Well well! I just finished Return of the Fly and I'll tell you this. It was exactly how I thought it would be. I was hoping for more elements of the remake to make an appearance here but other than that it was exactly what I thought it would be. A below average, run of the mill, studio rushed sequel to a high grossing, well made film from a year earlier.
The film opens on a splendidly eerie shot of a funeral, with rain pouring down and thunder rumbling in the background. Very soon we find out that this is the funeral of Helene Delambre, the ill fated wife of Andre Delambre, the man who melded with fly in The Fly. But within the first few moments of the film, perhaps 20 seconds in, I sensed something was amiss. There was Vincent Price (His name now appearing first in the credits!) as Francois Delambre, looking just as he did in the first film, as if no time has gone by yet Philippe Delambre, Helene and Andre's son is now a fully grown adult, in his mid twenties no less.
But, that aside, the film starts out promisingly enough, albiet with cheesy, b-movie-esque dialogue straight out of the 50's. Philippe finds out the truth about his father and wants to continue and correct his work. He has a partner to help him and a reluctant Francois at his side. Due to a slew of both a mysterious and intriguing side story and a convoluted and non-sensical list of plot lines (How did Philippe get his dad's notes if dad had burned them all up in the first film?), Philippe becomes just like his dad, a human/fly hybrid, a manfly if you will.
Unfortunately, as soon as the new manfly arrives onscreen, all semblance of writing sense withers away and the film becomes a jumbled mess of story that is just an excuse to have a manfly running around. This time the manfly escapes the confines of laboratory and runs amuck through the city. Even though he has a fly foot, and has to drag it along, he outruns police and gunfire very easily. Even though he had no idea about a plan to steal his machine is in the works, he somehow tracks down the culprits and has his revenge. And then when he returns home, he conveniently passes out for no reason other than the writers needed him to.
There are some pleasing aspects to the movie. Price, as Francois, is particularly fun to watch as he tries his best to give his performance some weight through some really bad and expositionary dialogue. He does a great job and helps in making the picture feel better than it actually is. The rest of the main cast perform well, but no one really delivers a performance of note. There are the obligatory wooden and bland actors in the minor roles, something that seems to happen quiet a bit in the 50's and 60's, but at least we don't encounter another terrible performance by a barely capable child actor.
Unlike The Fly, Return of the Fly is not in colour, rather it is in black and white and is obviously done for budgetary reasons. The manfly's costume and the teleporting machine don't look as good either, another unfortunate setback due to the budget. But with that said, the buildup to the creation of the manfly is rather interesting and the way it falls into place is fun to see play out. The shots are framed nicely and it's tightly paced, lasting a brisk 80 minutes.
The ending is muddled and rather chipper compared to the first film and unfortunately, except for Vincent Price, nothing is as good here as it was in the original. That is expect for the music which is tense, fast and drives the movie forward. I was hoping for more moments in this film that Cronenberg might have eluded to in his film but alas I could find none. It is for these reasons that I wouldn't really recommend this film to anyone who hasn't seen it's predecessor, The Fly, but for those who have this is a fun if not as rewatchable follow up.
It took six years for a second sequel to hit the screens. Six years and when number three arrived there was no Vincent Price. Would the third film be better or worse than number two? Where could the story go now? Under what circumstances could a third manfly be created? Did the world really need another Fly movie? These questions shall be answered when I return from The Curse of the Fly...
Film Rating: 60%
Breakdown (How Return of the Fly scored 60%):
Production Design: 6 out of 10
Cinematography: 7 out of 10
Re-playability: 5 out of 10
Originality: 5 out of 10
Costumes: 6 out of 10
Directing: 6 out of 10
Editing: 6 out of 10
Acting: 6 out of 10
Music: 8 out of 10
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