Hatchet for the Honeymoon

First-rate skill plays the real starring role in this Mario Bava film that’s both powerful and sophisticated from an esthetic point of view. Although masterfully shot and rich with visual creativity, “Hatchet for the Honeymoon” relegates the storyline to almost an afterthought, as demonstrated by the overt lack of interest in the plot – weak – and its developments, not very engaging.

Quite interesting is the use of color: natural autumn tones, symbolizing the objectivity of reality, are replaced with bright contrasting colors in the scenes where we delve into the innermost twists and turns of the protagonist’s psyche and witness a man suffering attacks of homicidal madness.

An amusing self-reference (a TV set showing scenes from Bava’s 1963 “Black Sabbath”) allows the director to insert a brief metacinematic digression through which he invites us to reflect on the fundamental difference between make-believe and reality: ‘Do you like horror films?’ […] ‘I keep thinking that reality is more terrifying than fiction’.

He got that right!