31 Days of Halloween - Day 1: Return of the Fly

For the last few years I always do a 31 days of Halloween month. The past few years I re-read all the original Goosebumps books and before that I'd watch 31 horror movies. However I realized every single time I watched 31 Horror movies I exclusively picked ones I enjoyed. I decided to do something slightly different. I composed a list of every horror movie I owned and put them in alphabetical order. Then using a random number generator I generated 31 numbers and watched the movies that corresponded with those numbers. Some are great films and others… well… are less than fun let's say. I hope you enjoy!

Day 1: The Fly Collection - Return of the Fly (Movie #167)

When I was a kid my parents showed me The Monster Squad. That was the beginning of my love affair with horror movies. While it took me until Junior High to be comfortable watching modern R-rated horror films (all thanks to my cousin Dave and a little film called Scream) I loved the old classics. I must thank Crestwood House Books for their amazing Monsters book series as they helped me discover all the classic titles. One of the titles they introduced to me was The Fly. However when I finally saw the original I was greatly disappointed. The monster in the movie didn't look like the monster picture in the book. It wasn't until years later I realized the picture they used was the monster from it's sequel Return of the Fly.

The Bible To 7 Year Old Matt Kelly

I was excited to rewatch this film. I always liked the look of The Fly in this movie more than any other Fly film (including the incredible remake). That being said I forgot how slow, boring and frankly… bad the first hour of this movie is. While the original film had the framing device of Inspectors trying to solve the murder mystery of Andre Delambre this film is totally linear.

That's not necessarily a bad thing but at least while the original dragged we were reminded of the violent opening that hooked us in. This film doesn't have that. Instead we're left sitting waiting for the film to get exciting without having any little tastes of whats to come until 45 minutes into an 80 minute long film.

The film never finds it's tone which also hurts it but the fly creature in this is still awesome (even though  it's obvious right away that the actor in the costume can't see). It's a shame it's so under used. I'm not sure why something as simple as giving it a larger head and fly leg makes it so much better but it truly does improve the look of the creature.

The movie takes place years after the original. Phillipe's (Andre's son) mother has died and the mystery of his famous fathers death has never been solved. Francois (Vincent Price) finally tells Phil the truth of his fathers death and Phil swears to continue his father's research. He asks Alan (an employee of Francois) to assist him in his research.

Alan turns out to be a traitor and when his trickery is discovered he fights with Phillipe successfully knocking him out. He drags Phillipe's body to the transporter and captures a fly as well as an additional fuck you. I think you know what happens from there.

All in all the film is a rough rehashing of the original but on a much lower budget. I really didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped I would but I will sing praise for the film's monster until the day I die.

Matt Kelly is the host of the popular podcast The Saint Mort Show, a frequent contributor to Geekscape.net, the founder of Chords for Cures and the co-writer/co-director of the upcoming comedy Describing the Moon. He also loves it when people surprise him with purchases from his Amazon Wishlist… just saying.