Curse of the Fly

I remember seeing the ads for this on tv back in 1965.Man did I ever want to see this flick!Too bad I had to wait over 30 years to do so.One good thing is that I really wasn't disappointed!

This to me is the best of the "Fly" trilogy.A man turning into a fly via a matter transporter is a little outrageous.But turning into a gooey mutant is another thing entirely!

The Delambre family (led by Brian Donlevy) is once again mucking about with transporters.The "mistakes" are kept in the stables.Radiation burns and rapid aging are the norm in this household.

On the downside is the extremely low budget.Not a lot of different sets were used in this film.The make up is okay (but a sight better than the guinea pig man from Return Of The Fly).

There is a very Gothic look to this flick and the cast and crew do extremely well with what they have been given.The ending is pretty much unforgettable and chilling.Excellent b&w photography.Well worth a look!

I saw this as a kid and had read that it was the worst of the series. I don't think so! This one is the scariest, weirdest, most atmospheric and most unsettling of the FLY series. I think that if this film wasn't having to be compared to the first two, it would be more highly spoken of. The scene where the heroine discovers just who (or what) is playing the piano in the middle of the night sent chills up my spine. This film has enough ghoulish imagery that really stays with you long after you've seen it (and for me it's been over 20 years). The opening escape scene is ahead of it's time with the mental patient running in slow motion with the title credits over it. Some of the mutants are very quite disturbing to look at and there are plot twists and turns applenty. Basically, no one is safe or sacred in this dark final film in the series. I could talk more but I would spoil it for those who have never seen it. It used to be on television frequently but has now disappeared. However, it's well worth the trouble of finding it. This has the mark of a truly great horror film - it will continue to live in your memory long after your initial viewing. I am wishing for a DVD of it someday. The sad part is that it is the unfavorable comparisons to the original on the part of most critics that probably keep Fox from releasing a video of it. Let's hope they wise up and preserve it on disc before the negative is destroyed. That would be an un-fitting end for CURSE OF THE FLY which is an unsung masterpiece of a horror film.

Curse of the Fly may well be a surprise to you, as it was to me. Expecting some typically cheap, cheesy '60s B Horror film, I instead found a film that captured my attention with a better than average storyline, good acting, interesting, if dated, theories on teleportation, and some rather subtle humor. Burt Kwouk, who played the Chinese houseboy "Kato" in the Pink Panther films to Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, and who seemed to be forever perpetrating sneak attacks on Clouseau, likewise turns up in this film as a Chinese houseboy, sans the martial arts bits. This time however, Kwouk is named "Tai". Yvette Rees, who plays the Chinese house'girl', as it were, is named "Wan". Tai and Wan? Taiwan?

Somebody obviously had a lot of fun writing the screenplay.

The opening scene, featuring the beautiful Carole Gray as Patricia Stanley escaping from a mental institution in her underwear as the opening credits roll, is one of the oddest introductory scenes to be seen in a film of this genre. Absolutely recommended for all fans of horror, suspense, '60s b&w's, camp, and films featuring unintentional humor

The "curse" of the fly, is the "curse" of the DeLambre family, whom has lost family members experimenting with teleportation. Two of the family members bodies had been intermixed with the bodies of house flies in two earlier films. Hence, the "curse of the fly." No one turns into a "fly" in this one; but there are plenty of gruesome results nonetheless. Nothing in the film is better than the opening sequence, as heroine Carol Gray escapes from an asylum, only to meet and marry one of the "mad" DeLambres. The slow motion shattering glass creates quite an eerie effect. Much of what occurs in the film is gruesome rather than horrific. However, nothing is more frightening than Brian Donleavy carrying on a rational conversation arguing FOR the teleportation experiments, with his back covered in horrible radiation burns, the result of his self-experimentation. This is a powerful moment in an, otherwise, fairly routine programmer.

I wasn't too impressed by "Return of the Fly", but it still fascinated me! When I learnt that there was a third one, I was quite intrigued to see it. I just watched it for the first time on DVD, and I was quite impressed on how smart the story was, and even though there is no Human-Fly monster in it (which, to be honest, is a smart approach), I thought it was more clever to base the movie around the Delambre legacy, rather than focus on the whole "man gets gene-spliced with a fly" blah blah blah! To be honest, I was expecting something REALLY dreadfully cheesy, but surprisingly, I loved it! The visuals (especially, the opening credit sequence, very well thought up!), and the originality of it is superbly done! It's got the classic horror movie style down perfectly! True its not as frightening as say... Alien, but, for its time (1960s), the mutant make up and story are very well sorted! TOTALLY UNDERRATED!