[31 Days of Halloween 2016: THE PERFECT HUSBAND is now available on DVD, Blu Ray and Video On Demand.]
Review by Charles Cassady, Jr.
*Note: As with last year’s 31 Days of Halloween marathon of
horror movie reviews, we’ll be diving deep into the new release section looking
for modern horror fare. We'll be hoping for the best, but frankly expecting the
worst.*
No, it’s not
another riff on the FATAL ATTRACTION theme; cascades of those
intimate-partner-goes-crazy rote thrillers came out about 20 years ago. But the
bad new is that THE PERFECT HUSBAND is instead a torture-porn psycho shocker
with only a mild narrative twist to uplift it from the we-dare-you-to-watch
gore herd.
Italian filmmaker
Luca Pavetto admittedly does summon a sense of unease and slow-building dread
before wallowing in mutilation and bloody savagery in closeup. After a
traumatic miscarriage, young wife Viola (Gabriella Wright) accompanies husband
Nicola (Bret Roberts) on what is supposed to be a healing, romantic country
getaway.
But there’s a
male forest ranger who finds Viola unexpectedly passed out in the woods and
brings the pretty girl back to Nicola. That night Nicola erupts in a fit of
jealousy, cuffs Viola to a bed and starts brutalizing her while shrieking that
he wants another try at a baby, a harrowing spiral of real-life Punch and Judy
that turns into a desperate fight for survival.
