For The Devil's Honey, Italian horror legend Lucio Fulci applies the same OTT approach to sex as he does to gore, delivering one eye-popping scene after another (eye-popping in a figurative sense, for a change). The S&M themed erotica on offer is all so incredibly daft and excessive that The Devil's Honey proved to be the most fun I've had with a smutty soft-core movie in a long time.
Beautiful brunette Blanca Marsillach plays Jessica, girlfriend of saxophonist Johnny, Italy's answer to Kenny G, who is in the process of recording his debut album. The couple share a sub/dom relationship, Johnny forcing Jessica to satisfy his perverted sexual needs. In the film's opening scene, Jessica stands her ground when Johnny tries to pressure her into a quickie in the recording booth. On this occasion, sex is a no-no, but sax is fine, Johnny placing his shiny hard instrument against Jessica's vajajay and playing a tune in the key of 'O'. It's utterly ridiculous, but sets the tone for the rest of the film, which lurches from one hilarious sexcapade to another.
The action then cuts to Dr. Wendell Simpson (Brett Halsey), an eminent surgeon whose marriage to Carol (Corinne Cléry) is on the rocks. Wendell get his sexual thrills from visiting prostitutes and treating them like trash. In another totally bizarre moment, the doctor goes to a hotel with a hooker, who proceeds to paint her * with nail varnish, which Wendell also smears on her face before having his way with the woman. Fulci is on a roll...
Continuing with the madness, Johnny takes Jessica for a ride on his motorbike, insisting she gives him a hand-job while they hurtle down the highway; they narrowly avoid a head-on collision with a car. Later, Johnny earns his brown wings while rutting with Jessica on the stairs at their cottage; she's not happy 'cos he didn't ask her permission for the backdoor action. To try and cheer his girlfriend up, Johnny rides his bike like an idiot, but falls off, cracking his head on a rock. He appears to be okay, but the next day, back at the recording studio, he collapses and is rushed to hospital.
Dr. Wendell is the surgeon scheduled to operate on Johnny, but his mind is elsewhere, Carol having got wise to her husband's philandering ways and decided that she wants a divorce; this lack of concentration results in Johnny flatlining on the operating table. Jessica reacts with anger, the woman chasing Wendell's car as he leaves the hospital (she's so furious that her tit falls out!). Over the next few days, Jessica pesters the doctor with anonymous phone calls, asking 'Why did you let him die?'. Eventually, she takes Johnny's revolver and kidnaps Wendell at gunpoint, keeping her hostage tied up at a beachfront property where she abuses him physically and mentally (at one point, she hits him in the face with an axe and pushes his bloody face into her belly). She also walks about totally starkers a lot.
Memories of her time with Johnny come flooding back, and Jessica is reminded of a trip to Venice in the company of music producer Nicky (Bernard Seray), during which they all went to the cinema. She recalls how, as the film played, Johnny made out with her, but also guided Nicky's head downwards for a spot of fellatio. Repulsed by this memory, Jessica realises that she and Johnny were never really in love, and releases Wendell from his bondage. Doc Simpson, now besotted by his captor, has sex with Jessica, but a glimpse of the pistol nearby implies that perhaps she still intends to kill him (the ending is quite baffling, but this is Fulci, so confusion is not totally unexpected).
