The Devil's Honey

later

Trailer—The Devil's Honey

Not sure if this is the best beginning/intro to any movie out there. I can say though that it is one of the most memorable ones. Once you've seen, it sax with you. Sorry I mean stays with you. Like sticks with you ... ok enough puns and interesting use of a saxophone aside (and not actually sure if it works that way), the movie is quite sexual, so if you are easily offended, do not watch this. There are different characters and timelines and this may be a bit tough to follow for some. But if you can get behind it, it is quite the entertaining movie to watch. Also as stated before, do not be offended easily. This warrants multiple views to actually discover more ... if you want to that is of course. One time can be enough too.

The Devil's Honey is really not that bad of a film. It was originally going to be a point of contention I had with it, but looking back, I think I've gotten to appreciate what it was going for. Its narrative structure is a little unconventional and I was a little worried that the film would end up being unfocused and disorganized. But once things came together, it made a lot more sense. The other thing I like about this film, in retrospect, is that it is surprisingly visual. I say surprisingly because I don't really expect very much from low budget sexploitation film, but the visual aspect of this film was actually quite strong. This film isn't without its flaws, however. Its weakest point is the acting.Not all of the performances are bad, but the ones that are are so much so that they make certain dramatic points in the film unintentionally funny. The scene that instantly comes to mind for me is when the main character's boyfriend collapses in the recording studio while recording his tenor sax part for a song on his album he's recording. Its obvious that the actor is pretending to play and not pretending very well when his character is having a good day, so when he plays poorly and collapses, it looked hilarious and I did laugh out loud when I saw that happen. Devil's Honey is a film that excels when it focuses on its visuals. The dialogue isn't necessarily bad but it kind of feels redundant and unnecessary at times. Luckily it isn't very dialogue heavy and even though some of it is hokey I think the visuals of this film are so strong that you could probably watch it on mute and understand everything that's going on. I'm surprised by how well this film took out. I had to wait a bit after watching it to go over my thoughts on the film because I really wasn't sure what to think about it, but I figure that if it's a film that leaves you thinking about it, then perhaps it has something going for it. I thought it could have had a better ending, but I don't think it ended poorly the way it is. I think it's an interesting film and I think it's worth checking out.

For The Devil's Honey, Italian horror legend Lucio Fulci applies the same OTT approach to sex as he does to gore, delivering one eye-popping scene after another (eye-popping in a figurative sense, for a change). The S&M themed erotica on offer is all so incredibly daft and excessive that The Devil's Honey proved to be the most fun I've had with a smutty soft-core movie in a long time. Beautiful brunette Blanca Marsillach plays Jessica, girlfriend of saxophonist Johnny, Italy's answer to Kenny G, who is in the process of recording his debut album. The couple share a sub/dom relationship, Johnny forcing Jessica to satisfy his perverted sexual needs. In the film's opening scene, Jessica stands her ground when Johnny tries to pressure her into a quickie in the recording booth. On this occasion, sex is a no-no, but sax is fine, Johnny placing his shiny hard instrument against Jessica's vajajay and playing a tune in the key of 'O'. It's utterly ridiculous, but sets the tone for the rest of the film, which lurches from one hilarious sexcapade to another. The action then cuts to Dr. Wendell Simpson (Brett Halsey), an eminent surgeon whose marriage to Carol (Corinne Cléry) is on the rocks. Wendell get his sexual thrills from visiting prostitutes and treating them like trash. In another totally bizarre moment, the doctor goes to a hotel with a hooker, who proceeds to paint her * with nail varnish, which Wendell also smears on her face before having his way with the woman. Fulci is on a roll... Continuing with the madness, Johnny takes Jessica for a ride on his motorbike, insisting she gives him a hand-job while they hurtle down the highway; they narrowly avoid a head-on collision with a car. Later, Johnny earns his brown wings while rutting with Jessica on the stairs at their cottage; she's not happy 'cos he didn't ask her permission for the backdoor action. To try and cheer his girlfriend up, Johnny rides his bike like an idiot, but falls off, cracking his head on a rock. He appears to be okay, but the next day, back at the recording studio, he collapses and is rushed to hospital. Dr. Wendell is the surgeon scheduled to operate on Johnny, but his mind is elsewhere, Carol having got wise to her husband's philandering ways and decided that she wants a divorce; this lack of concentration results in Johnny flatlining on the operating table. Jessica reacts with anger, the woman chasing Wendell's car as he leaves the hospital (she's so furious that her tit falls out!). Over the next few days, Jessica pesters the doctor with anonymous phone calls, asking 'Why did you let him die?'. Eventually, she takes Johnny's revolver and kidnaps Wendell at gunpoint, keeping her hostage tied up at a beachfront property where she abuses him physically and mentally (at one point, she hits him in the face with an axe and pushes his bloody face into her belly). She also walks about totally starkers a lot. Memories of her time with Johnny come flooding back, and Jessica is reminded of a trip to Venice in the company of music producer Nicky (Bernard Seray), during which they all went to the cinema. She recalls how, as the film played, Johnny made out with her, but also guided Nicky's head downwards for a spot of fellatio. Repulsed by this memory, Jessica realises that she and Johnny were never really in love, and releases Wendell from his bondage. Doc Simpson, now besotted by his captor, has sex with Jessica, but a glimpse of the pistol nearby implies that perhaps she still intends to kill him (the ending is quite baffling, but this is Fulci, so confusion is not totally unexpected).

Notorious Italian movie director Lucio Fulci is probably best known for his gory, maggot infested horror movies but The Devil's Honey is a different offering. Dark, erotic, psychological, suspense thriller pretty much sums it up. Lots of female full frontal nudity, including some Jess Franco style genital zooms, but a bit too much hair on show for my liking. The lead female character, as well as appearing * a lot, is also a nutcase and does dish out some nasty violence on an innocent man. A very well made film, proof that Fulci was more than just a gory horror director. Highly recommended for fans of both Fulci and adult Italian movies.

Meditation on s&m not his typical film.. so it feels a bit unpredictable. Do not expect a horror film or a body count here. It has a lot of potential and is certainly well-made. But I would say that some of the acting is a bit over the top. And there's too many flashback/dream sequences. Most people should pass on this film. It may be worth checking out once if you're into this kind of thing.

From the Bizarre Saxophone solo, applying nail varnish to oneself to unusual torture methods. A great watch. Film making from a totally different era.

"The Devil's Honey" is definitely one of the rarest and possibly also the strangest movie Lucio Fulci has on his impressive repertoire. And even though it must be very appealing to fans of the man, I certainly wouldn't advise to move heaven and earth in order to purchase a copy of this film. Although not at all bad or boring, this is an extremely atypical Fulci-movie and the complete lack of gore and zombie-action is likely to disappoint people that only know Fulci from films like "City of the Living Dead" and "Zombi 2". "The Devil's Honey" is more like an erotic melodrama and it seems like Fulci took this opportunity to insert as many bizarre sexual fantasies as humanly possible in one screenplay. Especially during the first half hour, this film brings forward some of the oddest sex scenes ever, including sex with a saxophone (very creative!), sex with red paint (weird!), sex on the roller-coaster (exciting!), a threesome in the movie-theater (too strange for words) and sex on a motorcycle (don't try this at home!). We follow a young couple with an extremely healthy sexual appetite as well as a frustrated surgeon who regularly visits prostitutes in order to escape his boring marriage. All their lives interfere when the young man is involved in a banal accident and the surgeon isn't able to save his life. The slightly insane girl Jessica personally holds Dr. Simpson responsible for her lover's death and decides to kidnap him. Her plan is to kill him but, of course, they start a passionate sexual relationship instead. Like other reviewers pointed out correctly, it's very interesting to see how Lucio Fulci – universally known as the director of gorehound movies – is also capable of bringing an intense, non-graphic thriller. His directing is solid and straightforward, although he does waste too much time on pointless flashbacks and unfinished sub plots. The music is good & atmospheric and, perhaps the best thing, the chemistry between the girl and the surgeon comes across as very realistic. Nothing like the average Italian horror film, this movie reminded me most of artistic portraits like Paul Verhoeven's "Turkish Delight", Annaud's "L'Amant" or Catherine Braillat's "Romance X". Not as stylish perhaps, but also revolving on individuals struggling with sexual issues. Be warned!

Devil's Honey, The (1986) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Bizarre film for Fulci sees him in more of a Jess Franco type of territory. In the film, a woman (Blanca Marsillach) loses her mind after the death of her boyfriend. Even though it was his fault, she blames the doctor (Brett Halsey) who was operating on him when he died. Soon the woman kidnaps the doctor and plans to torture him both physically and sexually. This certainly isn't the type of film you'd expect someone like Fulci to make especially during this period in his career. Throughout this decade we were getting non-stop violence and gore but that's all cut out here and in its place is non-stop nudity and bizarre sex scenes. The first twenty-minutes of this film features one sex scene after another and it appears they each get more and more bizarre. Fulci's THE NEW YORK RIPPER was pretty perverse but so is this film and that includes a scene where the boyfriend "satisfies" the woman by putting his trumpet up to her private parts and playing. The sex scenes never reach the hardcore stage but Fulci handles them pretty well, although he never quite reaches a full erotic mode. The biggest problem for me was the actual screenplay and the entire revenge aspect. One could compare this film to Franco's SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY but that movie worked a lot better because we understood the woman's need for revenge. That's not the case here for a couple of reasons. The first being that the man is a complete jerk to her so we really don't care when he dies. The second reason is because the woman is simply blaming the wrong person for his death. There's no way around that and it's hard to buy into anything she's doing because you simply don't agree with her. Halsey, a soon to be Fulci regular, does a pretty good job in his role but there's no question that the film belongs to Marsillach who really digs deep into her character. The two work quite well together and certainly make the film a lot better than it really has the right to be. The brisk 78-minute running time moves pretty well and the jazz score is quite nice as well. Fans of Fulci will certainly want to check this one out but others probably won't find too much entertainment here.