The Devil’s Honey — The Devil’s Honey( UHD & Blu Ray)
The Devil’s Honey is an erotic thriller from 1986 directed by horror legend, Lucio Fulci (Zombie Flesh Eaters, The Beyond and City of the Living Dead). Fulci, who was best known for his over-the-top zombie movies takes us on a wholly different ride with the fairly sleazy, outlandish, and almost pornographic thriller that is, The Devil’s Honey. The film stars Brett Halsey (Return of the Fly, Today We Kill…Tomorrow We Die! and The Godfather III), Corrine Cléry (Moonraker, The Story of O and Plot of Fear), Blanca Marsillach (Flesh and Blood, Day of Wrath and The Rogues) and Stefano Madia (Body Count, Dear Father and Ernesto) alongside Lucio Fulci himself.
The film opens during a recording session in a studio, Johnny (Madia) is recording a saxophone solo whilst being watched by his producer, Nicky (Bernard Seray, Hell of the Living Dead, House on the Edge of the Lake and Emanuelle Y Carol) and his girlfriend, Jessica (Marsillach). Johnny calls Jessica into the booth with him while the others in the studio are asked to take a break, Johnny then takes his saxophone and begins to pleasure Jessica with the vibrations it produces whilst he plays for her. This kind of sets things up and gives us an idea of what to expect from this kinky sleaze fest. At the same time, Dr Wendell Simpson (Halsey) has been experiencing problems in his unhappy marriage to Carol (Cléry). The couple never make love and Carol has caught her husband visiting prostitutes with whom he partakes in fast, unsatisfying sex. Simpson is also married to his work as a surgeon and regularly puts his job before his wife.
After Johnny forces Jessica to give him a handjob whilst riding his motorbike, he falls off when messing around and cracks his head. Initially, he seems fine and carries on as normal, however upon returning to the studio he worsens, passes out, and falls into a coma, before being rushed to hospital. Dr Simpson is on his way out to dinner with his wife, but receives the call to operate on Johnny, which he agrees to do, much to the chagrin of Carol, and when he arrives at the hospital he starts to think about the things his wife has said to him about his prioritizing of his job and his visits to whores, and the fact she wants a divorce. Whilst all of this is happening, Johnny dies on the operating table, and Jessica, grief-stricken, swears to take revenge on Dr Simpson.
This all leads to some pretty twisted scenes of kinky S&M torture and more acts of depraved sexual behaviour that all lead to a pretty good twist ending involving Jessica and Dr Simpson, which I won’t reveal for those who have not seen the movie, but plan to.
Overall, The Devil’s Honey is a very good erotic thriller, albeit it is a pretty sleazy one at that. The cast is all very good here, especially Halsey and Marsillach whose on-screen chemistry is really good. Whilst The Devil’s Honey is a real departure for Fulci, it’s a welcome change of scenery for the man who specialized in gory horror movies.
This UHD release from Severin is the film’s first-ever appearance in 4k on UHD and is scanned in 4k from the original negatives. The print looks glorious with natural colours, crisp lines and very little print damage at all. On top of that, this wonderful set from Severin contains a second disc, a Blu-ray featuring a host of interviews with the likes of Fulci, Marsillach, Halsey and Cléry as well as a featurette with Stephen Thrower discussing The Devil’s Honey and an audio essay from Troy Howarth. The set is rounded out with a rather lovely slipcase and double-sided artwork.
If you’re a fan of Fulci, or sleazy erotic thrillers, like Giallo in Venice, then this is definitely the movie for you. A dark twisted tale of sadomasochistic torture and kinky perversions that deserves to be revisited by those who have seen it in the past as well as those who have heard of it and always wondered if it was worth a look.