The Devil’s Honey

Johnny and Jessica are a young couple whose relationship is defined by constant sex and impulsive behavior. Their hedonistic dynamic hints at underlying instability that foreshadows the tragedy to come.

Dr. Wendell Simpson is a surgeon married to Carol, but their relationship is strained. Carol discovers that Simpson regularly visits prostitutes, revealing a breach of trust that will echo through the events that follow.

While riding his motorcycle, Johnny crashes and hits his head on a stone plate, leaving him in a coma from a subdural hematoma. The accident catalyzes the unraveling of relationships around him as a medical crisis unfolds.

Carol demands a divorce as Simpson is summoned to perform emergency brain surgery on Johnny. During the operation, Simpson's mind wanders and Johnny dies on the operating table.

Grief-stricken, Jessica begins sending threatening notes and harassing calls to Simpson. She brands him as Johnny's killer and sinks deeper into a vengeful fixation.

At a golf club, Simpson and Carol try to patch up their marriage and resume intimacy. The phone interrupts them, and Simpson hesitates to answer while Carol leaves in frustration. When the phone rings again, Jessica's voice asks, 'Why did you let him die?'

Jessica spends hours watching home videos of Johnny, her grief mutating into dangerous fixation. The obsession signals a shift toward more extreme actions and control.

Jessica pulls a gun on Simpson and forces him to drive to her house, where she chloroforms him and ties him up. An Alsatian dog barks nearby as she tightens her control, then she smashes his car with an axe and forces him to eat dog food and lick her blood-stained abdomen smeared with his own blood. She drags him toward the beach, threatening to drown him but pauses at the last moment.

Jessica recalls some of the cruelties and excesses Johnny was capable of, including a miscarriage she suffered during their affair. Her pet dog dies and is buried on the beach, deepening her melancholy. In this state she continues sexual games with Simpson, hinting at a change in her view of Johnny.

Months earlier, during a Venice vacation, Johnny buys Jessica a bracelet to symbolize their love. They go to a movie with Johnny's friend Nicky, and Jessica discovers Johnny letting Nicky go down on him, a ménage-a-trois that becomes the last straw for her. The bracelet is later discarded into the water.

After returning to the house, Jessica disrobes, lies on her bed with a pistol to her head, and intends to kill herself. Simpson arrives and stops her suicide by having sex with her, and they later lie side by side as he recites a poem about fate, joy, and the Devil's honey pot.