Frank
discovers his wife, Elaine, and best friend, Vic, having an
affair. After a struggle, the two lovers leave an unconscious
Frank in a burning cabin. Five years later, three newlywed couples
visit Honeymoon Island to celebrate wedded bliss. What the happy
couples and new owners, Elaine and Vic, don't realize is a crispy
hatchet killer is lurking in the woods.
Director Harry Preston tries to create a slasher with deep woods
atmosphere and suspense. The first few kills and last
third of the movie are filled with campy slasher fun. Unfortunately,
there's a thirty minute dead space in the middle of the film.
A few killer POV shots are sprinkled into long scenes of characters
talking.
The cast resembles refugees from a 70's porno. Even the background
music sounds like it was recycled from old skin flicks. The
actors aren't bad considering this is an ultra low-budget slasher,
but the two owners are loathsome characters. The viewer wants
to see these two hateful characters die horrible deaths, but
the killer picks off the more likable characters first.
Kill scenes are mostly blood free, however, it does feature
an arm amputation and hatchet to the cranium. When the actress
gets whacked in the skull, she falls into a chair and her wig
nearly slides off. In an odd twist on the slasher formula, the
men spend more time topless than the ladies. Love scenes never
progress beyond heavy kissing.
Fans of deep wood slashers and campground slaughters should
give Honeymoon Horror a look. Yes, the middle of the
film is slow, but the film still has a low budget charm. Surprisingly,
the killer never attacks any of the newlywed husbands. One wonders
if screenwriters L.L. Carney and Deanne Kelly were inspired
by bad honeymoons or bad marriages.
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