Curse of the Fly (1965) Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Curse of the Fly
Year: 1965
Director: Don Sharp
Country: US
Language: English

Previously I have reviewed The Fly (1958), its sequel Return of the Fly (1959) and Cronenberg's remake The Fly (1986) but I have not reviewed Curse of the Fly (1965). Made six years after the original film's sequel Curse of the Fly was yet another attempt to cash-in on the series' dwindling financial and critical success. People tend to complain about modern Hollywood's tendency to do sequel after sequel, but it was pretty bad in the 50's too.

Grandson of the original scientist,  Martin Delambre (George Baker)  attempts to keep evidence of his family's bizarre experiments in teleportation hidden from his wife, who is hiding secrets of her own. 

Less rushed than the first sequel, Curse of the Fly is the redheaded stepchild of The Fly legacy. It wreaks havoc with the series’ continuity. Not only does it disregard the second film, but it also retcons the events of the first film in a wholly unnecessary manner. The story is marginally connected to the original, the main connection being the main character is the grandson to the original, and...there isn't a giant fly monster in this once? huh!? 

Given what we know of cash-grabbing studio executives, it’s easy to look at this as just that; a cash grab.  Fox wanted dust off a well-known property and apply its title on an entirely different script they had lying around. Although at the same time I feel Curse has more of an Evil Dead II vibe in the sense that in being less faithful to the original, it is not confined to the same parameters.

Indeed Curse is less of a  "monster on the loose"  story and more of a romantic spooky house movie like The Uninvited. Although unlike that film, this suffers from poor pacing, poor character development, poor scripts and poor acting.  It does have lush black and white Cinemascope photography and its quaint, shadowy sets but is that enough to make Curse a passable picture? Nope. Stay away if you can.