Editorials
‘The Devil’s Honey’: Lucio Fulci’s Erotic Thriller [Horrors Elsewhere]
Horrors Elsewhere is a recurring column that spotlights a variety of movies from all around the globe, particularly those not from the United States. Fears may not be universal, but one thing is for sure — a scream is understood, always and everywhere.
Lucio Fulci’s fans have differing opinions about the tail end of his career. Some say his better days as a filmmaker were behind him by the 1980s. Then there are those who are more lenient; they take into consideration the number of factors that played into the decline in quality of both Fulci’s final films and Italian cinema in general. A spot of contention is most certainly Fulci’s first film as a director after battling a serious case of hepatitis, though. What this risqué, 1986 thriller lacks in Fulci’s signature style and imagery, it makes up for in boldness and pure confrontation.
Even when considering the director’s unconventional oeuvre, The Devil’s Honey is more outlandish than almost anything that came before it. The film wastes no time establishing that weirdness either; a musician named Johnny (Stefano Madia) arouses his girlfriend with his (other) instrument. In what viewers have dubbed the “sexophone” scene, Jessica (Blanca Marsillach) writhes to the point of orgasm as her lover stimulates her with only his sax between her legs. From there the couple’s relationship is shown to be a lustful one where Jessica repeatedly acquiesces to Johnny’s carnal desires. That is until he injures his head after one of their more aggressive encounters.
Another story simultaneously takes place; a surgeon named Dr. Wendell Simpson (Brett Halsey) is having his own relationship issues. His wife Carol (Corinne Clery) is not only unhappy with her husband’s busy and intrusive work schedule, she is sexually frustrated. Knowing Wendell has been cheating on her with a sex worker only adds to Carol’s anger, and she threatens divorce right before Wendell is called in to the O.R. for Johnny’s emergency surgery. Unable to focus on the operation, Dr. Simpson loses his patient. The sinister elements of The Devil’s Honey eventually rise to the top and start to make it feel more like a psychosexual horror movie. And in no time, the Godfather of Gore turns grief into something ominous and irrepressible. Jessica’s overwhelming sorrow leads to her repeatedly menacing Dr. Simpson on the phone and finally taking him prisoner at her house.
As the hostage endures his captor’s belligerent form of coping, Wendell realizes a truth about himself he was unaware of or never felt safe enough to confess. Before that epiphany arrives though, Wendell is seen going through the motions. Cheating on his wife is never as gratifying as it should be — the good doctor cannot perform to his fullest — and when he tries to please his estranged better half, work gets in the way again. However, the thing Wendell ultimately yearns for is dominance; he wants to be submissive for a change. Being a surgeon as well as a man of a certain class, Dr. Simpson is always in control by default. Now he wants someone else to call the shots.
On the other side of things, Jessica is searching for control in addition to closure. Being with Johnny was not easy for her; he had a voracious appetite for sex. And when his physical needs were not met, he satisfied them without any regard for Jessica’s feelings. This included ignoring her protests and putting her directly in harm’s way. From having Jessica pleasure him while they ride his motorcycle in the path of oncoming traffic, to Johnny forcing himself on her one last time before his demise, it was obvious their relationship was chronically imbalanced with Jessica on the low end of the scale.
At first, it appears Jessica’s erratic behavior has all to do with mourning Johnny and blaming Wendell for her loss. With the doctor bound and tied up in her house, Jessica supposes killing him will somehow remove the hurt. What she fails to see is, the trouble goes beyond Johnny’s death; she is angry at the wrong person. Her wavering resolve and forthcoming change of mind has all to do with this important revelation. Throughout the last two acts, the audience is given access to Jessica’s most intimate memories as she cycles through her grief. Even when they seem good, they wind up being soured by something Johnny said or did. Jessica slowly comes to terms with the fact she had to give up a part of herself to be with Johnny.
By the film’s end, the two main characters reach the nadir of their mutual sufferings. Wendell was too afraid to be open about his sexuality, and it cost him his marriage. It is only when Jessica unknowingly dominates him does he then feel content and unashamedly excited. For Jessica, she is on the road to recovery after losing her agency with Johnny. The pain she inflicted on Wendell was a product of a deeply toxic relationship where intimacy came with violence. The deciding moment for Jessica is a memory that admittedly reads as problematic in today’s light, but the main takeaway is she now acknowledges love does not need to come at such a high cost — namely her consent and personal well-being.
Although Fulci’s forte is perceived to be zombies and the macabre, he strikes a loud chord with this probing story devoid of anything otherworldly. On the contrary, The Devil’s Honey eagerly examines the interiority of two woeful characters and the weight of sex in regards to their relationships and wellness. What many will dismiss as dated sleaze verging on softcore porn is also a harrowing tale of healing and self-discovery. The graphic and bizarre depictions of sex within will without a doubt startle, but the film’s cathartic quality is even more surprising.
Editorials
Not Another ‘Scary Movie’: Revisiting Forgotten Parody ‘Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th’
After Scream (1996) made a killing at the box office, as well as won over critics and audiences, a lot of folks in the movie biz thought they could do the same thing (and yield similar results). That thing, of course, being a slasher. Most of these opportunists wound up being pretty straightforward; they were low on humor or commentary. Yet others, like Scary Movie (2000), saw the potential for spoofing Scream, and acted on that impulse with both haste and excitement.
A few months after the Wayans’ comedy first hit theaters, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th landed on the USA Network, as part of the channel’s “Shriek Week” programming. That straight-to-cable (then home video) destination is possibly why many people still don’t know about this one. Or they simply chose to forget. Whatever the reason, only one of these two horror parodies came out on top—and it’s certainly not the movie where Coolio channeled Prince, and Tom Arnold saved the day.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th previously went by the name of I Know What You Screamed Last Semester. That Trimark acquisition then settled on a wordier title, just so it could avoid the litigious wrath of Miramax Films. Folks may or may not remember that Columbia Pictures was sued over the “implied connection” between I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and Scream. So, yeah, there was no way that this competing Scream parody wasn’t going to be kept on a tight rein.
A Heavy Reliance on Late ’90s TV References
Simon Rex, Julie Benz, Majandra Delfino, Harley Cross, Danny Strong, Tom Arnold and Tiffani-Amber Thiesen in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Naturally, there would be similarities between Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th and Scary Movie—their scripts are built on the backs of the same two movies. It goes without saying that the other big slasher of the 1990s, I Know What You Did Last Summer, was as much of a target as Scream. However,the film pads itself with more TV references than Scary Movie did.
Half the cast coming off of (and in some cases, returning to) a WB show could be a reason why. Dawson’s Creek is particularly zeroed in on, based on how there’s a central character named “Dawson Deery“, and how the teen drama’s teacher-student affair plotline is satirized to the nth degree. As if there weren’t enough nods to television, Baywatch, VH1’s Pop Up Video, and even those cheesy Mentos commercials all serve as joke prompts.
Shriek director John Blanchard and writers Sue Bailey and Joe Nelms all hailed from television, so it’s understandable that they would stick close to home. The movie’s humor in general makes more sense, in light of learning that Blanchard worked on SCTV, Kids in the Hall, and MADtv. The writers, on the other hand, were each fairly green, with Bailey being the most experienced of the two; she wrote and produced the game show BattleBots. Nevertheless, they, plus Blanchard, churned out a passable, joke-a-minute movie. The whole thing is staggeringly of its time, but no one here was aiming for longevity.
Having seen enough of these kinds of movies, we know to expect jokes of the low-hanging fruit variety. That’s the parody’s whole prime directive. From the characters having names like “Screw Frombehind” and “Doughy Primesuspect”, to stereotyping that feels taboo nowadays, this is a movie from a different era of comedy. Its coarse, corny, and unapologetic sense of humor won’t sit well with everyone in these more enlightened times. In which case, Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th can be treated as a time capsule.
Does Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th Humor Still Hold Up Today?
“You may already be a victim”—Someone receives a most peculiar threatening piece of mail in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th.
Although Shriek doesn’t live up to its own claims of being so funny that you’ll die of laughter, its bawdier parts could still lead to some nervous laughter. For instance, after this movie’s parallel to Drew Barrymore’s Scream character is done in—not by the killer but by a bug zapper—the movie throws a newspaper next to the victim’s fresh corpse. The headline? “Popular slut killed! Football team mourns”.
We then move on to the wacky and inappropriate goings-on at Bulimia Falls High School, home of the Hurlers. At this nexus of constant absurdity, indecency, and surrealism, students are seen fornicating on the lawn, cheerleading squad applicants are advised to be comfortable with partial nudity, and terrorists openly prepare for an anthrax attack. It can be a tad jarring to watch, especially if you didn’t grow up witnessing this style of comedy firsthand. Hell, even if you did, you may still have a “what the hell were they thinking?” reaction.
It’s not just the aggressively edgy humor here that can make you chuckle—the slapstick, the sight gags, and the ribaldry all have a decent chance of landing. The movie’s own villain, whose hockey mask was instantly transformed into a crudely Ghostface-esque one after coming in contact with an open flame, commits more cheap laughs than kills. His and his victims’ chase sequences, most of which are cartoonish in nature, left this writer grinning. The Scooby-Doo fan in me also totally ate up that clever unmasking joke.
Final Thoughts on This Forgotten Horror Parody
Shriek If You Know What Did Last Friday the 13th
Now, the jury is still out on whether these comedies are to blame for the death of the first slasher revival. There is more to consider than some parodies. At the very least, the likes of Scary Movie didn’t exactly encourage big studios to put their money on a trend that was being derided to death (and not as profitable as the spoofs). These sorts of movies also felt unnecessary at the time, given how their principal inspiration is already a deconstruction of the genre. But like anything else that quickly becomes popular, mockery is unavoidable.
Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th is indeed a movie nobody asked for, much less needed. As a sample of pre-millennium humor and cultural attitudes, it’s not always precise. But as I’ve laid out, your mileage may vary. Horror parodies typically don’t have the best track record, so managing one’s own expectations here is recommended.
Upon rewatching, I for one laughed a bit more than I did back then. Only this time, I responded to the jokes that my younger self didn’t notice or find all that amusing. So it just goes to show that the movies don’t change—we do.
Harley Cross and Majandra Delfino must unmask the killer a number of times in Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th before learning their true identity.
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