Director – Lucas Pavetto (The Bastard Contadine)
Starring – Gabriella Wright (The Tudors), Bret Roberts (May), and Carl Wharton (Wrath of the Crows)
Release Date – 2014
Rating – 2.5/5
Tagline – “Till death do us part”
I love reviewing movies if you haven’t noticed that already. Whenever I feel stressed or over worked I just slow down, toss on a movie, and let my fingers do the talking. I sometimes buy films to review and other times they are sent my way to review. The ones I buy are ones that I hear a lot about and want to see if they live up to the hype. The ones I receive to review are usually new to me with little or no word on what they are about. Perfect Husband is one of those films that I knew nothing about and was sent my way from Artsploitation Films. The film looked bloody and brilliant so I was excited for it.
I received the press release sometime before I actually got the bluray to review. Attached to the press release was the trailer. Normally, I wont check out a trailer for a film I plan on reviewing because they usually give away too much information but I decided to watch it anyway. I was floored by how brutal the film looked. Thanks Artsploitation for sending this one my way.
**Spoiler Alert**The film follows a young married couple, Viola (Wright) and Nicola (Roberts), who head out into the wilderness for a little get away in a cabin after a troubling incident. She is reluctant and is very cautious when he is near almost as if he abuses her but it is unclear. He is overly nice with her at first but he starts to suspect something of her and turns hostile at times. He leaves her for a bit and soon finds her in the woods with the local police when he returns. He takes charge and lets the police leave where he batters her and accuses her of sleeping with the officer.
He beats her and ties her to the bed but she is able to escape and flee into the woods. She gains some ground between her husband and herself and before long comes to a camp. She meets a man living in an R.V. who then proceeds to rape her. She tries to fight him off but is unable to do so. Her husband arrives and buries an ax in his chest. She is able to get free and flee again before he once again gets to her. They rumble for some time before we are taken to a psych ward and learn the real story between the married couple.**Spoiler Alert**
My first impression of The Perfect Husband was that I would be a brutal stalk and slash but it was not. It was actually a blood and dark psychological thriller that flowed almost like a slasher. I was not expecting this at all.
The acting in this one is very well done. Gabriella Wright absolutely nailed her character. She was weak when she needed to be and chilling when it called for it. Regardless of where her character went she was still beautiful even when she was covered in blood. How many actresses can you say that about? Also, Bret Roberts killed it as the bitter husband. I could get behind any movie where he plays a sadistic killer. He had bloodlust in his eyes and I could feel the anger in every scene. They both were perfectly cast.
The story for this one is odd to say the least. It was fun for what it is but it is predictable and there is more stale scenes than action packed ones. You can see the twist ending coming which took away from the effect and the dry scenes only make this one a chore to finish.
Finally, the film has several on screen kills and a ton of blood. The kills and effects are great. The kills are fast and brutal and the effects work very well to pull them off. Overall, The Perfect Husband could have been a modern horror hit but the story was not that well written. If it would have been a more straight forward horror film it would have been solid but the psychological angle did not hit its mark.
