Bava

HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON-1970-John Harrington (Canadian actor Stephen Forsyth), a bridal designer kills brides to be with a hatchet because of a repressed childhood trauma and uses their bodies for fertilizer. He thinks "My name is John Harrington. I'm 30 years old. I'm paranoiac. Paranoiac. An enchanting name word. So civilized. Full of possibilities". 

He wants a divorce from his rich wife Mildred (Laura Betti) but she refuses. In a hidden room at his dress shop he hugs, kisses and dances with some mannequins. He and Mildred go to a seance' because Mildred is trying to contact her dead former husband but instead she seems to channel John's mother. A police inspector suspects John and they have several conversations about a missing employee. When one of his models gives her notice (she's going to be married) he has her put on a wedding dress, dances with her then kills her while a female voice calls his name and he thinks lines like "someone is tip toeing in my brain".  Her replacement Helen (Dagmar Lassander; Fulchi's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY) turns out to be the missing model's sister who's investigating her disappearance (John admits he killed her and buried her in his green house but she thinks he's joking). Later he puts on a bridal veil and chops up Mildred.  Occasionally John sees a young boy watching him. Later people see Mildred even though John can't. After some talk John puts Mildred's ashes in a bag and goes to a disco.

This is slick sickness from the master Mario Bava (who co-wrote the script) uses great lighting and dream like sequences marred somewhat by the cliched dubbed dialogue: "You like horror films, do ya?". "I don't find them very entertaining. I keep thinking that reality is more terrifying than fiction".  But it's still one of Bava's best, an entertaining entry into the Italian "giallo" genre with a great final ending.

Sometimes listed as HATCHET FOR A HONEYMOON. This was star Forsyth's last movie role after a brief career in Italian films.

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