small patch on his back; chaos ensues. After Seth teleports himself a few more times, he seems to become more powerful. But soon, his teeth, nails and ears begin to fall off, and his flesh becomes rough, brown and scaly. Once when Veronica checks on him, he’s climbing the walls and ceiling like a fly. Then Veronica becomes completely horrified when she learns she’s pregnant with Seth’s child.

Cameraman Mark Irwin, Cronenberg’s favorite cinematographer of the ‘80s, captures a flashy visual style, and scenes are complemented nicely with Howard Shore’s chilling musical score.

I’m not the biggest fan of horror films. However, in so many ways, Cronenberg’s “The Fly” clearly reaffirms a fundamental goal of a horror film’s appeal, which is established in Stephen King’s 1983 essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies.” King explains, “We go to reestablish our feelings of essential normalcy.” No matter how insane, ugly, or distorted the people or creatures depicted in horror films, by contrast, the viewers are reassured of how truly normal they are. With that in mind, everyone, please have as “normal” a Halloween as one can have in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.