THE FLY COLLECTION (5-DISC SET)
Get ready for hours of skin-crawling terror as you witness a transformation like no other – from man to fly. On December 10, 2019, Scream Factory proudly presents the insect-morphing horror set The Fly Collection in a definitive Blu-ray release. This massive 5-disc set consists of the chilling original trilogy, the eye-popping 80s remake and its terrifying sequel, and is packed with hours of fascinating special features.
THE FLY (1958)
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 94 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Kurt Neumann
Cast: David Hedison, Vincent Price, Patricia Owens, Herbert Marshall, Kathleen Freeman, Betty Lou Gerson
The Fly (1958) is a classic slice of science fiction horror, opening with a vivid and surprisingly gruesome scene of scientist Andre Delambre (David Hedison) being found dead, his head and hand having been crushed beneath a industrial hydraulic press. His loving wife Helene (Patricia Owens) confesses to the murder and the movie plays out from an earlier point, leading up to the the horrific death.
Andre had been working on a new technology, a transporter device called the disintegrator-integrator, which could transport matter from one place to another. Things are coming along swimmingly, however, when he tests the device on himself he's unaware that a fly has flown into the teleporter chamber with him. When he reappears on the other side of the room in the other teleport he has become a hideous half-man/half-fly guy with the head of a fly and an insectoid hand/claw. Andre covers his head in a black cloth to hide his awful visage from his wife, hiding his deformed hand in the jacket pocket of his white lab coat, pleading with her to find a white-headed fly i the nearby vicinity, apparently his alternate half, so he can restore himself back to normal. She never does find the fly, but when he accidentally reveals his hideous fly head to her it is a thing of pure 50's fright, Patricia Owens's terrified screams are wonderfully over-the-top, enhanced by her husbands fly-eye view of her, I love this sort of gimmicky stuff in these old sci-fi movies.
The design of the clawed hand and fly-face are awesome, this is the only one of the original three fly films to be in color, and it looks great with the big buy eyes and proboscis, it's a great creature design for the era. I love that they keep Andre's fly-face and hand hidden away for more than an hour, it really does build up the suspense, and when it is revealed it is a shocker.
Neither Andre's bother Francois (Vincent Price) nor police Inspector Charas (Herbert Marshall) can believe kind-hearted Helen's story about Andre accidentally turning himself into a human fly, it is not until the very end of the movie, when both witness a human-headed fly with a human arm stuck in a spider's web screaming "Help Me! Help Me!" that they both come around to the horrific truth of the matter.
As a kid this movie that creeped me out when I watched it on TV, watching it now the movie it has a bit more depth than just being creepy, what strikes me is the loving relationship between Andre and his wife, his struggle to hang onto his humanity, it's powerful stuff as he struggles to maintain his sanity, all the while worried he might do harm to his beloved wife as his fly instincts begin to take over. The movie is still campy though, the 50s sci-fi cinema was never too deep, but this one has a bit more depth than your average 50's atom-aged monster shocker.
Vincent Price (The Comedy of Terrors) appears as Andre's brother Francois who has to piece together the mystery of what's happened to his ill-fated brother. As usual he does good work here, as does most everyone, this is a top-notch cast and a rather good story, if a bit slow to unfold my current standards, but it pays off in spades and holds up fantastically.
Audio/Video: The Fly (1958) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in the original cinemascope (2.35:1) aspect ratio, colors looks solid bit not phenomenal. This looks like the same transfer Fox used for their US Blu-ray as well as Via Vision for there region-free The Fly collection, as usual Fox is keeping tight control over it's properties and did not allow for a new scan of the film elements. Audio is captured with an English DTS-HD Master Audio 4.0 with optional English subtitles. Everything is nicely crisp and clean, the Paul Sawtell score sounds terrific and the screams and sci-fi sounds are fantastic.
Scream Factory carry-over all the archival extras from past releases including the commentary with Actor David Hedison and historian David Del Valle, I do love Del Valle's commentaries, he adores old school Hollywood and Hedison has some cool recollections of making the movie. Additionally we get a 12-min look back at the original Fly trilogy, an episode of Biography about Price, a brief Fox Movietone News bit about the premiere of the movie and a trailer. We also get a still galerry and a trailer for the film. New stuff comes by way of an new audio commentary by author/film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nasr, both of whom have been doing plenty of commentaries for Scream Factory's Hammer line-up, and they do excellent work here.
Special Features:
-NEW Audio Commentary with author/film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nasr
-Audio Commentary with actor David Hedison and film historian David Del Valle
-Biography: Vincent Price (44 min)
-Fly Trap: Catching a Classic (12 min)
-Fox Movietone News (1 min)
-Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
RETURN OF THE FLY (1959)
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 86 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 & Stereo Mono with Optional English Subtitles.
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Edward Bernds
Cast: Vincent Price, Brett Halsey, David Frankham, John Sutton, Dan Seymour, Danielle De Metz
In the first sequel which is set twenty years after the original, we have Andre's now adult son Philippe (Brett Halsey, Lucio Fulci's Touch of Death) taking up the experiments of his doomed father with the same not unexpected disastrous results. Vincent Price returns as Francois, who when informed of his nephew's wish to continue the work of his father on the disintegrator-integrator device is none too pleased. Phillipe sets about tweaking his father's device, now able to "store" objects and animals in some 50's sci-fi version of cloud-based storage.
Philippe partners with a man named Alan Hines (David Frankham, Master of the World) who turns out to be a industrial spy looking to steal the device for his own profit, and who uses the device to dispose of a British Agent who shows up to confront him about his nefarious endeavors. Alan knocks him out and throws him in the device, and as the last thing sent through the transporter was a hamster the agent comes through the other side with hamster-hands and feet! It's ridiculous stuff, likewise the hamster comes through the other side with human hands and feet, which Alan crushes to death with his the bottom of his shoe, wiping up a tiny pool of blood from the floor afterward!
Eventually Philippe catches on to the wily ways of Hines and confronts him, there's a struggle and Hines knocks him out and places him in the transporter, deliberately placing a fly in there with him, which is just all sorts of fucking evil but not unexpected. At this point the film plays out very similarly to the original film, but largely without the suspense.
Strangely this film was shot in black and white while the original '58 film was in color, which as a kid made me like it a bit less and confused me a little bit. It also lacks the emotional core of the original, but what I do love and hate about it at the same time is that it is way more pulpy. They really go for the gusto with bringing the bulbous fly-headed monster to the big screen in all it's laughable badness, they show it a bit too much. As where the original kept you in suspense, this one keeps you in stitches at certain points, the head looking so damn big I wondered if there were outtakes of the actor falling over under the weight of the fly-head, or perhaps of his co-stars falling over with laughter.
The bleak ending of the original is replaced by something a bit happier, but not nearly as effective. That said, this is a solidly entertaining sequel but of much lesser quality, with the bonus of Vincent Price having an expanded role over the first. If you love goofy 50s sci-fi horror this one fits the bill, but it pales when compared to what came before it.
Audio/Video: The Return of The Fly arrives on Blu-ray from Scream factory framed in the original cinemascope (2.35:1) in 1080p HD. it looks very nice, grain is nicely managed, a the image is decently sharp, but it could have looked better with a new 2K scan. Audio on the disc comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono and Stereo with optional English subtitles.
Scream Factory give this release some solid extras, carrying-over the existing commentary with Actor Brett Halsey and Film Historian David Del Valle that appeared on Scream's The Vincent Price Collection II set. New stuff comes by way of a pair of commentaries, the first with actor David Frankham and a second with author/film historian Tom Weaver, plus we get a trailer, TV spot and gallery.
Special Features:
-NEW Audio Commentary with actor David Frankham
- NEW Audio Commentary with author/film historian Tom Weaver
-Audio Commentary with actor Brett Halsey and film historian David Del Valle
-Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
-TV Spot (1 min)
-Still Gallery (2 min)
CURSE OF THE FLY (1965)
Region Code: A
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 108 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Don Sharp
Cast: Brian Donlevy, George Baker, Carole Gray, Yvette Rees, Burt Kwouk, Michael Graham
Curse of the Fly (1965) was directed by cult filmmaker Don Sharp who directed the undead biker cult-classic Psychomania (1973), it opens with a surreal slow-motion breaking glass image, accompanied by a young woman named Patricia Stanley (Carole Gray, Devils of Darkness) escaping from the asylum clad in only her underwear. In the darkness she is nearly run over by passing motorist Martin Delambre (George Baker, The Spy Who Loved Me), who whisks here away and marries her, as you do when you find a girl in her undies on the road near an asylum.
We're dealing with two different generations of Delambre this time around, the father Henri (Brian Donlevy, Quatermass II) and his two sons are developing their own transporter device, which they've had some success with, but there are a few unfortunate side effects of course. We have Henri and his son Albert (Michael Graham) are in London, while his son Martin is in Quebec, Canada. They each have teleportation pods from which they can transmit matter, with Henri having already transported himself to London from Quebec, but getting burned badly in the process. Meanwhile Martin suffers from a weird skin disorder and is subject to a strange premature aging spells which he can semi-control by injecting himself with a serum, his affliction is said to be a genetic disorder inherited from his grandfather's (Philippe, from Curse of the Fly) recessive human-fly DNA.
When the father Henri runs afoul of the law in England he transports himself back to Quebec and tries to run off his son's new bride, but she's not having it, but eventually she discovers something unsavory about her husband, that he keeps deformed mutants locked away in a barn near the house, all victims of early attempts at teleportation, including his former wife, uh-oh!
This sequel falls far from the original films, less a Fly film and more of a weird mad-science melodrama with some really awful make-up effects for the mutants. Clearly these actors had lumps of clay slapped onto their faces with a stocking pulled over it, total crap-ola. It's not all bad though, there is a scene wherein Henri and Martin transport two of the mutants together to London through the teleporter and they arrive on the other side as one writhing mass of flesh, looking like something from The Thing in the process of mid-transformation with Henri having to dispatch the hideous creature with an ax.
This is a case of a film with a lot of good ideas floating around, including some nice atmospheric touches from director Don Sharp, but the execution and story are awful. Worse than even perhaps the awful mutant make-up is the character of the housemaid Wan (Yvette Rees), an Asian character played by a white woman with some seriously bad eye make-up. The nightmarish opening title sequence with Patricia escaping the loony bin seemed to promised something strange and different, and truly it was strange, but it was not good. Sure we get the transporter device but at no point do we get any fly-action, this in no way feels like a proper Fly sequel.
Audio/Video: The Curse of the Fly (1965)arrives on Blu-ray from Scream factory in 1080p HD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen. The black and white cinemascope cinematography looks very nice, grain is nicely managed and contrast looks good. Audio on the disc comes by way of an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 audio with optional English subtitles.
Scream Factory come through with new author/film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nasr, plus new interviews. Actress Mary Manson shows up for an 8-min interview discussing how she was cast in the film during a dinner with Producer Jack Parson, describing it as an odd bit of cinema, going into the make-up process including the plaster-cast of her face and how difficult that was. We also get a 5-min interview with script supervisor Renee Glynee, a trailer, TV spot and still gallery.
Special Features:
-NEW Audio Commentary with author/film historian Steve Haberman and filmmaker/film historian Constantine Nasr
-NEW interview with script supervisor Mary Manson (8 min)
-NEW interview with continuity Renee Glynee (5 min)
-Theatrical Trailer (1 min)
-TV Spot (1 min)
-Still Gallery (1 min)
THE FLY (1986)
Region Code: A
Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis, John Getz, Joy Boushel, Les Carlson, David Cronenberg
Nearly 30 years after the original film director David Cronenberg (Dead Ringers) brought us a remake of the source material, in a decade ripe with cool remakes that surpassed the originals, including The Blob (1988) and The Thing (1982). Here we have Jeff Goldblum (from another great remake, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) starring as Seth Brundle, an aloof but genius scientist who meets science journalist Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis, Beetlejuice) at an industry party hosted by his financiers Bartok Industries. He invites her back to his lab/apartment where he shows her what he calls his "telepods", the now familiar device that transports matter from one pod to another. The two strike up a romance and Veronica begins to document his progress working on the groundbreaking device, which is not yet perfected.
The telepods can only transport inanimate objects, when he attempts to transport a live animal, like say a baboon, it goes awry, and the animal is literally turned inside out in grisly fashion. He continues to work, and when inspired by a steak dinner, perfects it, successfully transports another baboon from one telepod to the other without incident. However, when Seth becomes jealous that Veronica might be rekindling a romance with her editor and former boyfriend Stathis (John Getz, Blood Simple) he gets drunk and sends himself through the telepod, unaware that a common housefly has made it's way inside the telepod with him, and when he is disintegrated and reintegrated the telepod reintegrates the fly's DNA into the matrix.
What ensues is a period of increased physical strength and agility for Seth, the scientist feels renewed, invigorated and unstoppable. He attributing this to the telepod experience, not yet realizing that there is now fly DNA inside his body, slowly metamorphosing him into a human-fly hybrid.
Goldblum is at his best here I think, with this coming before he was sort of type-cast as the neurotic science guy in films like Jurassic Park and Independence Day. He gives a wonderfully nuanced performance that captures the struggle between one's humanity and the monster he's becoming, which is partly what I loved so about the original film. Geena Davis as the love interest is also fantastic, at the time the two actors were a real-life couple, and it shows in their chemistry, that their core relationship fells strong echoes also back to the love story of the original film.
Cronenberg was already a director known for his love of skin-crawling body-horror, even before this, and his love for clinical weirdness is perfectly suited for the science fiction horror material. he's helped in no small part by the creative special effects work from Chris Walas (Gremlins), who really brings home the transformation process here. which was like nothing we'd ever seen before in a Fly film, the gooey ickiness of it is fantastic. We get gooey fingernail-trauma, a nightmare maggot-birthing scene, corrosive fly-vomit, bones breaking through skin, teeth falling out... there's plenty here to make you squirm. One of the the things I have always loved about the film was the iconic design of the telepods, which avid motorcyclist Cronenberg modeled after his Ducati motorcycle cylinder heads - they just look so damn cool looking.
The film did big business at the box office, and with good reason, it's a fantastic human drama with a genuine love story that didn't suck the life out of it, plus we have Brundle losing his humanity, and all the grotesque body horror stuff - and it all comes together so wonderfully onscreen.
Audio/Video: The Fly (1986) arrives on Blu-ray from from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen. Again, this is the same HD master we saw from 20th Century Fox years ago, and the same issues apply. It's a bit soft, and there's a lack of depth and clarity, it's awful, but it's just not awesome, and it could have been so much better with a new 4K scan. I imagine that at some point Fox will release this as a 4K UltraHD with a new scan of the elements and HDR color-grading, and it will be glorious, it's just a shame that we get this new box set and we don't get any new scan.
Audio on the disc includes choice of English DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 with optional English subtitles. The surrounds don't get a whole lot of action on this one, some of the telepod action and the Howard shore score bleed into them, but this is a primarily front centric experience.
Scream Factory carry-over all the extras from the 20th Century Fox Blu-ray, which was a super-stacked edition with hours of bonus content, in fact I think it was one of the most stacked studio releases ever, so that's cool.
While we didn't get a new scan of the film we do get some excellent new extras from Scream Factory, beginning with an audio commentary with author/film historian William Beard. we also get a 13-min interview with producer Mel Brooks (Blazing Saddles) who discusses being brought the project by producer Stuart Corfeld who had previously introduced him to David Lynch with Eraserhead leading to Brooks producing The elephant Man. Deciding on Cronenberg to direct the film when he saw Scanners (1980) and Videodrome, and casting Jeff Goldblum in the film because he was a bit strange, which he liked. It's a good watch with the legendary director discussing Brooksfilms and the success of his work.
We also get a 23-min interview with producer Stuart Cornfeld who discusses working on the project after having it brought to him by screenwriter Charles Pogue, the different iterations of the script, initially pitching it to David Cronenberg who was then already working on Total Recall, but when that project fell through he came on with the caveat that he could rewrite the script. Cornfeld discusses Cronenberg's knack for delivering cold but interesting characters, and his dedication to the core of his characters. He also gets into shooting the film in Canada, some production troubles along the way, casting Goldblum, mentioning alternatives that didn't work out like John Malachi, the ad campaign of the film and it's reception.
Casting director Deirdre Bowenspeaks for 15-min about casting the film including Gina Davis who was a bit of hard sell, John Getz, George Chuvallo who Cronenberg liked because of the killer-instinct in his eyes. We also get a 9-min interview with composer Howard Shore, 25-min with cinematographer Mark Irwin, and 15-min with casting director Deirdre Bowen.
On top of that we also get extended, deleted and alternate scenes, storyboards, and test footage Plus we get George Langelaan’s original short story from Playboy, Charles Edward Pouge’s original screenplay, David Cronenberg’s screenplay rewrite, plus a trio of articles on the film from Cineflex and American Cinematorapher, a pleathora of TV spots and trailers, a trivia track and extensive galleries.
It's a lot of stuff, so it surprised me that Scream factory opted to jam these all on a single-disc along with the film, that's a lot of digital bits crammed onto one disc. I am assuming that if they'd been granted a new scan of the film they would have spread these over a pair of discs and let the transfer breathe a bit more, but opted to go the cheaper route when a new scan was not in the cards.
Special Features:
-NEW Audio Commentary with author/film historian William Beard
-NEW The Meshuggener Scientist – an interview with executive producer Mel Brooks (13 min)
-NEW Beauty and the Beast - an interview with producer Stuart Cornfeld (23 min)
-NEW A Tragic Opera – an interview with composer Howard Shore (9 min)
-NEW David’s Eyes – an interview with cinematographer Mark Irwin (25 min)
-NEW interview with casting director Deirdre Bowen (15 min)
-Audio Commentary with director David Cronenberg
- Fear of the Flesh: The Making of The Fly (20 min)
- Additional Making of Interviews (27 min)
- The Brundle Museum of Natural History with Chris Walas and Bob Burns (12 min)
-Deleted Scenes with Storyboard and Script versions (9 min)
- Extended Scenes (6 min)
- Alternate Ending (11 min)
- Test Footage (Main Titles, Lighting and Makeup Effects) (8 min)
- Vintage featurette/Profile on David Cronenberg (7 min)
- Still Galleries (One Sheet & Lobby Cards, Publicity, Behind-The-Scenes, Concept Art
- Visual Effects Galleries (Monkey Cat, Space Bug, Arm Wrestling, Makeup)
- Theatrical Trailers (6 min)
- TV Spots (2 min)
- The Fly (1956) Trailer (2 min)
- Return of the Fly (1959) Trailer (2 min)
- George Langelaan’s short story
- Charles Edward Pouge’s Original Screenplay
- David Cronenberg’s Screenplay Rewrite
- Cineflex Article "The Flypapers" by Tim Lucas
- American Cinematorapher Article "New Buzz On An Old Theme" by Tim Lucas
- American Cinematograhper Article "More About The Fly" by Ron Magid
- Trivia Track
- Two Easter Eggs
THE FLY II (1989)
Region Code: ARating: R
Duration: 105 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Chris Walas
Cast: Eric Stoltz, Daphne Zuniga, John Getz, Lee Richardson, Frank C. Turner, Ann Marie Lee
With the success of Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) there would have to be a sequel, but we had to wait for three years to get, was it worth the wait? Cronenberg wanted nothing to do with a sequel, he was already making Dead Ringers, so Academy award-winner special makeup effects creator Chris Walas was tasked with helming the next film. The movie opens with the only returning cast member from the previous film, Stathis (John Getz, Blood Simple) at the Bartok research facility. You might remember that Bartok was the company financing Brundle's research in the last film, it was only mentioned in the previous film in passing, but here Bartok is a major evil corporate entity. Stathis is there witnessing the birth of Veronica and Seth's baby, she having chosen to carry it to term, and apparently to have it delivered at the Bartok labs. The scene is a nice call back to the maggot-birth nightmare from the first film. Veronica dies during childbirth and the mutant is born in a disgusting chrysalis which hatches, inside it is a seemingly normal human child, it's a good gooey birthing scene.
The child, named Martin, grows and ages at an accelerated rate, maturing into a the equivalent of a twenty-something young man (Eric Stoltz, Pulp Fiction) in just two years time, with a genius level intellect, thus far showing no signs of mutating into a human fly, but you know that will change soon enough.
Stolz' character lives at the research center as a sort of live-in experiment, there he befriends a young woman named Beth (Daphne Zuniga, The Initiation), and a romance develops between the two, however, Martin becomes suspicious of the researchers when he discovers a pet dog from his earlier childhood, which was supposedly killed in a telepod experiment. It's actually alive, a now deformed telepod-freak, kept hidden away in the basement. Martin discovers the true fate of his father, which he was lied to about, and that Bartok intends to use the telepods to create an army of human-fly soldier hybrids. Feeling betrayed he breaks free of the facility with Beth, but soon after begins to mutate like his father, his body disintegrating while he evolves into the fly.
Together the two track down Stathis seeking answers, he fills them in on the details about the fate of Martin's mother and father. Not long after Martin begins to form a chrysalis around him, readying himself for the next step in his evolution, that of the Martin-Fly, which is when the real carnage begins!
The movie has very little of the heart and soul of the Cronenberg film, but I don't it's as awful as it's credited with. Sure, it's a silly 80s sequel, but it's a fun science fiction horror flick with some wonderfully gooey gore and violence, including Martin Fly vomiting on the face of a security officer, then peeling of his face, it's good stuff. On just a purely practical gore and creature FX design level this is fun stuff with plenty of action, and stupidity aplenty. Zuniga and Stoltz do just fine, both are likable, the characters don't call for a load of range but they get the job done. The baddies this time around are corporate evil-doer Antoc Bartok (Lee Richardson, Exorcist III) and mean-spirited security guard Scorby (prolific TV actor Garry Chalk, who always seems to play cops and military guys), both of whom get their proper comeuppance, with Scorby being bent over backwards and Bartok becoming one of the disgusting telepod victims.
It's a steep step down in quality from the first movie, lacking the soul and nuance that Goldblum and Davis brought to it, but when just watched as a cheesy and icky special effects driven sci-fi horror this is not bad at all.
Audio/Video: The Fly II (1989) arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1. Like all the other films this is still that same Fox issued HD master, but of all the film on this set it is the best-looking, it is crisper and more detailed with some modest depth to the image. Grain can be a bit chunky, but overall this is a nice HD upgrade over the DVD at least. Audio on the disc comes by way of a full-sounding English DTS-HD MA 5.1 track, with some good atmospheric use of the surrounds, the Christopher Young score is big and sounds great in the mix.
Scream Factory carry-over all the extras from the Collector's Edition Blu-ray beginning with the audio commentary by director Chris Walas and film historian Bob Burns. We also get the 58-minute The Fly Papers doc, narrated by the late Leonard Nimoy, a making of doc specific to The Fly II, deleted scene and alternate ending, production journal, interview with composer Christopher Young, storyboard comparison, and plenty of image galleries.
Onto the new stuff we get a bunch, producer Stuart Cornfeld returns for an 8-min interview, plus 12-min with screenwriter Mick Garris, 22-min with screenwriter Ken Wheat, 18-in with composer Christopher Young, 15-min with special effects artist Tom Sullivan, and with cinematographer Robin Vidgeon (15 min).
Special Features:
- NEW Fly in the Ointment – an interview with producer Stuart Cornfeld (8 min)
- NEW Original Visions - an interview with screenwriter Mick Garris (14 min)
- NEW Version 2.0 – an interview with screenwriter Ken Wheat (22 min)
- NEW Big and Gothic – an interview with composer Christopher Young (18 min)
- NEW Pretty Fly for A Fly Guy - an interview with special effects artist Tom Sullivan
- NEW interview with cinematographer Robin Vidgeon (15 min)
- Interview with director Chris Walas (80 min)
- Interview with producer Steven-Charles Jaffe (35 min)
- Audio Commentary with director Chris Walas and film historian Bob Burns
- Transformations: Looking Back at The Fly II (49 min)
- The Fly Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood's Scariest Insect (58 min)
- Video Production Journal – a behind-the-scenes look at the special effects (18 min)
- Composer's Master Class: Christopher Young (13 min)
- Storyboard to Film Comparisons with optional commentary by director Chris Walas (7 min)
- Extended Press Kit Interviews with Eric Stoltz (4 min), Daphne Zuniga (4 min) and Chris Walas (2 min)
- Alternate Ending (1 min)
- Deleted Scene (1 min)
- Teaser Trailer (1 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min)
- Still Gallery (7 min)
- Storyboard Gallery (5 min)
All five films on this set arrive in their own keepcase housed within a rather sexy rigid slipbox with new artwork from the amazing Graham Humphreys, I love it to death, even the spine is sexy, it;s the sort of slipbox that sells itself. The rigid slipbox resembles The Omen Collection from Scream Factory, high quality and much appreciated. The slipbox houses the five films, each getting their own keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring the original theatrical artwork for the films with a scene from each film displayed on the reverse side, the disc itself featuring the same artwork.
I already own the region-free The Fly Collection five-disc Blu-ray set from Australia's Via Vision and was happy with it, but this new collection from Scream Factory is easily the superior set to own. The transfers are near identical from what I can discern, but all of the Scream discs have uncompressed audio which the former did not. Also each film gets it's own Blu-ray keepcase inside a rigid slipbox with new sexy AF artwork from Graham Humphreys, plus we get hours of new bonus content on top of the wealth of archival bonus content from past releases. That being said, if you're only looking for an A/V upgrade and do not care about extras and packaging this might be a bit of a hard sell, but for me this is well-worth the money. Eventually we will get a 4K UltraHD of Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) with a glorious new scan and HDR color-grading but it will not have the arsenal of extra for that film and the others that you will find on this set, and for an extras-hound like myself, combined with the excellent presentation and packaging, this is a must-own, my hat is off to Scream Factory for this comprehensive extras-laden set.
