THE DEVIL'S HONEY (1986)
aka Dangerous Obsession
Label: Severin Films
Region Code: Region-Free (UHD), Blu-ray (A)
Rating: Unrated
Duration: 82 Minutes 49 Seconds
Audio: English or Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Video: HDR10 2160p Ultra HD Widescreen (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)
Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Brett Halsey, Corinne Cléry, Blanca Marsillach, Stefano Madia, Bernard Seray, Lucio Fulci, Stefano Madia
In the Lucio Fulci (Contraband) directed psycho-sexual erotic-shocker The Devil's Honey (1986) we get the wild tale of a sex-obsessed lovers, that of Jessica (Blanca Marsillach, Flesh+Blood) and her professional saxophone player boyfriend Johnny (Stefano Madia, Body Count). The two engage in a LOT of sex, the most startling being Johnny sexing up her coochie with some sweet, sweet saxophone playing in the recording studio, with his sax-hole cupped over her thonged crotch while playing some deep notes to her even deeper delight - it is some seriously strange stuff, and he does this right in the studio while cutting tracks. You have to hand it to Fulci, he new his way around a horror movie, but he also knows how to revel in the perverse with this erotic thriller.
As the story builds we see that Jessica is a somewhat unwilling participant to Johnny's increasing strange sexual proclivities, but it's not a rape scenario, he's just forceful but she comes around, she's definitely participatory, it's not a Harvey Weinstein situation so don't be alarmed. Throughout the opening scenes they engage in a motorcycle-hand job excursion that nearly climaxes with a head-on collision, as well as some sloppy tongue-darting on a rollercoaster, and forceful anal-sex on a staircase while a German Shepherd feverishly looks to get in on the tasty backdoor action.
There's also a story running parallel to that of the young couple, we have the rocky marriage of surgeon Dr. Wendell Simpson (Brett Halsey, Touch of Death) who is stuck in an awkward marriage to his wife Carol (Corinne Cléry, Yor, the Hunter from the Future). The surgeons wife is deeply unsatisfied by their sex life, and even less pleased when she discovers that her husband has been frequenting prostitutes on the side, and judging by what turns him on with the whores his wife might be lucky he's just not that into her, trust me, they'd rack up some huge nail polish and nylon stocking bills.
The two stories being told converge when Johnny falls off his motorbike and bangs his head on a rock, at first the injury seems none too serious, but later that night he falls unconscious and ends up on the doc's operating table. It just so happens that the surgeon's wife has asked for a divorce right before the doc entered surgery, he becomes distracted during the operation and Johnny dies as a result. Afterward Jessica blames the doc for her lover's death and begins to obsess over her dead lover, phoning the doc and leaving him accusatory/threatening notes.
Eventually she altogether loses it and snaps, kidnapping the doc, chaining him up in the basement of a seaside mansion owned by her dead lover, proclaiming that she will kill him or let him die of his own will, but only when she chooses to let him, at one point having to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation after drowning him. In her grief and derangement her revenge involves serving the surgeon dog food, reciting some awful poetry, dripping hot candle wax on him, licking his own blood of her stomach, walking him on a leash through the ocean surf, and eventually turning into a sexual revenge, with the doc becoming her submissive love interest in a way. While all this is happening we are treated to flashbacks of Jessica and Johnny that further flesh out their sordid psycho-sexual relationship, including a bizarre trip the local cinema that results in a oddball bi-sexual threesome with a pal (Bernard Seray, Hell of the Living Dead), much to the horrified dismay of Jessica.
This is not the sort of film I think most people think of when they think of Lucio Fulci, what we have here is a slice of erotic weirdness loaded with glossy, music video esque 80's cinematography, but there's little doubt that this one offers up entertainment of the lurid kind, bathed in a that ever-palpable Fulci aesthetic. Blanca Marsillach is quite good as the deranged lover, appearing largely nude for much of the film, there's more to her than just a smokin' hot body, her descent into sexualized madness is enthralling to a large degree. Brett Halsey is also quite good, he's certainly down for whatever Fulci's erotic shocker throws at him, this being a considerably better film than some of the films he would appear in with Fulci, that being Touch of Death (1988) and Demonia (1990), with The Devil's Honey being a considerably better film than either of those. Fulci himself also appears in one of his Hitchcockian cameos as a newspaper vendor, looking quite charming.
Webstore Exclusive Slipcover
Reversible Wrap
The only extras on the UHD is the Trailer, all other extras are found on the Blu-ray, including the HD version of the film minus the HDR10. Severin include a bevy of archival extras as well as two new one, new stuff starts off with the 15-min Sax, Lies and Videotape – Interview With Actress Blanca Marsillach, she talks about her career, how she comes from an acting family and always wanted to acting, being cast in Verhoeven's Flesh+Blood, examining her character in Fulci's film, and how her lack of chemistry with Brett Halsey, who she says was fantastic to work with, worked well for the dynamics of the characters, and describing Fulci as non-communicative at best and harsh, as well as being slapped by the film's producer, describing the set as tense, and getting into shooting the infamous sax-scene, in English. This interview all by itself is worth the upgrade in my opinion. Then onto a newly discovered Archival Audio Interview With Director Lucio Fulci By Michele Romagnoli which runs about 6-min in Italian with English subtitles.
Archival stuff includes a career spanning 17-min The Devil's Halsey – Interview With Actor Brett Halsey in English; the 12-min Wild Flower – Interview With Actress Corinne Cléry who talks about her personal life and career, breaking into film, her style of acting and what it was like working with Fulci, this is also in Italian with English subtitles; the 13-min Producing Honey – Interview With Producer Vincenzo Salviani, he speaks about how he came to work with Fulci, the director's liver disease, noting Fulci was a bit out of his element with erotic stuff, but that he was quite collaborative to work with, and how he re-wrote the script himself, in Italian with English subtitles; the 10-min The Devil's Sax – Interview With Composer Claudio Natili who talks about his early career in the band The Roman before he started scoring films, and Fulci's sole note about his score for the film, in Italian with English subtitles; the 21-min Stephen Thrower, Author Of Beyond Terror: The Films Of Lucio Fulci, On The Devil's Honey who talks about Fulci's genre-hopping filmography and making this erotic thriller after a prolonged illness, the film;s resemblance to The Trap (which Fulci wrote), and the overwrought kink and kitchiness of it; the 17-min career-spanning overview of the director's career with Fulci's Honey – Audio Essay By Troy Howarth, Author Of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci And His Films; plus we have the 6-min Alternate Opening, and the 3-min Trailer.
The 2-disc 4K UHD/Blu-ray arrives in a dual-hub black keepcase with a Reversible Wrap, featuring illustrated artworks. Both are pretty steamy images of star Blanca Marsillach, but the b-side is sax-tastic. This comes house dinside a Severin Webstore Exclusive Slipcover with it's own unique artwork and embossed lettering on the front cover and spine. The disc inside feature the same artworks as the wrap.
Special Features:
- Webstore Exclusive Slipcover
- Reversible Wrap
Disc 1: UHD (Feature + Special Features)
- Trailer (2:47)
Disc 2: Blu-ray (Feature + Special Features)
- NEW! Sax, Lies and Videotape – Interview With Actress Blanca Marsillach (14:37)
- NEW! Archival Audio Interview With Director Lucio Fulci By Michele Romagnoli (6:26)
- The Devil's Halsey – Interview With Actor Brett Halsey (17:14)
- Wild Flower – Interview With Actress Corinne Cléry (12:39)
- Producing Honey – Interview With Producer Vincenzo Salviani (13:23)
- The Devil's Sax – Interview With Composer Claudio Natili (9:52)
- Stephen Thrower, Author Of Beyond Terror: The Films Of Lucio Fulci, On The Devil's Honey (21:44)
- Fulci's Honey – Audio Essay By Troy Howarth, Author Of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci And His Films (16:56)
- Alternate Opening (6:24)
- Trailer (2:47)
The Devil's Honey (1986) is bizarre slice of psycho-sexual kink from Fulci, who strays away from the gore he was best known for but really ratchets up the sleaze, While not a horror film there are many horrific aspects of it, and I might never be able to wash that sax-sex scene out of my eyes, especially now that I have seen in its native 4K! This is a terrific upgrade and most certainly the definitive edition of Fulci's erotic shocker, buy it with confidence, knowing that we probably won't ever get better than what we have right here, thanks for the filth Severin!
Screenshots from the Severin Films 2024 Blu-ray:
Buy it!
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