Return of the Fly

Year: 1959

Director: Edward L. Bernds

Written by: Edward L. Bernds

Threat: Psychopath

Weapon of Choice: Claw

Based upon: Original

IMDb page: IMDb link

      Return of the Fly

Other movies in this series:
The Fly
Curse of the Fly

Rish Outfield's reviews
Due to the success of the brilliant original, 20th Century Fox was quick to drum up a sequel. Unfortunately, they cut the budget so much that they didn't even bother to shoot Return of the Fly in colour! Nevertheless, the great Vincent Price returned, and the story wasn't all bad. Strangely, they changed the design of the fly head (so effective in the original), and it's neither as tragic nor as impressive as it once was. A typical sequel, this was not a great film, but it was one hell of a lot better than the sequel to the 1980's version of The Fly.

The tyranist's thoughts
As good as the first was, this was obviously a low-budget, "let's cash in" kind of picture. Shot in black and white where the first one was color and featuring far inferior effects to the original there just isn't much here for discerning horror fans.
So years after the original incidents of The Fly, the scientist's son decides that he is duty bound to continue his father's research. Uncle Vincent Price warns him of the dangers and refuses to help. For about two minutes. Then he caves in. Then all the bad stuff starts happening. Sort of.
Even though Vincent Price is back in this one, there just isn't much here. The plot is pretty weak and lacks the suspense and drama of the first movie. While there are more monsters, they aren't even a little scary, and the main monster is just ridiculous.
You don't have to waste your time here. Unless you are trying to see all of Price's films or just dig on bad '50s monster movies, your time is better spent elsewhere, like watching the first movie.

Total Skulls: 16

Sequel skull
Sequel setup
Rips off earlier film
Horror film showing on TV/in theater in movie
Future celebrity appears
Former celebrity appears
Bad title
Bad premise
Bad acting
Bad dialogue
Bad execution
MTV Editing
OTS
Girl unnecessarily gets naked
Wanton sex
Death associated with sex
Unfulfilled promise of nudity
Characters forget about threat skullskull
Secluded location
Power is cut
Phone lines are cut
Someone investigates a strange noise skull
Someone runs up stairs instead of going out front door
Camera is the killer
Victims cower in front of a window/door skull
Victim locks self in with killer
Victim running from killer inexplicably falls
Toilet stall scene
Shower/bath scene
Car stalls or won't start skull
Cat jumps out
Fake scare
Laughable scare
Stupid discovery of corpse skull
Dream sequence
Hallucination/Vision
No one believes only witness
Crazy, drunk, old man knows the truth skull
Warning goes unheeded skullskull
Music detracts from scene
Death in first five minutes
x years before/later
Flashback sequence
Dark and stormy night
Killer doesn't stay dead skull
Killer wears a mask
Killer is in closet
Killer is in car with victim
Villain is more sympathetic than heroes
Unscary villain/monster skull
Beheading
Blood fountain
Blood hits camera
Poor death effect
Excessive gore
No one dies at all
Virgin survives skull
Geek/Nerd survives
Little kid lamely survives
Dog/Pet miraculously survives
Unresolved subplots skull
"It was all a dream" ending
Unbelievably happy ending skull
Unbelievably crappy ending
What the hell? skull