Il miele del diavolo

Cecilia (Blanca Marsillach) is in love with the sax player Gaetano (Stefano Madia) who has an accident with his motorbike. Later, Doctor Guido Domenici (Brett Halsey) supervises the operation, but he makes a fatal mistake because he doesn't pay attention. He has problems with his wife Carole (Corinne Clery) who wants a divorce. Understandably, Cecilia doesn't care about the doctor's personal problems - she only knows he is responsible for the death of Gaetano and wants revenge. She phones him, threatens him, then abducts him, tortures him and says she will finally kill him. However, as they spend a lot of time together, a strange relationship begins to form... (Note: the names of the characters are different in the original Italian version compared to the English version.) Although this may have similarities with "9 1/2 Weeks" on the surface, "Il miele del diavolo" reminds me more of the deeper, obsessive films of Andrzej Zulawski or even Luis Bunuel. Stylistically, this is quite experimental, as Cecilia sees her dead boyfriend walking around and has flashbacks like visions. Beyond the obvious bits of exploitation, this is an ambitious and interesting work by Fulci (who briefly appears as a talisman seller).

This is a movie that opens with a man erotically blowing a saxophone up against a woman's vagina. That's really all you need to know. If that offends you, best to leave now before your head explodes. If it sounds like a hoot to you, come sit by me.

I've seen overall 30 Lucio Fulci's movies, horror and non-horror, and have to admit that Devil's honey did surprise me. Many people doesn't like this one, because it's so different than Fulci's better known splatter-movies, but I have to disagree with that. Even though movie differs very much maestro's earlier works like for example Zombie flesh-eaters, Beyond, City of the living dead or even notorious New York ripper, doesn't make it bad. Sure there's different kind of elements involved this time, but movie is still worth to watch.

Basically Devil's honey, as it is titled in most English language countries, is a story of a love and disappointment, which leads eventually to a kidnapping and a torture. It's a story of a disappointed young woman, who kidnaps a doctor who failed to save her boyfriend and who tortures the doctor to the limits to get her satisfactional punishment. There's some sadomasochistic elements involved too, because doctor falls in love with his torturer and starts to enjoy his punishment. Many people see this as a main thing in this movie, but it isn't. Although the story behind the torturing is very simple and little twisted (like many other Fulci movies too), sadomasochism isn't playing the leading role here.

I'll give Devil's honey 8/10 just because it's nice to see that Fulci can handle this kind of erotic thriller as well as his earlier horror flicks. recommended.

I do know Fulci as a horror buff from his splatter flicks but I even knew him from his sometimes almost porn look-a-like flicks. This here doesn't fit in one of those categories.

There isn't any blood to see in a gory fashion but it do gives the viewer a lot of nudity. Weird for being made in the late eighties that armpits are still hairy and bushes aren't trimmed. Nevertheless, for me this is a pure sleazefest. We do see some kind of masturbation done by a saxophone and we do have a close up of a pussy being satisfied with lipstick. If that isn't sleazy enough one guy is being wanked off by his girlfriend while riding a motorbike. Corinne Cléry is almost naked the whole flick and it is as gratuitous as it can get. It also contains the Stockholm Syndrome.

it's a weird story full of sex and torture towards the end. Fulci fans do search this rare to find flick but it's findable on fleamarkets in the Netherlands and Belgium on VHS. Most copies that are being sold on DVD do contain Dutch subs.

As I said before, not a typical Fulci but not boring at all.

Gore 0/5 Nudity 3,5/5 Effects 0/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

Lucio Fulci, who is sometimes referred to as the "Godfather of Gore" (an honorific he shares with Herschell Gordon Lewis) is best known for horror films in which logic takes a step back to striking visual aesthetics and over-the-top gore. I don't mean this as criticism but rather as an observation in the spirit of acceptance that art does not necessarily always have to make sense.

In DEVIL'S HONEY, Fulci brings the same kind of aesthetics to the erotic thriller genre, and it makes for a movie which contains several scenes that have to be seen to believed. There is no gore to speak of, but it seems Fulci applied the same approach he uses in his gore scenes to his sex scenes.

All the major characters have kinks, and when tragic circumstances bring two of them together in a highly unusual manner-one kidnaps the other as part of a revenge plan-lo and behold, the kinks of the two turn out to complement each other.

This film is not for vanilla lovers. It is hard to categorize, as it is not quite porn and also not mainstream in any sense. There are not very many movies like it out there, the closest I can think of being THE IMAGE (1975) in terms of the kink, and the much tamer SEX &THE OTHER MAN (1995) in terms of the basic concept.

The movie is probably most of interest for those who would like to broaden their horizons in terms of what has been captured on film.