Well, it has been a long time. I have not written a review in a very long time. I expect this to be short and sweet. I love Return of the Fly. Review over.
Well, it won’t be that short. I realize posting reviews of older horror movies isn’t exactly big reading or anything, especially since you can see things like Rotten Tomatoes and even read the entire description of moves on Wikipedia. But, every single day there is a new person discovering horror and trying to find their, “bread and butter”. I do believe most fans stick to slasher films and horror of the 1980s. That is fine, but there are so many different genres from older decades like the Atomic age of horror, which spawned the Fly in 1958.
So, Return of the Fly follows Phillipe Delambre as an adult. We’re not sure exactly how much time has passed, mostly because the sets and clothing look so similar. I would venture to say 15 to 17 years. Vincent Price is back, but the movie is about his nephew. His mother has passed away and Phillipe is determined to finish his father’s work, even without the support from his uncle. Eventually Francois caves and decides to help. But Phillipe’s assistant is a fowl man an industrial spy and steals the plans for the devices, but all hell breaks loose. Alan Hines aka Ronald Holmes steals the secrets and sends Phillipe through the teleportation devices with a fly. There are a couple of scenes in the film that show how terrified Phillipe is when a fly is near, fearing what happened to his father. No, his fears become reality as he becomes, the beast his father became.
When watching, I was impressed, the one thing about movies from the 50s, the don’t really look to the future. Everything looks too similar to the last movie. I get it, but it does bother me a bit. Especially with Vincent Price, he at this point should look much older, but doesn’t. Things like this are forgivable. When the story and characters are captivating, it doesn’t matter as much.
I really loved this and it is a great sequel to a movie that in 1958 was ahead of its time, which this may be one of the best direct sequels in horror history. Sure its 62 years old, but don’t let yourself disregard this movie. It is almost as good as the first and honestly, that is rare in any film genre, especially horror.
I will say I am disappointed in the costume design for the Fly creature. I am not sure why they made the head so big, in the original it was perfect. The actor in the costume isn’t on screen too often and there is a scene of the Fly running through the woods and you can tell the mask is loose. The actor has to adjust the mask a couple of times while running. The mask in the original is so much better.
I’d give Return of the Fly a 7.8 score. I really liked it.
IMDB.com has a rating of 5.8
Give it a shot. It is better than you’d think or even online scores would suggest. Of course the 1986 The Fly is probably the best of all 5 Fly movies.
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