‘Speak No Evil’ Gets Peacock Streaming Date

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It was 1986 and David Cronenberg was about to go mainstream. The director had always been associated with horror movies like Videodrome and The Brood, but The Fly was different: it went — to use today’s term — “viral.”

He had successful theatrical releases before with Scanners (1981). That film made $14 million worldwide during its run. Then came The Dead Zone (1983) which did better at $20 million, but it wasn’t until The Fly that he closed in on the century mark.

But this isn’t about The Fly, it’s about its sequel The Fly II. Chris Walas directed it three years after the original. Critically it was dismissed and even Cronenberg disliked it.

Is it one of the best body horror films ever made? Maybe. Even the MPAA initially gave it an X rating.

Unless you own the DVD, you’re not going to be able to see this gem anywhere across streaming. Furthermore, it has been elusive to popular film preservation companies too. There are a few old collector’s editions out there and a Blu-ray, but it might be time to revisit this in 4K.

In the 1980s, a few sequels were as good as or better than their originals. Take The Empire Strikes Back for instance or Aliens. Unfortunately, The Fly II wasn’t a part of that category, but it didn’t have to be. All it needed was to out-gross the original while maintaining the premise. Mission accomplished (animal lovers beware).

Eric Stolz plays Martin (perhaps a reference to a George Romero film of the same name); the spawn of the original movie couple Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) and Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis). Martin has inherited his father’s insect genes which makes him supernatural. The antagonist, Anton Bartok, wants to keep developing Brundle Senior’s teleportation experiments, but he hasn’t perfected the technique, instead creating hideous monsters whose genes get reorganized during the transfer.

At the core of The Fly II is a budding young romance between Martin and Beth Logan (Daphne Zuniga). It’s an aspect of the script Walas didn’t like.

“Fly II was a mixed blessing for me,” Walas said in a 2017 interview with Australia’s 3AW: It was a chance to direct, but the studio wasn’t interested in an intelligent follow up to David Cronenberg’s masterpiece. They insisted I make a teen date movie, without too much thinking in it. I was assigned my main leads and the writer’s strike hit after Frank Darabont’s first draft. So it wasn’t the most appealing entry into directing I could imagine. But it was a fantastic crew and the actual production was a wonderful education for me. So the challenge for me was to keep the production values as high as I could and make the film look as professional as possible. The battles I had with the studio were more about my choices for writer, composer and director of photography. After the production, one of the execs came up to me and apologized for hassling me so much about them and told me I was absolutely right about them! But I will say it was difficult for me to separate myself from the effects work. I kept wanting to operate the puppets!’”

As for that gross-out factor, it’s there, especially in the final half hour. Walas was not only the movie’s director but also its effects designer and creator.

“I wanted The Fly II to be a bit of a homage to the old monster movies I grew up with,” said Walas, speaking with SciFiNow in 2022. “In his final form, MartinFly had to be able to portray a range of emotions and actions, from horrific to sympathetic. He has more expressive eyes and had a lot more action to do – so his design reflects a healthy, capable creature.” 

Walas really amps up the goop in the film’s final half-hour. Once the creature is revealed it’s practically non-stop gore, including a top-notch face-melting scene and an unforgettable elevator kill.

Despite a shaky creature design and some obvious puppetry, The Fly II still holds up. It’s not as good as the original by any means, but it carries its own weight for what it is. It even has a gooey ending similar to this year’s The Substance.

The sweeping score by Christopher Young (Hellraiser, Species) and cinematography by Robin Vidgeon (Event Horizon, Nightbreed, Drag Me to Hell) are as polished as the first film.

“I’ve had people come up to me asking about the movie and telling me how it freaked them out,” says Stoltz. ” One person told me how they saw it in Times Square and that people were yelling at the screen – which is ideal. When I think of that time in my life I remember being in love and my girlfriend visiting me in Canada. I remember the super nice cast and crew who were a lovely bunch. It was a good time in life and I’m grateful to have been there.” 

Maybe it is time Disney (which owns Fox) added this to their streaming service or some studio out there will find that it deserves a 4K transfer and fresh extras.