Coventry Review of The Devil's Honey

The Devil's Honey (1986)

The bizarre sexual fetishes show! With your host: Lucio Fulci!!

[5/10 · 18 July 2006]

"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!