The Film (4/5)

    I became a fan of director Lucio Fulci probably around 1997 or 1998, basically a year or two after the maestro departed from our world. After tracking down, and seeing a few of his most popular films on VHS, and reading some websites on his work, I went about tracking down a book on his work. That book would be the late Chas Balun's Beyond The Gates a tribute to Lucio Fulci. It was a tiny book, no longer than 100 pages, and was not meant to be an in-depth piece, but just a short book meant to pay homage to the late director. However, it was a starting point in discovering more about Fulci, and his weird and wild cinema.

     In this book I would discover a passage that would describe a psycho sexual film that opens with a dude playing a saxophone into a woman's vagina. I knew I had to see it, but could never find an official release of the film anywhere, and with Fulci anything less than official would not do. It has been nearly 20 years since I first read about that film "The Devil's Honey", and Severin Films have finally acquired the film for release in the U.S. on Blu-ray. I can say without a doubt it was certainly worth the wait.

    The film opens on Johnny (Stefano Madia) and Jessica (Blanca Marsillach). Johnny is a young saxophonist recording his first album, and he is obsessed with Jessica. During one of their breaks in recording they travel a bit on his motorcycle, on one of these rides, he falls off, and hits his head on a rock. During the next recording session, he appears out of it, and passes out. When he is taken to a hospital to be treated, he is put into the care of Dr. Wendell Simpson, who was just told by his wife, that she wants a divorcee. Distracted by this revelation, he is not fully focused on Johnny's care, and Johnny ends up dying.  This greatly upsets Jessica who ends up kidnapping Wendell, and making him her slave. She takes him back to her house, chains him up, makes him live off a diet of dog food, and performs sadomasochistic acts on him, up to and including nearly drowning him in the nearby ocean.

    The Devil's Honey is a truly bizarre addition to the Fulci oeuvre. It honestly does not feel like any other film that he directed, but it is a really strong film from the director. The first half of the film has some amazing powerful images including the aforementioned intro with the saxophone scene, which has to be seen to be believed, and oddly it does not come off as cheesy or campy, it just works. The film is loaded with powerful and striking visuals from director Fulci.

    The performances are solid across the board from everyone from Marsillach to soon to be Fulci regular Brett Halsey.   The film has a really interesting dynamic at play with the first half of the film showing Jessica submitting to the still living Johnny, while we then see Jessica taking over the reigns and becoming the more dominant player after the trauma of Johnny's death takes over and she kidnaps Wendell.   This is most definitely a film that will reward repeat viewings, and I cannot wait to check it out again.

Audio/Video (3.5/5)

    Severin Films have presented Lucio Fulci's the Devil's Honey in a solid 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer preserving the OAR of the film. Everything here looks solid with a nicely rendered grain structure, good detail present, and stable naturalistic colors. That being said the film was shot in a way that comes across very soft, and that is represented here. There are also incidents of speckling, dirt, and scratches throughout, that are probably left in from the source material.

    The audio is presented with LPCM 2.0 tracks in English and Italian. Both tracks are quite serviceable, dialogue and score come through nicely. I did here the occasional pop and some cracks, but overall not a distraction.

Extras (4/5)

     Severin has put together an excellent package for Fulci fans who have waited long for a release of this film. We get 4 separate interviews with members of the cast and crew of Devil's Honey. There is a visual essay by Troy Howarth, and an in depth interview with Beyond Terror author Stephen Thrower.  There is also an alternate opening, and trailer.

Overall

   Severin Films have scored big with the Fulci faithful in getting The Devil's Honey out in a legit U.S. release. The film is a brilliant psychosexual piece from the director, and definitely needs to be seen. The Blu-ray has a solid transfer, and sounds great. It is accompanied with an excellent slate of extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.