DVD Review: Curse of the Fly

The third and final entry of the original Fly eliminates the fly itself. What it does is continue the Delambre family saga, a line of people determined to create a teleportation device that would, undoubtedly, change the world.

This is obviously a cheapie from Fox, with rather sparse sets, and a distinct lack of Vincent Price. At the very least, writer Harry Spalding avoided turning the grandson of the original fly into yet another man/insect mixture. It is hard to believe that could happen to the same family line twice, let alone three times.

Still, the Delambre’s are continuing their experiments, turning multiple humans into freaks, and causing Henri (Brian Donlevy) and Martin (George Baker) Delambre to age rapidly. Their teleportation device needs work, and their minds continue to focus on their goal, not on the effects of their work.

Curse of the Fly opens with a bizarre moment, that of a window blowing out into the camera (as if the film was supposed to be in 3-D), and a woman jumping out in her underwear and walking around a forest. There is no dialogue or explanation. A woman simply runs around the forest as the opening credits play.

As it turns out, she is Patricia Stanley (Carole Gray) fresh out of a mental hospital for an unspecified condition, and soon to be picked up by Martin. They romance for a week until Martin decides to marry her. It doesn’t make much sense, and Patricia exists in the script purely to cause contrived problems for the insane scientists.

Still, Curse is creepy. While the make-up is sub-par, there are mild scenes of tension, and the moral issues with the increasing failure of the experiments are by no means hidden. Then again, it is hard to take a movie seriously when two Chinese servants are named “Tai” and “Wan,” and it sounds exactly like you think.

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Article Author: Matt Paprocki

Matt Paprocki is a 12-year movie and game critic. He currently freelances for Blu-ray review site DoBlu.com and video game site MultiPlayerGames.com.

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