VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Izzy Adkins The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

qmtv The story is garbage. The acting is horrible. The main actor cannot act, it's like they just took some dude from the street and put him in front of the camera. And his character is a dirtbag. Who sleeps in his jeans? Who takes a nap with a fully loaded gun in his hand? The wife, cannot act, not pretty, just a plain face, nothing to look at, just plain nothing. When she got the call that the maid was dead and told the husband, nothing, no shock, no oh my god, just plain nothing. Nothing. What's the story with the bum friends? The best line is when one of the bums asks for a light and switched the cigarettes! The comedy sucked. Some of the killings were OK, nothing great. The maid in the park idea was good, but seriously poorly executed. The rock music was horrible, Truly horrible. Some mentioned that Deep Purple was thinking about doing the music. I am glad they didn't get stuck in this garbage movie. The rest of the music sucked too, especially the drum/bongo crap towards the end. Truly annoying. Then we get to the part of the dead eyeballs capturing the last thing the victim saw. Was this supposed to be sc-fi? What the hell was that? Then the wife comes in with the medallion of the flies. Oh, now it all makes sense. She's crazy, so she concocts this elaborate scheme to torture and kill her husband. Then she tries to take off, and for dramatic effect, crashes her car into a truck and gets decapitated, with poor effect. After the car crash a head is shown rolling in the street, no blood anywhere. Very poor. Give me a break! Characters are show telling boring stories. Some of these characters are shown before the big reveal, a red herring. Editing is crap, real choppy. The scene where the main character is shown confessing to his wife about killing someone, and the wife's cousin casually walks in and he does not stop talking. Does this seem realistic? No! So, what we have here is someone who got a budget with no talent, and hired a bunch of people with no talent to produce a film, for all the no talent film viewers to see and say, "It's art". It's not art, it's crap.Inferior story, acting, cinematography, lighting, sets, editing, music, you name it, it sucks.I've watched enough giallo films and understand that not all the story is supposed to make sense. But at least the good ones present decent cinematography, acting and music. I recommend Don't Torture A Duckling by Fulci, or All the Colors of the Dark, by Sergio Martino This movie should be the basis of a semester in film studies. Scene by scene should be torn apart for what should not be done. To be fair there are some parts, like the park scene that had good ideas, but bad execution.I've read some of the IMDb reviews and most like or love this movie. I hate it. And I hate Argento. This is only the 2nd movie I've seen from him. First was Suspira, a complete garbage of a movie. Color gels for lighting and that's his set design. I can only guess that fans of Argento might be looking at his movies and disregarding the story and the acting. And they praise the cinematography and scenes. Sorry, he fails on all fronts. He does not produce art, or abstract art, it's just garbage. If you watch a film with black screen and no audio, you would have a better time, use your imagination and produce your own abstract art film.I've read most of the critic reviews. So far only Entertainment Maven and Bloodcapsules have given it a low or negative rating. So, I can only conclude that most reviewers here are deaf and blind and ignorant of true art. Most state that the story is lacking and the acting is amateurish, but disregard these important elements of movie making by giving it a positive review. So, I guess you need to make up your own mind. Please, do not be fooled by garbage disguised as art.

jadavix This early Argento has the director's usual trademarks: a young man witnesses (or in this case, accidentally takes part in) a killing and finds himself next on a hit list, all the while being plagued by the same bizarre flash back. There are lots of P.O.V. shots through the killer's eyes, and of course, there's a flamboyant gay man, the giallo genre's version of the "black guy who dies first" in American horror movies.Gialli always end with revelation after revelation as we find out whodunit, and why. Oftentimes this feels rushed after all the build up of red herrings and far fetched murders and suspects disposed of. In that final moment of exposition, if you haven't been paying close attention, you won't be sufficiently surprised when the killer joins the dots."Four Flies on Grey Velvet" is the first giallo I've seen with the opposite problem. The ending feels staggered, and starts to drag on. The final killer's reasoning for doing what they did seems a bit too far fetched, even for a thriller, and the flashback sequence - shown without creepy lullaby music this time - is never explained.It is a top notch thriller up until this point, though. I liked Italian comedian Bud Spencer as a beatnik friend of the hero, and the final piece of evidence that links the killer to the crime, and explains the name of the movie, is well done.

HorrorQueen17 Four Flies on Grey Velvet is the third of Argento's films, and the third I have seen. It stars Michael Brandon as Roberto Tobias and Mimsy Farmer as his wife, Nina Tobias, and is the third and final film in the unofficial 'Animal Trilogy', the others being The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat O'Nine Tails. Of the three, I would consider this one to be the weakest in storyline, and consequently the most confusing, although the final scene is the best ending of any of the films. The film is fragmented and sometimes maniacally shot, with scenes being edited together in such as way so that as a viewer you are never quite sure which part of the film you are seeing. This works quite well at building up the confusion, as in typical Giallo style there are a lot of characters and a lot of red herrings, pseudo reveals and possible villains. The storyline itself concerns the protagonist being blackmailed over an accident that occurs at the very start of the film, and from there on, we are taken on a chaotic and pretty befuddling journey of kills, private investigators, flashbacks and an array of characters. Sadly the kills were very tame, even for Giallos of the time, and I can't help but feel that, although the film built tension very well, and the suspense did ratchet up throughout, there would have been a lot more suspense if the kills had been more shocking. The acting is not top class, Brandon being particularly stale in some scenes, but I'd be lying if I said Mimsy Farmer wasn't captivating in the final few minutes. As in all of Argento's films, the beauty is there in the visuals, and although this is not as visually striking as his other films, there is one scene where a woman is in a park in the daytime, surrounded by creepy carnival music and lots of playing children. All of a sudden the park turns to darkness and we see the woman running through an increasingly mazy, fog-filled scene, trying desperately to escape her pursuer. This is one of the most beautifully shot pieces of the film, and, barring the ending, the most stunning visually. It showcases Argento's immense skill at building suspense in eerily beautiful surroundings. Another captivating visual is the frequent dreamscapes/flashbacks to a person being beheaded in a very washed out desert setting, which is also probably the most graphic scene in Four Flies. This becomes all the more mesmerising after the credits begin to roll.Overall, while it is not the best of Argento's first three films, it is still definitely worth a watch, and although it can be confusing at times, it is not overwhelmingly so. It is a good suspenseful film, and the ending is memorable and very well done. I recommend it to anyone who likes Giallos, wants to see older Euro-Horror or is interested in watching something s little different. 6/10

trashgang It is rare that this flick was until a few years ago almost know as the lost flick of director Dario Argento. There were a lot of VHS available but most of them were Italian spoken and didn't had any subtitles. Another problem was that most copies were too dark, that was meant to be that way. Still, a lot of DVD's that came out later were cut. Now 40 years after it's release it is available on Blu Ray. And what a great release it is. It's available in English and it's full uncut. You can choose between the normal version or the full uncut which has a few scene's that are in VHS quality and others that are spoken in Italian. All with English subtitles.Was it worth the wait? Well, it's one of his earlier flicks and if you know Dario then you might be disappointed by the fact that there's almost no blood or gore in it. On the other hand it is still watchable due the many first person shots involved and the score by Morricone. Also to see is the acting by Michael Brandon in one of his first roles before he became famous in Dempsey and Makepeace (1985 1986). The story itself isn't that god sometimes but it is really the way of filming that let you keep watching it. The acting is by some a bit laughable (the postman) so don't watch it for that reason. Funny is that Dario made an ode to Sergio Leone by adding the fly scene at the beginning, remember Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) were he was involved by watching Sergio.I liked it for the reasons mentioned before, and for the use of special camera's to film the bullet and the end scene. It's not a Deep Red (1975) or Suspiria (1977) but it's a straight Giallo that is a must have for the Dario fans. Pick it up, it's on Shameless label. And for the pervs, Francine Racette (Dalia) go naked. Gore 1/5 Nudity 0,5/5 Effects 4/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5