The Devil's Honey - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray (Website Exclusive Slipcover)

Some have reduced the entirety of Lucio Fulci’s oeuvre as a grab bag of committed nasty tricks, but there’s a reason his films stick around in the mind: they actually have the sturdy filmmaking to support jaw-dropping transgression. That isn’t to say Fulci was some narrative master. Far from it, though Fulci’s talents behind the camera put him above his peers. The padding that’s all too common in these Italian genre movies can often be grating, but Fulci was the kind of filmmaker to let his performers take each concept as far as they want to go without much guidance. That’s why his films are so well-known for these crazed moments that feel absolutely unhinged, because they are actually unhinged!

The Devil’s Honey tells the sordid tale of Jessica (Blanca Marsillach), a gorgeous artistic muse to her boyfriend, a saxophone player named Johnny (Stefano Media). The duo is obsessed with one another’s bodies, injecting every spare moment with animalistic, romantic furor in a way that’s, well, obviously destructive. And on the other side is Dr. Wendell Simpson (Brett Halsey), a talented surgeon with serious marital issues. When Dr. Simpson and his wife get embroiled in a tough conversation about divorce, the doctor’s mind drifts and he ends up neglecting a patient with a severe hematoma in the brain. His patient? Johnny. His new problem? Jessica.

To say The Devil’s Honey matches the actual velocity and force of an actual car crash just cracks the surface of this thoroughly outrageous time at the movies. The entire film relies on Marsillach’s whirlwind, histrionic performance to make everything work. And while the emotional beats themselves don’t really land like a normal film would, it’s Marsillach’s performance that makes the entire affair unforgettable. They say hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, but clearly the author of that statement hadn’t met Jessica. This is emotional trauma writ about as large and disgusting as possible. If that’s your kind of thing, then the honey is sweet, spicy and despairing. 

The insane performance by Marsillach is backed by Fulci’s unsparing eye. Rampant nudity, S&M torture, saxophone sex, and cold-blooded murder; these are all affectations that Fulci’s oeuvre naturally lends to. And because it’s Fulci, he’s going to hold the viewer’s feet as close to the fire as possible. This outrageous show of eroticism was heavily cut down in the US by American International Pictures, even going as far to use optical effect to lay fog over the nasty bits. But even in that compromised state, drive-in audiences went nuts for it, and luckily that coincided with Fulci’s rise in American film culture. 

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-rays
Get ready for the sax performance of your life with The Devil’s Honey, available now as a two-disc (4K and Blu-ray) release from Severin Films that comes in a standard black amaray case with the discs inside, plus a limited-edition embossed slipcover that goes over it. The 4K disc is a UHD66 and the standard Blu-ray is a BD50. Both discs boot up to menu screens with options to play the film, set up audio and subtitles, select chapters and explore bonus features.

The Devil’s Honey was previously released on Blu-ray in 2017 by Severin Films with the presentation being sourced from a 2K scan of the original negative. That scan was a bit rough but still was the best the film had ever looked at home, despite the clear damage existing on the negative itself. Now in 2024, Severin has gone back to drink the devil’s honey once more with an absolutely stunning 2160p presentation aided by HDR10 that’s sourced from a brand-new 4K scan of the original camera negative. The differences between the old and new release are immediately apparent as the credits roll, as viewers are exposed to a much healthier, robust image that still respects the often soft, hazy nature of the cinematography. The aforementioned damage to the source has been cleaned up much better here, resulting in an overall pleasing picture that has contrast and black levels tuned just right. Film grain is naturally a bit thick, especially given the film stock they were using at the time, but the sturdy HEVC encode makes easy work of resolving it all well against the detail in each frame. The wider color gamut gives those rosy colors of the 80s the extra push they needed to pop, although it’s clear that the source doesn’t have a ton of dynamic range to offer. This is a terrific presentation through and through.

We’re provided with two mono audio tracks (Italian and English) with the DTS-HD MA codec. On the whole, the Italian track sounds a touch better in terms of better dialogue syncing, mixing of the music and special effects. The English track can often sound much too flat in that regard, but I’m sure that’s more of a source issue than something to do with the presentation. No hiss or damage to really note either. 

As for the supplements, Severin couldn’t just stop at giving us a nice, new 4K presentation of The Devil’s Honey, they had to go ahead and add a terrific interview with the elusive actress Blanca Marsillach. The actress goes deep on her career, including her work with Paul Verhoeven on Flesh + Blood, plus some great insights into Fulci’s working methods. It’s clear that Marsillach was under a lot of stress on the production and that was Fulci’s goal, as she carries that like a weight into a performance that requires it. There’s a recently discovered six-minute audio interview with Fulci included as well, in addition to all the legacy features carried over from the previous 2017 Blu-ray release. A nice job on the supplements, indeed!

4K UHD Disc

• Trailer (HD 2:46)

Blu-ray Disc

• Sax, Lies and Videotape – Interview with actress Blanca Marsillach (HD 14:36)
• Archival audio interview with director Lucio Fulci By Michele Romagnoli (HD 6:28)
• The Devil's Halsey – Interview with actor Brett Halsey (HD 17:26)
• Wild Flower – Interview with actress Corinne Cléry (HD 12:13)
• Producing Honey – Interview with producer Vincenzo Salviani (HD 13:22)
• The Devil's Sax – Interview with composer Claudio Natili (HD 9:51)
• Stephen Thrower, author of Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci, on THE DEVIL'S HONEY (HD 21:43)
• Fulci's Honey – Audio essay by Troy Howarth, author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films (HD 16:55)
• Alternate opening (HD 2:33)
• Trailer (HD 2:46)

Jessica will stop at nothing to fill the gap left by her beloved Johnny in The Devil’s Honey, so guard your loins (heh) and watch out! Severin Films upgrades this Lucio Fulci sicko classic to stunning 4K Ultra HD with a gorgeous new 4K scan of the original camera negative, adds a couple of new supplements and rounds out the entire package with their already great legacy supplement offerings. This release comes easily Highly Recommended!

Order Your Copy of The Devil's Honey on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray